“African Americans are the largest group of minorities in need of an organ transplant. African Americans have higher rates of diabetes and high blood pressure than Caucasians, increasing the risk of organ failure. African Americans make up 13% of the population, 34% of those waiting for a kidney, and 25% of those waiting for a heart.” (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.) This is a major problem that has to be addressed. Awareness surrounding the importance of donating an organ in the Black and underrepresented communities must be heightened if these numbers are going to change. Clearly, there are several myths surrounding Black organ donation that need to be debunked, such as “they’ll let you die first” and “Black organ donors are sought after for their organs”, to generate more organ donors in the community, so we must debunk them. If you’re am organ donor you will not be left to die just because of it, nor will you be sought after. It’s our duty, African Americans, to ensure that the awareness spreads of the importance of using our organs to save a life. Particularly now that Black Lives Matter, the movement, has taken off, it’s off the utmost importance to bridge the connection so we can see all the ways that we can save each other. Black families and Black lives are stakeholders. This is not a fight of any other community to save us, we must be willing to save ourselves first. There are multiple disciplines that could help address this problem such as Communications using PR Campaigns and Press Releases, health majors such as Epidemiologist who study disease, and entire HBCUs who touch black lives everyday. It’s going to be a joint effort to get the word out, but it’s a single effort of the black community to save the black community.
What I noticed is there is not a big problem in spreading the word and sharing the importance of Black America signing up to be organ donors. The major problem is getting people to listen and take action. People hear you and understand what you’re saying but it’s not until it’s in their back yard and directly impacting them they are not moved to make a change. In the age of social media and being able to reach people across the globe that you’d never have met otherwise, it would seem very easy to start a conversation across any platform and it go vital. Unfortunately, if people are not interested in the conversation, or see no real relevance to them, they do nothing and they say nothing.
We created an Instagram page (IDSproject) solely dedicated to bringing awareness to organ donation in the Black community and a challenge around it. We used hashtags and tagged people, we posted photos and videos, yet we received very little feedback. Additionally, I linked each post to my twitter page and posted a few snap chats to generate a buzz. There were multiple likes on the post, in fact I’m still getting likes on the post, yet there are no comments asking questions nor are people joining in on the challenge. The challenge is very simple. Do five pushups and tag eight friends to also do the challenge. We tagged eight friends because of the tagline: #save8heal50. My guess is the challenge is not fun or pointless enough. We see that there is a clear discrepancy in our community in the number of people who need organs versus what is available, we all know that at some point our expiration date will arrive, yet we are still not taking the two minutes or less to save another life. The issue is nut going to go away. With the amount of high sodium and processed food that we consume the numbers are only going to increase. The number of kidney failures will increase. The number of heart problems, liver and lung problems will increase. If we don’t increase the number of donors in Black America, black lives will start to matter less and less because we will perish of our own selfishness.
What started as a school project to earn a grade has become another passion. I signed up to become an organ donor when I first became eligible for my license knowing very little about the process. I have since learned that I don’t need to die to donate an organ. I’ve also learned that in the event of my passing, my family gets the opportunity to say their proper goodbyes and I’m not rushed into some science lab and dissected for my parts. I have learned that anyone at any age can become a donor, and families can decide for the young to donate their organs. More than anything, I learned I do not need to change my lifestyle or live a certain lifestyle for my organs to be useful to another person.
I will continue to share my experience and knowledge of organ donation. I will continue to invite others to visit donatelifenc.org (or that of their state) and organdonor.gov to get more information and sign up to save a life. I will post information on my Instagram, Facebook and twitter religiously. I will post information on my WordPress site. I will be an advocate for saving black lives in the most critical way I know how. I will inform my children of the importance of signing up to be organ donors and I will invite them to join the fight by informing their friends. The conversation must start somewhere and if talked about enough, people will join in. I am confident that this conversation will not end here; once you show someone something that could impact them, although they say nothing now, it’s not something they can easily get away from.
Bibliography
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (n.d.). African Americams and Organ Donation. Retrieved from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: http://www.organdonor.gov/minortyaa/index.html
The Kween Speaks....Just listen! 