Books, Arts & Manners: Bad Blood

Safe Blood: Purifying the Nation’s Blood Supply in the Age of AIDS, by Joseph Feldschuh with Doron Weber (Free Press, 180 pp., $19.95)

TO FORESTALL bigotry in any of his children, my father used to tell us that since my mother had received blood from a black man after her first pregnancy, we were all part black (except, I guess, the one born first). Only later did we learn that it could have been a black man and that genetically speaking this was utterly irrelevant. Anyway, it did work, or at least none of us did grow up racist, and it’s a nice example of how when we talk about blood and blood donations, there’s a lot of emotional and symbolic play that goes on.

About the Author

Michael Fumento

Michael Fumento is a journalist, author, and attorney who until recently lived in the Philippines.

Featured Tags

Safe Blood: Purifying the Nation’s Blood Supply in the Age of AIDS, by Joseph Feldschuh with Doron Weber (Free Press, 180 pp., $19.95)

TO FORESTALL bigotry in any of his children, my father used to tell us that since my mother had received blood from a black man after her first pregnancy, we were all part black (except, I guess, the one born first). Only later did we learn that it could have been a black man and that genetically speaking this was utterly irrelevant. Anyway, it did work, or at least none of us did grow up racist, and it’s a nice example of how when we talk about blood and blood donations, there’s a lot of emotional and symbolic play that goes on.