Talk:Charles R. Drew

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More information about this article... The following comments have been left for this page: I rated this as "Start for several reasons. First off, the lead paragraph needs work. It states that Drew was involved in the development of blood banks, but the body of the article doesn't support that assertion. Also, you need a lot more inline citations--at least one per paragraph is the suggestion. The "Death section could be more tightly edited. The area of how expert drivers might have been able to get out of that predicament is just conjecture. Like they say on Dragnet, "Just the facts, M'am". I also noticed a lot of typos and punctuation errors. This article needs a good copy editing. I did find it very interesting, and look forward to reading it again when it is more polished. Jeffpw 20:56, 2 November 2006 (UTC) (edit)

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[edit] Anthropology

The paragraph on current views on race in anthropology seems out of place. Actually the whole section on Dr Drew's death could use some rewriting. Eric 02:19, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] M*A*S*H

The story of Charles Drew was presented in an episode of M*A*S*H (11/10/73, episode K-409). Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) was treating a soldier (Mills Watson) who refused to accept any "wrong colored" blood. Because of his blatant racism, Hawkeye decided to teach him a lesson. While the soldier was sleeping, Hawkeye and "Trapper" John McIntyre (Wayne Rogers) painted the soldier's face with a fluid containing iodine. When the soldier awoke and saw his reflection in a mirror, he panicked, knowing he had been given "the wrong color" blood. Hawkeye related the story of Dr. Charles Drew, and how after an automobile accident in North Carolina, he was not admitted to an all-white hospital. Prevented from receiving potentially life saving plasma, which he discovered, he died of his injuries. The story moved the soldier, so that at the end of the episode, he apologized for his statements and saluted a young African American nurse (Odessa Cleveland).

[edit] Drew did not discover blood plasma

Drew did not discover blood plasma, nor was he refused blood leading to his death.

It is sicking that this racist agitprop is repeated here when simple research would dispel such legends. It belittles Drew's actual accomplishments to subject him to this mythologization.

Dr. Drew's main accomplishment was that he adapted an already-existing laboratory production method for the industrial production of plasma.

• You may want to read the article, it doesn't say that he discoved plasma, it does specifically say that report, that he was refused admission to an all-white hospital were false--nixie 01:56, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Nixie, I was referring to the comment preceeding mine wherein those very falsehoods are repeated. The article is fair, although the claim that Drew was somehow responsible for the institution of blood blanks is totally false. Thanks.

[edit] Drew's discoveries did NOT lead to the development of blood plasma. Stop it.

Charles Wynes' biography, Charles Richard Drew: The Man and the Myth, says:

The fact is, Drew did not develop blood plasma in any of its forms, nor did he perfect blood transfusion with blood plasma, as is sometimes claimed in newspapers and popular magazines, in children's books, on television, and even in some history books. It is especially worth noting that no recognized and respected medical or scientific authority or publication has ever made such claims for Drew. Certainly, Drew did not make any such claims for himself, nor have any of his former colleagues or any of his students. To say all this, however, in no way detracts from Drew's actual accomplishments.

This brief excerpt should be permissible under "fair use" doctrines. Zuzim 19:46, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Charles Drew (1904-1950) was born on June 3, 1904 in Washington, D.C. Charles Drew excelled in academics and sports during his graduate studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Charles Drew was also a honor student at McGill University Medical School in Montreal, where he specialized in physiological anatomy. Charles Drew researched blood plasma and transfusions in New York City. It was during his work at Columbia University where he made his discoveries relating to the preservation of blood. By separating the liquid red blood cells from the near solid plasma and freezing the two separately, he found that blood could be preserved and reconstituted at a later date.

Charles Drew's system for the storing of blood plasma (blood bank) revolutionized the medical profession. Dr. Drew also established the American Red Cross blood bank, of which he was the first director, and he organized the world's first blood bank drive, nicknamed "Blood for Britain". His official title for the blood drive was Medical Director of the first Plasma Division for Blood Transfusion, supplying blood plasma to the British during World War II. The British military used his process extensively during World War II, establishing mobile blood banks to aid in the treatment of wounded soldiers at the front lines. In 1941, the American Red Cross decided to set up blood donor stations to collect plasma for the U.S. armed forces.

After the war, Charles Drew took up the Chair of Surgery at Howard University, Washington, D.C. He received the Spingarn Medal in 1944 for his contributions to medical science. Charles Drew died at the early age of 46 from injuries suffered in a car accident in North Carolina.

No, enough has NOT been said. About.com's mythologizing about black inventors is no refutation of scholarly literature. Among other laughers, About repeats uncritically Philip Emeagwali's self-aggrandizing -- and false -- claims. About's inventors editor does not respond to requests that she provide the source of her "research" on black inventors.

The fact remains that Dr. Drew was in no way the discoverer or inventor of plasma production.BulldogPete

I can already smell crap with that About.com cite, anyway.

His official title for the blood drive was Medical Director of the first Plasma Division for Blood Transfusion

. TOTALLY untrue. His official tital was Project Director, Division of Plaasma Tranfusion, Plasma for Britain directive. The medical director was his old teacher, John Scudder. --In ur base, killing ur dorfs 21:17, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Citations added June 8, 2006

Maybe someone else could/should have done this a bit earlier, but I've put in a good handful of citations for verifiability. The opening para is now clearer about Drew's medical claims to fame. Further down the article, I've also included links to Robertson and Fantus to back up handling of the "myths" issue in a positive way. And I've un-redlined John Beattie because, from Googling a bit, I can't see he meets the Wiki standard of notability.--Mereda 12:21, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Charles Drew Color

No disrespect!, but how is Charles Drew Black when he looks white?

