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Racial differences in Blood Donation
1050 words
Racial differences in blood donations pose a big problem for minorities. This has to do with altruism, which as I have covered extensively here, has a genetic basis. This pathological altruism has whites give and donate more than other races. This is due to evolving in colder climates with harsher environments, which high intellect evolved so our ancestors could survive. Why do minorities, blacks specifically, donate blood less?
Shaz and Hillyer (2010) observed that minorities were underrepresented as donors in the U.S., and that the cause was a higher deferral rate. Deferral reasons include: “low hemoglobin, travel, abnormal blood pressure, pulse or temperature, inability to find vein, tattoo/piercing, infection or taking antibiotics, and not being in good health.” They state that blood donation rate for blacks was 25 to 50 percent of that of white individuals.
Blacks have lower levels of hemoglobin than whites. The Red Cross defers people with low levels of hemoglobin. I don’t really know about blacks traveling too much. Abnormal blood pressure could be low or high blood pressure. Your blood pressure is determined by the amount of blood your heart pumps and the amount of resistance in your arteries.The more blood your heart pumps while arteries are clogged, the higher your blood pressure will be. The more fat and cholesterol that build up on the inner walls of the arteries, which I covered the other day, is called atherosclerosis. Called “hypertension” by the medical community, blacks also have a higher rate of this disease as well. Blacks have more genes expressed for coronary artery calcium, which is a strong indicator of atherosclerosis burden. Cardiovascular disease, more specifically coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death for all Americans of all ages and ethnic groups (smoking is a leading cause of this). Blacks suffer the highest percentage of deaths due to CHD. And finally, inability to find a vein is due in large part to 75.6 percent of the black community being obese in America (69.2 percent for men and 82 percent for women).
Another reason for deferral is that all though Sickle Cell Disease isn’t strictly a racial disease, blacks do have the highest rate of it. Those with Sickle Cell Trait (SCT) can donate blood, though those with Sickle Cell Disease cannot.
Infections and antibiotics as well as not being in good health is yet another reason why blacks get deferred. This is due in part to “down-low bruthas” who are more likely to have diseases, and therefore cannot donate blood or plasma. Since homosexuals have some of the highest rates of disease in the country, it’s no surprise that blacks would be leading the pack in that subgroup of the country as well. This is a huge reason why blacks get deferred so much. However, in December of last year, the FDA lifted its lifetime ban of gays donating blood. I shutter to think what the deferral rates of blacks will look like in a few years due to this. That is also why “not being in good health” along with “infection or antibiotics” are such big reasons for deferrals. Blacks have all of the things they defer for, yet of course, allegations of prejudice and racism come about and the government has to step in to change things again, endangering the citizens of the country.
To quote from this AmRen article:
It has long been known that blood transfusions and organ transplants work best between people of the same race. Until the Second World War, stocks of blood were routinely segregated by race for this reason. Classification by race was ended when it was discovered to be “racist,” but blood banks are reinstituting segregation.
The distribution of the common blood types is different from race to race, and some rare types are unique to certain races. Only blacks have U negative blood; only whites have Vel negative or Lan negative blood. Dr. W. Laurence Marsh of the New York Blood Center justifies racial classification: “It makes no sense to screen 100,000 whites for U negative when no U negative white person has ever been found.”
So there is a problem with interracial blood transfusion, and they work better with co-ethnics than non-co-ethnics.
The Central Blood Bank states this about ethnicity and blood donation:
Though compatibility is not based on race, genetically similar blood is best for patients who need repeated or large volumes of blood transfusions, or those who have produced red blood cell antibodies for various diseases and conditions like sickle cell, heart disease and kidney disease.
It says that “compatibility isn’t based on race” then says immediately after “genetically similar blood is best for patients who need repeated or large volumes of blood transfusions. . .” The fact that there are differences in blood-type rate by ethnicity, and that there is a shortage of those blood types for blacks and “Hispanics” in America.
There are varying frequencies in white blood types are found in ethnicities throughout the country, and these varying frequencies in blood type are another reason why interethnic blood transfusion cannot happen; because the differing ethnic groups vary in the different blood types, there will be a low chance of having a certain blood type if it’s rare.
Another reason why blacks donate blood less is due to fear of needles and low iron. Low iron is due to vitamin and mineral deficinecies in diet. Combined with all of the aformentioned variables, this is why blacks get deferred so much. They just don’t donate as much either.
The disparity in differences in blood donation also come down to differences in giving between the races. Whites were seen to be more altruistic than were minorities in the study. This same altruistic behavior leads to more blood donations, but it also leads to the cucking of Europe due to the increase in pathological altruism.
Racial differences in blood donation are due to a whole host of factors, mainly being SCD and other diseases as a barrier for donation, as well as differing blood type frequencies between ethnic/racial groups. Since blacks have higher frequencies of SCD, SCT, and SCA this is another cause for their deferral rate. Being highly sexually active leads to higher disease acquisition, which is another reason less blacks donate blood. Moreover, blacks’ want to donate will not increase either; racial differences in blood donation and problems will persist to the forseeable future.
