'Hold the black's blood back'

2004-12-13 10:51

I do not care whether the SA Blood Transfusion Service has "scrapped" its stinking policy of racial profiling of donors or not, but I am not going to bother giving blood to racists who pretend they are happy to receive my blood, but quietly incinerate it afterwards.

As it happens, a close and very dear friend of mine has been faithfully donating blood for years, and it has been her greatest dismay and disappointment to know that despite her very careful and healthy lifestyle, her efforts may have come to nil.

She tells me, quite emphatically and seriously, that they are not getting a drop of her blood in future.

Pity President Mbeki, who led the drive about two years ago to get people to do their social duty.

He donated a pint of his own blood in front of TV cameras, amidst much fanfare and pretence of joy by the blood transfusion service.

It was an exercise in futility because in the end Mbeki's blood was just wasted, like my friend's, and ended up destroyed - all because they are allegedly a "high risk" category of people, read (BLACK AND VERY PROMISCUOUS, THEREFORE POTENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR, AND LIKELY CARRIERS OF, AIDS).

It is incredible that 10 years into a democratic and allegedly non-racist society, these things still happen.

Fed up with the racism

One is so fed up with the racism of the SA Blood Transfusion Service that one is tempted to sneer at Mbeki and his government and say: "They fixed you up! Racists will never change their stripes, yet you effectively force us to sing such things as the racist 'national' anthem, and proclaim in your constitution that this country belongs to us and them!

"Your blood must not contaminate their lily white veins because you will infect them with HIV/Aids, since you could be a carrier. That is the thanks you get from your 'brothers and sisters'; serves you right!"

Of course if I said that, the knives would soon be out for ME, as the alleged racist!

Suffice to say I have decided, on a matter of principle, that I do not want any white blood in my body no matter what the circumstances.

I would rather die than have the blood of a certain "high risk" race of people. This is in retaliation for the national insult they have heaped upon us.

As it is I am busy writing a will of sorts right now, in which I forbid anyone, including my mother, to instruct hospitals and clinics to give me a white person's blood in the event I am involved in an accident and am unconscious or in a position where I cannot represent myself.

The only blood I will accept, I state in this will, must be that donated strictly by black people or by my family members.

Coconuts will now be tearing out their hair in anguish over my "racism" and lamenting that I choose to die and reject (with utter contempt) their brothers' and sisters' blood.

But that has always been the name of the game in South Africa, and no amount of pretending will erase it.

Talking about HIV/Aids, since black people's blood has been repeatedly incinerated in the past because of their unstated, but obviously strongly suspected, promiscuity and therefore alleged high-risk profile, how come there have always been instances of blood recipients contracting the disease from contaminated blood donated to the transfusion service?

Who are these diseased white HIV/Aids carriers, and how did they sneak past the transfusion service's screenings so effortlessly?

Only MY family's and other black people's blood will be good enough for me. If by some unfortunate accident one of them has HIV/Aids and I get it from them, it will be better than getting it from a white person!

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John Qwelane's column is published each week on News24, courtesy of Jon Qwelane and the editor of Sunday Sun, which originally carried the article.

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