RED AND BLACK
BLACK BLOOD
"The first transfusions used blood from lambs. Rumor had it that they made you sprout wool. In 1670, such experiments were outlawed in Europe.
"Much later on, around 1940, Charles Drew came up with new techniques for processing and storing plasma. In light of his discoveries, which were to save millions of lives during the Second World War, Drew was named the first director of the Red Cross blood bank in the United States.
"He lasted eight months in the job.
"In 1942 a military directive prohibited mixing black blood with white blood in transfusions.
"Black blood! White blood? 'This is utter stupidity,' Drew said, and he would not discriminate against blood.
"He understood the matter: he was a scientist, and he was black.
"So he resigned, or was resigned."
From Eduardo Galeano [1940- ] in Mirrors, Stories of Almost Everyone, Nation Books, New York, pages 299-300, translated by Mark Fried, 2009
Picture on top: Charles Richard Drew [1904-1956]
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