We must thank the American Red Cross for the things they do for society, which includes providing blood for those who need it to stay alive, and other forms of community services such as humanitarian services for hurricane victims. Despite the fact that they are among the top receivers of government monies and individual donations, they shamelessly participate in what I call the “blood bank segregation”. 

Segregation is when you cut off or separate others based on race, gender, religion, income, or locality.  For years now, the American Red Cross has been known to practice and have perfected the act of not allowing peoples of Africa and their visitors to donate blood.  It is very easy to say that, “if you do not want my blood, then I will take it home”.  The truth of the matter is that it is never what is said or done, but what it strategically implies. 

Blood is life, and the least you can do for your fellowman as a service to humanity is to donate blood.  The amount of lives a little blood can save surpasses money, effort, and time.  Of what use is a man that can not give blood to another even if he wants to?  Of what use is the life of a man when he can not vote or own property?  When people go to the great American Red Cross, they are asked if they have spent at least 6 months in Africa.  If you tell the truth by answering “yes”, then you are added or branded among the forbidden people that are not allowed to donate blood for the survival of their fellowmen.  I know that politically and economically, the world is structured to make Africa a consuming continent, but does that mean that Africa must also be restricted to becoming an only blood consumer and not a donor. 

The last time I went to give blood, I asked the Red Cross worker why they did not want blood from the African veins and that of their visitors.  To my surprise, they literally told me that African blood was contaminated and that they did not want to mix their blood with the blood pool.  They also claimed that if you had visited Africa for some months or at all, you could have pick up some disease that had remained in the blood stream. So maybe South America, the Middle East, and Asia has less diseases than Africa?  I do not think so.  Then why is it only Africa and its visitors that are considered inhuman enough to have their blood rejected in the blood pool of humanity.  I will educate you on the economic and political strategies of segregation. 

You see, no one wants to be rejected for anything, even if it is just applying for a credit card that an individual does not need.  When people realize that by just visiting Africa for a few month can lead to being rejected as a blood donor, they are forced to reason if visiting or living in Africa is worth it.  If you can not visit or live in Africa, most likely you will not invest your money or resources there.  Why will you invest your time and money in a place you can not visit, live in, or monitor your investments?  It is easier to overcome illiteracy, poverty, and low social status compared to bad blood or generational illness.  When a group has being labeled as a “habitat of bad blood and poor health” by the standard and system of the Red Cross, then you discourage others from having meaningful relationships or marrying from such groups.  Why should anyone help multiply bad blood?  Isn’t it better that they go extinct?  Even descendants of such a group will distant themselves at any and every possible chance they get.

The purpose of segregation or apartheid is to separate one group into becoming politically insignificant, or economically dependent.  When a group becomes politically insignificant, it almost has lost its power to change things.  When a group is economically dependant, it is unable to trade equally with the rest, but is forced to become a mere consumer.  Africans through time are gradually being reduced by the American Red Cross to a segregation level of becoming just blood consumers.  This is a gradually threat to Africa’s image and respect that needs to be checked and eliminated.    

In 1505, Pope Julius II commissioned the painting of certain biblical works from artist Michelangelo and wanted all humans painted white.  He reasoned that black was evil and dark.  No one protested because the act did not have any immediate negative impact, until the word “black” was later extended to apply to human beings.  This was how everything black and African was gradually rewritten or retranslated out of history.  Till this day, Africans are still suffering from the unchecked papal definition of “black” that gradually segregated them to the levels of colonization, slavery, apartheid, and now “bad blood”.  I hope that the papal influence on associating black (Africa) with evil will not be replaced by the American Red Cross in the future by associating Africa with “unhealthy” especially at a time where the economic boom of the wellness industry is the future.