Didn’t we cover this in the “Sammy Davis, Jr.” episode of All in the Family?
UPDATE: I stand corrected about the episode (dammit.)
And as some of us were arguing on Facebook, and an emailer writes in to nudge me:
The real message of this story is that, frankly, immigrants aren’t being civic minded and compassionate enough for Canadian Blood Services’ tastes.
Shockingly, it turns out that lots of visible minorities don’t care about any community other than their own, and balk at the notion of doing something selfless and inconvenient, like giving blood, because, hey, what’s in it for them?
Old fashioned Western notions about civic duty and (color blind) volunteerism are, shall we say, foreign to many foreigners.
When I worked at a Very Large and Very Famous Canadian Charity, there were official divisions based on various ethnicities, since those ethnicities were candid about their reluctance to donate to groups other than “their own kind.” You might have heard from that Charity that all donations went into a “community chest.” You’d be wrong. They could be earmarked according to, well, race, and were.
But don’t worry, Canada! The social fabric will remain intact no matter how many immigrants we let in, and from what country, no matter what their values are!
Besides: just think of all the great restaurants!!
White, old stock Canadians giving their very blood (not just their tax dollars) to petulant, entitled, ungrateful immigrants. What a gorgeous metaphor for the multicultural welfare state.
