Tainted blood: Not just "Men who have sex with men"

The fact that anyone who has lived in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger, or Nigeria since 1977 can’t give blood in America is utterly appalling.

According to the Red Cross, “Currently only three out of every 100 people in America donate blood.” Yet, every year the Red Cross must turn down a whole host of people who are from or have lived in a country on the African continent because they don’t meet the FDA’s standards for “normal” blood donators.

America is supposed to be a melting pot of people from a variety of cultures and backgrounds. Yet, this discrimination, along with many other discriminatory practices against Africans, clearly situates them as an “other” group that is outside the American “norm.”

There is an overall lack of knowledge about Africa and its people among Americans. This results from the media’s inability to provide realistic information about this massive continent.

When people think about Africa, they seem to think only of starving children and animals. Yet, the continent consists of 54 unique countries with thousands of different languages and ethnic groups, all of which have unique lives. In the same way that there is no universal American story, there is no one typical African life.

It’s bad enough that the media is constructing harmful stereotypes about Africans, but the FDA’s blood donation restrictions further feed into these problematic perceptions about a largely misunderstood and understudied population as HIV-positive, dangerous and not “American” enough to give blood to their fellow Americans.

Prior to Jan. 4, the United States maintained an HIV Entry Ban, which prohibited non-U.S. citizens from visiting or moving to America without a Department of Homeland Security waiver. Any immigrant would have to take and reveal the result of an HIV/AIDS test during the standard medical exam that tests for communicable diseases.

I think this ban says a lot about America’s poor treatment of Africans and immigrants in general.

We as a country only a few weeks ago removed the discriminatory practice of forcing people to share their personal HIV/AIDS test results and excluding people from our country based on those results.

The ban further cements the U.S. discrimination against Africans. These immigrants had to undergo the scrutiny of being subject to HIV/AIDS testing prior to coming to the United States.

If people have to be tested for HIV/AIDS prior to entering the country, it makes no sense to discriminate against those who have clearly demonstrated that they are not carriers of the disease. They should be treated like the rest of Americans in that they start out with a healthy, virtually blank slate in the United States and are eligible to give blood.

Though giving blood isn’t the most important aspect of living in America, it allows people to give a little of themselves to help others with a medical need.

By universally rejecting anyone who has lived in Africa along with any man who has had sex with a man, the FDA is further creating divisions within Americans.

Instead of furthering these stereotypes of hate and fear of difference, the FDA and Red Cross should be encouraging people to get tested for HIV/AIDS and other illnesses. Giving blood could be an exercise that helps people not only help others, but also learn about their own health.

Promoting the practice of safe sex and regularly getting tested creates an atmosphere of health and self-awareness rather than discrimination.


E-mail: tmkennel@indiana.edu