‘Black Donors Needed:’ People Call This Ad ‘Racist’, Receive A Calm Answer About Why They’re Wrong
There are thousands of people with blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia and other life-threatening diseases that depend on a bone marrow or cord blood transplant to save their lives.
However, finding the right Genetic type used to match donors and patients is much more complex than simply matching blood type, for example. Matching is based on genetic markers called human leukocyte antigen (HLA).
HLA are proteins — or markers — found on most cells in your body. Your immune system uses these markers to recognize which cells belong in your body and which do not.
Because some HLA types are more common than others, some patients may face a greater challenge in finding a matching donor. Some HLA types are found more often in certain racial and ethnic groups, which is why Be The Match, a global leader in bone marrow transplantation, has a broad registry of donors from as many ethnic backgrounds as possible.
Improving the ethnic diversity of the registry improves all patients’ odds of finding a life-saving match, regardless of their ethnic background. Adding more potential donors to increase the ethnic diversity of the registry is a very important focus for Be The Match!
Not to be deterred in their ignorance, people still kept coming forward with indignant accusations of racism. This time it was Karissa to the rescue.
This was turning out to be a highly valuable educational moment. Karissa was yet again called into action, as people continued to ignore the previous explanations in favor of either crying racism or gleefully using it to justify their own bigotry.
By now Karissa and Sydney must’ve started to feel a bit frustrated with people trying to use medical science to justify their own world views. Admirably though, they kept on coming with polite, thoughtful and educational responses, made without judgment or the slightest hint of anger at people’s continued ignorance.
So what did we learn from this mess of a comments section? Well, Karissa and Sydney are absolute champions of their cause – patient, respectful and dedicated to getting the word out and educating people about the importance of donors.
Also, please join the registry if you are able to do so! Donations of all kinds – be it blood, bone marrow or anything else – can mean the difference between life and death for someone in need.
What do you think? Are a donor of some kind? Have you ever needed a transfusion or transplant? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Here’s what people had to say about the educational exchanges
85Kviews
Share on FacebookWell, to be honest, people have been saying color is skin deep and we're all the same, so it's quite understandable that people don't understand that we're not actually all the same. We're all equal but not the same.
So you think it is ok to be that badly educated? I know this since biology class. We are all humans, but it makes a difference how old you are or if you are male or female in a case of medical emergency. If this is new for people, they are just stupid. No excuse for that.
Load More Replies...I wish people would actually take the time to research things instead of immediately slapping labels on them.
Oh FFS... This is why they ask for family first. SHARED HERITAGE increases chances of commonalities, which means better chances of a match. This is just common sense. Ethnic heritage *does* affect medical treatment when you get down to this detailed a level.
True. But here I get very curious about the following (also because it might concern me directly in the future). How about multiethnic children? Like... For example, if my husband (Korean) and I (Italo-Croatian) have a kid, how will it affect the medical heritage of our future children? Should something happen, will "the horizons expand", giving them better chances of finding donors of either ethnicity, or will they be looking for the dominant genetic features? Maybe I've just answered my own question, but it's still an interesting matter.
Load More Replies...Perhaps all of these people had better not donate in case they pass on stupidity to the recipient!
I didn't know that either. But I would ask first why before I accuse them of racism.
Same here. I admit I didn't know it, but, yeah, we should question things before jumping onto conclusions. Here we're talking about medical professionals, a legitimate licensed institution, not some random folk reaching out to social media claiming whatever they want to claim. Context, people, context.
Load More Replies...So it turns out that race isn't 'just a construct' - that people of different races are different in more than just skin, facial and hair characteristics, and are also different on physical and molecular levels. This and other evidence suggests that there are likely to be differences in the psychological tendencies of different ethnic groups as well. But our differences are not in tension with the philosophical idea of equality between all peoples. All races and combinations of them are equal even though they're each different, and the differences are a great part of the beauty of our world and our lives.
This is the society we live in now. Instead of asking, 'Why the need for black donors?', we automatically start shouting, "You all racist over there!" Everyone is a damned gunslinger with the race card. Ask why next time. There might be a really good reason.
Well, part of the reason for that is that society we lived in before was even more racist, and racists tried to use science to keep some other races subjugated, so people have a reason to be suspicious. Sometimes when we change for the better, the pendulum swings too far the other way & it takes time to settle, but it doesn't mean change is bad.
