Red Cross honors Black History Month by collecting rare blood types more common in blacks

Twenty minutes and two cups. As the saying goes, that’s all it takes to save someone’s life by donating blood.

But that message isn’t reaching everyone, especially members of the black community, local Red Cross officials say.

To recognize Black History Month, the organization is spreading the word that there are certain characteristics that distinguish a black person’s blood from the blood of other racial and ethnic groups. Many more donors are needed, they say.

In the American Red Cross’ River Valley Blood Region, a subset of the Mid-America Blood Services Region that includes southern Indiana, blacks give less than 3 percent of the blood donated but use about 12 to 15 percent of it, said Loni White, the communications coordinator for the Mid-America Region.

Seventy percent of blacks have type O or B blood, compared to about 50 percent in the general U.S. population, White said. Besides being more likely to have B markers in their blood, blacks are more likely to lack U markers and be in the ABO subgroup U-negative.

Ken Osgatharp, who manages the American Red Cross Blood Donor Center at 1600 W. Third St., said the majority of donors he sees at the center are white. Osgatharp said he thinks fewer blacks donate because the habit hasn’t become part of their culture the way it has with whites.

“Donating blood has to become a routine,” he said. The tradition is not there with minority groups because the long history of blood donation has until recently been focused on primarily encouraging whites to give.

This neglect has also affected other groups: In the River Valley Region, Asian Americans donate less than 1 percent and Hispanics less than 2 percent, White said.
Elaine Coleman, a phlebotomist with the Red Cross who worked at the McNutt Residence Center blood drive on Monday, said the problem is also psychological.
Many blacks are nervous about donating, she said, a reluctance that’s left over from an earlier time when experimentation without consent was practiced on blacks, she said.

“Things like Tuskegee are still affecting African-Americans’ trust (in medicine), even though we are working in the field and are trying to educate other African-Americans that donating is a good thing,” she said.

And on the physiological side, Coleman said blacks actually tend to have smaller, less identifiable veins.

Often they will volunteer to donate and the multiple sticks it takes to draw blood will scare them away from donating again.

But there are things that can be done to encourage more blacks to give.

Placing blood drives in schools and on university campuses is one strategy employed by the Red Cross in Bloomington, Donor Recruitment Representative Laura Bryant said, especially because IU is where most of Bloomington’s diversity is. She said she agreed that few minorities visit the Third Street location, so outreach is crucial to diversifying the blood supply.

Romarla Richardson, a freshman and McNutt resident, said Monday was her first time donating and that she wasn’t nervous about anything except the big needle.

“It feels good to save someone’s life,” she said. She added that she feels a little better knowing her donation could also be helping other young black people.

Richardson said she has always wanted to give blood and didn’t hesitate when she heard that there would be a blood drive in her dorm’s formal lounge.

Coleman, who is black, said she personally tries to talk to every black student who walks into a blood drive, urging them to keep donating.

“It does especially help the young ones just to see another black face,” she said.