Smoking and Race
1000 words
From the brands of cigarettes people use to the types of cigars people use, there are variations by race. There are also death rate differences and variations in how peoples of different race and ethnicity. I will explore causes for these points as well.
From the CDC’s Fact Sheet on tobacco use, we can see that Marlboro (41 percent), Newport (12 percent), Camel (8 percent), Pall Mall (8 percent) and Pyramid (2 percent) were the leading cigarette brands.The percentage of those older than 12 years old who smoked menthol was 19.1% black, 3.6% Asian, 7.8% ‘Hispanic’, and 6.5% white. You can see this looking in any majority black area how younger blacks most always smoke menthols, mainly Newport and sometimes Kools.
In my experience, that has been the case. For whites, the main brand was either Marlboro menthol, Marlboro lights or Marlboro Reds. For Asians it was most always Parliament Lights; they sure do love those.
Exposure to Newports in their environments may also be a factor for blacks smoking more menthol cigarettes, such as Newports. I have already written a bit about the media’s involvement in both a positive and negative way that affects behaviors, so by seeing more advertisements for a certain kind of cigarette, they’ll be more likely to smoke the brand that they constantly see, see their parents or siblings smoking (though, controlling for that in the study, they were still able to recognize Newports) smoking or ones that they can take that are lying around. Regardless of race, those students who were able to recognize Newports were more likely to begin at follow up even after controlling for other risk factors. In this sample of 1179 students (this was a longitudinal study), non-recognition of Camel and Marlboro did not predict smoking at follow-up. These factors also involve what I will discuss below.
Caraballo (1998) found that serum cotinine levels were higher than blacks than they were in whites. That is, blacks have higher levels of the metabolized form of nicotine in their bodies than do whites called ‘cotinine‘. This causes blacks’ bodies to absorb more nicotine than whites due to these biological factors. This may possibly explain why blacks have more cases of lung cancer and are less likely to quit smoking.
Non-‘Hispanic’ blacks also have two times the amount of cotinine than do Mexican and white Americans. This affects how much of the nicotine absorbed into the blood stream as well as the increase in getting cancer.
The differences in cancer disparity between blacks and whites cannot be explained by the preference for a certain brand of cigarette. Though, that study does confirm that those who smoke more mentholated cigarettes take deeper inhales. So in a way, in can be said to be explained by brand preference, since those who smoke menthol cigarettes inhale more deeply than those who smoke a non-mentholated brand.
Ross et al (2016) discovered that blacks take more pulls per cigarette and take deeper, longer pulls than do whites, which is the cause for the disparity in lung cancer between blacks and whites (along with higher cotinine levels in blacks, that’s the cause for more nicotine absorption). Deeper inhales means more nicotine is being absorbed into the body and therefore cotinine levels increase.I could also see personality differences playing a factor in who takes longer pulls and more pulls of a cigarette as well.
Higher testosterone levels may also be correlated with lung cancer. With blacks having more testosterone on average than whites, we can see how these disparities in hormone levels between the races are the cause for differences in acquisition of disease rate between the races. It seems that all cancers have high correlations with increased testosterone, not just prostate. Higher testosterone is associated with many negative variables, and of course, blacks have some of the most negative health effects. This is a combination of genes x environment. Their environment is more conducive to menthol cigarettes (mostly Newports), blacks also are more extroverted, which means they’re more sociable and therefore can coerce each other to do things, such as smoking (lower IQ also plays a part in coercion).
In teenage populations, whites showed a higher use for tobacco smoking and marijuana usage, but in the 20s, blacks and ‘Hispanics’ are more likely to pick up the habits, while whites drop off. The researchers conclude that we need to better understand why these substance abuse behaviors exist, which differing personality traits (due to testosterone, as well as that being a factor for smoking more) are part of the cause for it in my opinion.
Higher free and total testosterone was found in males, even after stratification of age, BMI, triglycerides and alcohol consumption were controlled for. This shows why more blacks and ‘Hispanics’ are represented more in the statistics after age 20, as that’s when genetics takes full effect, so they would be over-represented in these cases.
With the higher natural cotinine levels, this causes blacks to absorb more nicotine; they take more pulls per cigarette as well as deeper pulls. Along with smoking cigarettes with more nicotine and more tar in them, this is a cause for the disparity between blacks and whites and how it involves the acquisition of lung cancer. Higher testosterone individuals turn to smoking more than lower testosterone individuals.
I theorize that part of the reason for deeper pulls of a cigarette as well as more pulls is correlated with the amount of testosterone one has, which is then correlated with how extroverted they are. Extroversion leads to being around others more often, which, even with desegregation, there has been less integration, not more. Since they’re more likely to be around each other due to desegregation not ending people segregating by race, they then are exposed to others who are smoking as well as doing other thing that younger children with higher testosterone will be more likely to do, in part because of exposure to the new stimulus along with higher testosterone which leads to more impulsive behavior.. This leads to one of many social and biological variables that lead to blacks having higher rates of lung cancer due to smoking.
NotPoliticallyCorrect 