Load More Replies...It's the same with why they ask family to see if they are compatible with other family members in terms of organ transplants. There is a higher chance in biological similarities. We claim that "race" is a society based segregation in a negative sense, but in reality it is important in medicine. I did a paper in regards to why there is a separate section for Black individuals in terms of something (I can't remember on the top of my head) in blood tests (which turned out to be bogus in some sense), but discovered that there are many differences between races biologically that go beyond skin color. I'm not talking organs, but for example how a majority of Black individuals are better built physically (under certain circumstances) compared to White individuals, or for example the need for White individuals to obtain Vitamin D tablets compared to other races as their living environments and bodies differ. These are really basic examples of what I read, but there are waaaaay more stuff.
people are so dumb...you're staring at a computer so rather than randomly saying words that don't make any sense, how about you do a little research and find out why ethnicity matters for some donations.
It's also becoming increasingly difficult to find donor matches, due to the fact that we have so many people who are of mixed ethnicity, which creates even more unique HLAs. You'd have to find a donor with the same mix of ethnicities to have the best possible match.
"people who identify as Black or African American have the lowest odds of finding a match: 23% vs 77% for white patients." No, people who ARE black or African American. Not people who "identify" as black. I am a Russian Jew. There is nothing stopping me from "identifying as black." I could up and decide I identify as black right now and half of our society would apparently be ok with it (e.g. Rachel Dolezal or whatever her name was). Would that actually make me black? No. Would that actually make my genes more compatible with an ethnically black person seeking a blood donor? No. It would not. My "identification" as black would not change the fact that I am still not a genetically compatible donor for the actually black (not identified as black, but ACTUALLY black) person. Please stop with this "identifies as" nonsense. I identify as an AH-64 Apache Gunship. Am I a helicopter now?
Over simplification is the cause for such misunderstanding. Race and ethnic origins are different topics. And being different doesn't mean we're not equal.
The scientific community has been bending over backwards to meet the outrageous demands of the PC mob for the past several years. It's about time they finally started pushing back. Medical science is NOT a societal construct based on relative truths. It has true and false outcomes, that's it. At the end of the day it doesn't give two shakes if you are an empowered trans woman who (even though you were born lily white) self identifies as black and feels miniraped by the patriarchy and subject to racism every day. Biologically and chemically speaking you are made up of different components. If they don't find compatible parts they can't help you. And if you are demanding they do so to meet whatever your artificial virtue signal goal posts of the week are at the cost of someone else's life, you are PC scum.
So we should just all be racist? Quite a lot of anger there.
Load More Replies...OMG, the hyper-corect but stupid people. People are different. Women are different from men. Blue people are different from purple ones. Left handers are different from right handers. Different but always equal.
It was b**y spot on - could not have been more factually correct, but people are just to PC and stupid to see beyond it. When it comes to medicine, treating someone as the wanted, but opposite sex, could kill at worst, or cause serious harm, landing the doc with a medical malpractice charge... But pc correctness must prevail at all cost, right?
Load More Replies...Here's an idea: just donate- whether you're black, white, yellow, red or brown. Donate and the right person will find your gift.
"Isn't a kidney, a kidney?" DOES ANYONE PAY ATTENTION ANYMORE? C'mon. The sheer ignorance explains so much going on in the world right now. Stay in school, people. Bethematch.org
I don't understand why they get angry and they don't become blood donors, anyway. For scientists to say it matters, obviously it will matter. Like anyone with blood group A cannot give to group B. In our daily lives we have to beat racism and not health issues! If you are healthy, whatever your origin, be blood donated
So if it's okay for a black people to demand black donor only then you should agree that it would also be okay for a white person to demand white donor only
When they say we are all the same inside I'm pretty sure they were referring to our basic functions or that we are all red if you cut us. But anatomically speaking there are so many biological differences. Facial structure, skull shape, dna. It wasn't racist or inappropriate at all but everyone has been taught to be so hypersensitive that they get offended without learning the facts.
PC correctnes above all, never let the harsh reality slap you in the face on your crusade against the inequalities!
This just makes me sad for how woefully stupid and uneducated people are
"people who identify as Black or African American have the lowest odds of finding a match: 23% vs 77% for white patients." so all those white donors have to do is start identify as black and they'll magically become compatible donors? Am I reading this right Bored Panda?
Not unless they can magically alter every single cell in their body, no....
Load More Replies...That's why people need to be told the truth about everything not sugarcoated! Yeah you identify as a male, female, them but the drs don't care about what you identify as! they want to know what you were born! I get there needs to be certain questions asked but the colour of your skin doesn't matter it's what's inside that does! People need to understand yes you are black, white, purple but all that matters jn this case is the genetic makeup of "black" people! All they are pretty much saying is black people are dying from not enough organs being donated so they need more black people to donate!
The amount of people that didn't pay attention to their biology class is to damn high!!!!
I've often wondered about over-selectivity regarding matches. If my options were to increase my likelihood of getting arthritis, or wait even longer and possibly fall victim to my disease, I would take the risk of arthritis.
