A 1999 study at the Institute of Black Parenting, a Los Angeles adoption agency, showed that as many as 40 percent of the African-American couples expressed a preference for a light skinned or mixed race child, regardless of their own complexion. 

Childen who are white are slightly more likely to be adopted out of foster care. Of the more than 400,000 children in foster care awaiting adoption in 2017, about 44 percent were white, while the majority were children of color. However, of those who were adopted with public agency involvement, 49 percent were white.

According to the US Commission on Civil Rights, 2004 data shows that children with lighter skin were adopted more quickly out of foster care. While white children waited 23.5 months on average, black children waited 39.4.

Children with darker skin tend to wait longer to be adopted . According to a review of children in foster care in the U.S. in 2004. African-American children spend a mean of 39.4 months in foster care, far more than children of other races.