Racism in a Fundraiser?

Read below to know how ridiculous people and organisations can get;

Editorial: Disgrace at Carleton

National Post Published: Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Cystic fibrosis is a horrible disease. A congenital ailment, CF affects the mucus glands of the lungs, liver, pancreas and intestines, gradually interfering with digestive and respiratory functions until such time as the victim dies from organ failure — usually in his or her 30s.

All of which would seem to make cystic fibrosis research a worthy cause, right?

Wrong, you racist. This week, the Students’ Association at Carleton University in Ottawa voted to drop cystic fibrosis as the beneficiary of its annual Shinearamafundraiser. The reason: CF “has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men” — and therefore is insufficiently “inclusive.”

Even by the loopy standards of students governments, this has got to be a new low. Had the author of this resolution bothered so much as to look at Wikipedia, here is what he or she would have found: “Approximately one in 25 people of European descent … is a carrier of a cystic fibrosis mutation. Although CF is less common in these groups, approximately one in 46 Hispanics, one in 65 Africans and one in 90 Asians carry at least one abnormal CFTR gene. Cystic fibrosis is diagnosed in males and females equally.”

That same author would also have found a photo of a young black girl staring back at him from behind a mask nebuliser.

But even if it were true that only white males got CF, what of it? We raise money for breast cancer even though it is primarily a female disease. We raise money for Tay-Sachs, even thought it strikes almost exclusively Jews. That’s because we raise money to save people– not tribes.

Members of the Students’ Association at Carleton University have disgraced themselves and their school. In a fair world, their funding would be docked by the same amount they raised for CF last year –and the money directed toward the disease’s victims, in all their “inclusive” need.