Load More Replies...Had the ad not mentioned race, but the specific diseases and conditions they wanted to collect samples for (e.g. anyone with a family history of _____) would’ve been more appropriate. Not all people of a particular background have a family history of what they were looking for—-and there could be surprising outliers from other backgrounds who just might.
The ad would of been designed to cause a stir because they would of known people would automatically pull the race card without asking the need for black donors first; which then leads to people saying to others 'did you see that racist ad?' This is PR to get the word out and to (hopefully) gain more donors.
That could have saved a lot of time if they started out with this explanation. Doctors and scientists don’t have a stellar record as far as race is concerned,, a bit of skepticism should be expected..
WOW! Some folks actually climbed out of the primordial ooze to type (they have fingers!!) their ignorant questions....why didn't they google their questions first so they don't sound ignorant?
With this insight, it just realized that it could have been intentionally written this way to get more replies and circulation. When if it wasn't intentional, it worked that way.
Load More Replies...Well, to be honest, people have been saying color is skin deep and we're all the same, so it's quite understandable that people don't understand that we're not actually all the same. We're all equal but not the same.
So you think it is ok to be that badly educated? I know this since biology class. We are all humans, but it makes a difference how old you are or if you are male or female in a case of medical emergency. If this is new for people, they are just stupid. No excuse for that.
Load More Replies...I wish people would actually take the time to research things instead of immediately slapping labels on them.
Oh FFS... This is why they ask for family first. SHARED HERITAGE increases chances of commonalities, which means better chances of a match. This is just common sense. Ethnic heritage *does* affect medical treatment when you get down to this detailed a level.
True. But here I get very curious about the following (also because it might concern me directly in the future). How about multiethnic children? Like... For example, if my husband (Korean) and I (Italo-Croatian) have a kid, how will it affect the medical heritage of our future children? Should something happen, will "the horizons expand", giving them better chances of finding donors of either ethnicity, or will they be looking for the dominant genetic features? Maybe I've just answered my own question, but it's still an interesting matter.
Load More Replies...Perhaps all of these people had better not donate in case they pass on stupidity to the recipient!
I didn't know that either. But I would ask first why before I accuse them of racism.
Same here. I admit I didn't know it, but, yeah, we should question things before jumping onto conclusions. Here we're talking about medical professionals, a legitimate licensed institution, not some random folk reaching out to social media claiming whatever they want to claim. Context, people, context.
Load More Replies...So it turns out that race isn't 'just a construct' - that people of different races are different in more than just skin, facial and hair characteristics, and are also different on physical and molecular levels. This and other evidence suggests that there are likely to be differences in the psychological tendencies of different ethnic groups as well. But our differences are not in tension with the philosophical idea of equality between all peoples. All races and combinations of them are equal even though they're each different, and the differences are a great part of the beauty of our world and our lives.
This is the society we live in now. Instead of asking, 'Why the need for black donors?', we automatically start shouting, "You all racist over there!" Everyone is a damned gunslinger with the race card. Ask why next time. There might be a really good reason.
Well, part of the reason for that is that society we lived in before was even more racist, and racists tried to use science to keep some other races subjugated, so people have a reason to be suspicious. Sometimes when we change for the better, the pendulum swings too far the other way & it takes time to settle, but it doesn't mean change is bad.
Load More Replies...It's the same with why they ask family to see if they are compatible with other family members in terms of organ transplants. There is a higher chance in biological similarities. We claim that "race" is a society based segregation in a negative sense, but in reality it is important in medicine. I did a paper in regards to why there is a separate section for Black individuals in terms of something (I can't remember on the top of my head) in blood tests (which turned out to be bogus in some sense), but discovered that there are many differences between races biologically that go beyond skin color. I'm not talking organs, but for example how a majority of Black individuals are better built physically (under certain circumstances) compared to White individuals, or for example the need for White individuals to obtain Vitamin D tablets compared to other races as their living environments and bodies differ. These are really basic examples of what I read, but there are waaaaay more stuff.
people are so dumb...you're staring at a computer so rather than randomly saying words that don't make any sense, how about you do a little research and find out why ethnicity matters for some donations.
It's also becoming increasingly difficult to find donor matches, due to the fact that we have so many people who are of mixed ethnicity, which creates even more unique HLAs. You'd have to find a donor with the same mix of ethnicities to have the best possible match.
