The Carleton University Student's Association has voted to drop a cystic fibrosis charity as the beneficiary of its annual Shinearama fundraiser, supporting a motion that argued that the disease is not "inclusive" enough. Cystic fibrosis "has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men," said the motion read on Monday night to student councillors, who voted almost unanimously in favour of it.
1) Several doctors have been quick to point out that the part about "only affecting white people" a load of crap, and,
2) even if it were true, so what? Funding research for diseases that attack specific people groups is nothing new (and, I think it's safe to say, nothing wrong). This may, unbelievably, take top honours for stupidest political play of 2008. On a side note, the first person I ever met who suffered from CF was, it so happens, black On another not-so-side note, does this mean that the CUSA will, in the future, make a point of not doing charity fundraising for sickle-cell anemia, on the grounds of being not inclusive enough because it primarily affects Africans, specifically those from the Sub-Saharan region? And what about breast cancer, which primarily affects women, thus resulting in an insufficiently inclusive gender bias?
As Shaggy would say, zoinks.
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