In theory, laws designed to protect children from harm apply equally to all members of American society. In reality—and to a considerably greater degree than in the application of the criminal laws—child protective laws are applied only to the poor and nonwhite. The state uses child protective laws, if not as a pretext, then as a justification, for the seizure of children from those people who have the least political power in the United States and are the least involved in traditional forms of our culture.