"people who identify as Black or African American have the lowest odds of finding a match: 23% vs 77% for white patients." No, people who ARE black or African American. Not people who "identify" as black. I am a Russian Jew. There is nothing stopping me from "identifying as black." I could up and decide I identify as black right now and half of our society would apparently be ok with it (e.g. Rachel Dolezal or whatever her name was). Would that actually make me black? No. Would that actually make my genes more compatible with an ethnically black person seeking a blood donor? No. It would not. My "identification" as black would not change the fact that I am still not a genetically compatible donor for the actually black (not identified as black, but ACTUALLY black) person. Please stop with this "identifies as" nonsense. I identify as an AH-64 Apache Gunship. Am I a helicopter now?
Over simplification is the cause for such misunderstanding. Race and ethnic origins are different topics. And being different doesn't mean we're not equal.
The scientific community has been bending over backwards to meet the outrageous demands of the PC mob for the past several years. It's about time they finally started pushing back. Medical science is NOT a societal construct based on relative truths. It has true and false outcomes, that's it. At the end of the day it doesn't give two shakes if you are an empowered trans woman who (even though you were born lily white) self identifies as black and feels miniraped by the patriarchy and subject to racism every day. Biologically and chemically speaking you are made up of different components. If they don't find compatible parts they can't help you. And if you are demanding they do so to meet whatever your artificial virtue signal goal posts of the week are at the cost of someone else's life, you are PC scum.
So we should just all be racist? Quite a lot of anger there.
Load More Replies...OMG, the hyper-corect but stupid people. People are different. Women are different from men. Blue people are different from purple ones. Left handers are different from right handers. Different but always equal.
It was b**y spot on - could not have been more factually correct, but people are just to PC and stupid to see beyond it. When it comes to medicine, treating someone as the wanted, but opposite sex, could kill at worst, or cause serious harm, landing the doc with a medical malpractice charge... But pc correctness must prevail at all cost, right?
Load More Replies...Here's an idea: just donate- whether you're black, white, yellow, red or brown. Donate and the right person will find your gift.
"Isn't a kidney, a kidney?" DOES ANYONE PAY ATTENTION ANYMORE? C'mon. The sheer ignorance explains so much going on in the world right now. Stay in school, people. Bethematch.org
I don't understand why they get angry and they don't become blood donors, anyway. For scientists to say it matters, obviously it will matter. Like anyone with blood group A cannot give to group B. In our daily lives we have to beat racism and not health issues! If you are healthy, whatever your origin, be blood donated
So if it's okay for a black people to demand black donor only then you should agree that it would also be okay for a white person to demand white donor only
When they say we are all the same inside I'm pretty sure they were referring to our basic functions or that we are all red if you cut us. But anatomically speaking there are so many biological differences. Facial structure, skull shape, dna. It wasn't racist or inappropriate at all but everyone has been taught to be so hypersensitive that they get offended without learning the facts.
PC correctnes above all, never let the harsh reality slap you in the face on your crusade against the inequalities!
This just makes me sad for how woefully stupid and uneducated people are
"people who identify as Black or African American have the lowest odds of finding a match: 23% vs 77% for white patients." so all those white donors have to do is start identify as black and they'll magically become compatible donors? Am I reading this right Bored Panda?
Not unless they can magically alter every single cell in their body, no....
Load More Replies...That's why people need to be told the truth about everything not sugarcoated! Yeah you identify as a male, female, them but the drs don't care about what you identify as! they want to know what you were born! I get there needs to be certain questions asked but the colour of your skin doesn't matter it's what's inside that does! People need to understand yes you are black, white, purple but all that matters jn this case is the genetic makeup of "black" people! All they are pretty much saying is black people are dying from not enough organs being donated so they need more black people to donate!
The amount of people that didn't pay attention to their biology class is to damn high!!!!
I've often wondered about over-selectivity regarding matches. If my options were to increase my likelihood of getting arthritis, or wait even longer and possibly fall victim to my disease, I would take the risk of arthritis.
Load More Replies...Had the ad not mentioned race, but the specific diseases and conditions they wanted to collect samples for (e.g. anyone with a family history of _____) would’ve been more appropriate. Not all people of a particular background have a family history of what they were looking for—-and there could be surprising outliers from other backgrounds who just might.
The ad would of been designed to cause a stir because they would of known people would automatically pull the race card without asking the need for black donors first; which then leads to people saying to others 'did you see that racist ad?' This is PR to get the word out and to (hopefully) gain more donors.
That could have saved a lot of time if they started out with this explanation. Doctors and scientists don’t have a stellar record as far as race is concerned,, a bit of skepticism should be expected..
WOW! Some folks actually climbed out of the primordial ooze to type (they have fingers!!) their ignorant questions....why didn't they google their questions first so they don't sound ignorant?
With this insight, it just realized that it could have been intentionally written this way to get more replies and circulation. When if it wasn't intentional, it worked that way.
Load More Replies...
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