28May/19

Why blood can be racially or ethnically specific – The Irish Times

Why blood can be racially or ethnically specific  The Irish Times

“We need black blood.” I didn’t know what to say to this, not least because it had been said by the head of donor services at England’s National Health Service Blood and Transplant. The interview was for a book I was writing on blood, a topic I knew a little about by then, but the baldness of his statement still shocked me. Surely we’re all the same under the skin? I knew the history of race and blood was an ugly one. America’s earliest blood bank, founded in 1937 at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, noted race on donor forms and other blood banks followed suit. During the second World War, …

27May/19

Trump campaign embraces groups trying to court minority voters – one with false pitches – The Washington Post

Trump campaign embraces groups trying to court minority voters – one with false pitches  The Washington Post

Brandon Straka, founder of the WalkAway Campaign, attends a rally in support of President Trump on March 23 near Trump Tower in New York.Stephanie Keith/Getty Images Nearly a year after a gay freelance hairstylist living in Harlem posted a Facebook video repudiating the Democratic Party, Brandon Straka found himself in Trump Tower on Thursday speaking with Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and a senior campaign adviser. He was there to record a new video, this time for Donald Trump’s campaign Facebook page, trumpeting his efforts to convince people who identify as minorities — bla…