adoption issues

"Of course it's wrong (and of course it is a surviving pocket of racism), but otoh I understand that for many parents it is somewhat important that their child resembles them so as not to have to explain adoption stories every time parent and child are in the same social occasion."

There are other factors as well. There is increasing evidence of a biological basis for many behaviors and characteristics - and for various biological and cultural reasons I suspect I would not be a good match for most black children, especially older ones. We would simply be too different. Is it a good idea to seek out a poor match simply because one child is statistically disadvantaged? Even if I could only do them a small amount of good while I could do another, statistically advantaged child, a great amount of good?

It is not an easy question, and then there are the practical issues: I would have no idea how to groom kinky hair, for instance. That could be learned, but there is a whole host of similar small things that I would have difficulty preparing a black child for, simply because my life experience has been so different from what a black child could expect in this society. It is quite likely that I would be doing no favors to such a child, especially one who was not an infant and has already learned behaviors that would be at odds with my priorities.

Of course, this is an academic question anyway. As you note, single males are treated like pariahs anyway, and I would not feel comfortable raising children without a partner in any case. The chief exception would be - oddly enough - if the opportunity arose to adopt a group of siblings, in which at least one of the older children was responsible enough to watch the younger ones while I attended to other duties. In such a case, an older child (at least 12 - though one of my ancestors took on similar duties at the age of 7 when her mother died) would be an asset rather than a liability.