In the US, both social standards and in many ways the law have nothing to do with appearance. The rule has historically been that "one drop" of Black heritage made a person black. While this may seem absurd (or racist) outside the US (and to many people in the US), it's the actual state of things here. See this website or Google for "just one drop" and negro here. Dr. Drew's heritage as "black" is firmly established. Studerby 04:02, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, we in the US were very stupid back then. I added in a copy of his picture taken by the US Government when he was involved with Plasma for Britain. --In ur base, killing ur dorfs 21:13, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

The emergency room doctors didn't NOTICE he was black? C'mon, it's one thing to say that they didn't discriminate against him, but what this article says was that they were unable to discern his race - in the south in the 1950s when all his companions were black. Was he really white looking? Were they blind? This strains credibility and is certainly not neutral. --83.84.85.197 22:45, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

I am a relation of his and I look disturbingly like him. I am as black as he is. I choose to identify myself as white (although I have a VERY black sounding name). People are always stunned to meet me in person if they have only met via phone/email. I once walked into an investment bank for an interview. The interviewer walked over to the more stereotypical looking African american sitting next to me and introduced himself, presuming he was me (due to name). I was like "That's me." So, to answer the question... yes... My sisters once went to the hospital and why, i don't know, but they record ethnicity etc. When we saw the papers later (they never asked, they just filled in), one of my sisters they listed as hispanic and the other as mixed. So, appearances can be deceiving (the mixed one has pure white skin but super kinky blonde fro but with caucasian, not african facial features). The point of this? Its definitely plausible they couldn't guess his race. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.200.5.41 (talk • contribs) 12:17, 18 October 2007

Interesting. See also Passing (racial identity). Studerby 20:34, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

LOL, how is this fella a Negro again? Koalorka (talk) 03:37, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] No definitive evidence that...

It might also be worth mentioning that one of his real daughters, Charlene Drew Jarvis, was a longtime D.C. councilmember.Carlaclaws 05:23, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

This article seems to be getting a lot of vandalism, which is sad. --Elaragirl^Talk|Count 03:52, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] There are statistically significant differences in blood type frequencies between ethnic groups

Somebody removed my addition about statistically significant differences in blood type frequencies between ethnic groups, so I'm adding it back in, because it's true. Any good book on population genetics will confirm this. However, no racial superiority or inferority can or should be infered by the blood type frequency.

Furthermore, even though one can see blood frequency differences across population subgroups, this says nothing about an individual's blood type. There's no evolutionary advantage of one blood type over another.

There are a lot of interesting studies that show blood type frequencies differences between ethnic/national groups. This is can be explained by the Hardy-Weinberg equalibrium. That is, an allele frequency stays approximately the same from generation to generation if there's no evolutionary advantage of one allele over another. Genetic drift explains the differences.

One interesting example is the blood type frequencies in the Basque region bordering between France and Spain are different than the frequencies in France and Spain. Interestingly enough, the Basque language is linguistically unrelated to French and Spanish, from which one can infer, that the Basque sub-population is distinct from the French and Spanish, whose languages belong to the Romance language group.

If you look at the geographic distribution of blood frequencies in the United States, you can see that because of the extreme mobility of Americans, the blood frequencies are fairly uniform.

To conclude, blood frequency differences between ethnic groups is a fact, but this fact cannot and should not give support to any racial discrimination.

Clemwang 09:35, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Education

The part about attending the University of Arkansas and playing football doesn't make sense. Sports in the South at that time (and certainly at Arkansas) were segregated and it wasn't until the 1970's that black players competed at Arkansas in football.

I checked the Arkansas media guide and he doesn't show up as a letterman. Perhaps he played for the only HBC in Arkansas at the time that would have had 'Arkansas" in its name --- "Arkansas AM&N" (now Arkansas-Pine Bluff). But it's unlikely he would suddenly go deeper into the South to a place he appeared to have no connection.

I couldn't find an links to Arkansas on an Internet search and checked both Ark. and UAPB sites without finding anything.

Anybody have any corroboration or insight?

BostonRed 22:20, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

I deleted the UArkansas information. There are enough biographies of Drew that reference only Amherst and nothing about Arkansas at all and they all indicate he played his football at Amherst and graduated from there before going to McGill.

BostonRed 14:13, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Drew References from legitimate sources

http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/cdrew.html http://www.bridgew.edu/HOBA/Drew.cfm http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi154.htm http://drewlab.msu.edu/charlesdrew.html http://www.famu.edu/oldsite/about/admin/vppa/News/Black_History_Moments/A._Phillip_Randolph/Jackie_Robinson/Paul_Laurence_Dunbar/dr._charles_drew.html http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/Museum/drew.html http://www.albany.edu/~cdsc/drewbio.HTM http://exn.ca/Stories/1997/02/10/13.asp http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761560858/Charles_Drew.html http://www.scienceu.fsu.edu/content/scienceyou/meetscience/drew.html

Anyone wishing to dispute the achievements of this amazing person, feel free, just reference verifiable research, as I did above. Refute it all, but provide legitimate works (ie NOT www33.brinkster.com) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 198.36.23.228 (talk) 18:59, 10 May 2007 (UTC).

Here is another good site if this comes up again: http://www1.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/speeches/01-52.htm Enigmama 04:09, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] good interesting man

[edit] Urban Legend

One of the articles is titled, in part, Urban Legend, but there's no discussion of the legend. Why? Also, check out the straight dope web site for an insightful look at Drew and the legend. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kevin324la (talk • contribs) 02:47, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism

I removed this offensive garbage:

Charles Richard Drew was born on June 3, 1904 in Washington D.C. to fuck his parent and suck his dad dick Nora and Richard Drew.

It's sad that some lowlife loser has nothing better to do than vandalize the biographies of those who've made worthwhile contributions to society. 66.189.180.66 (talk) 17:54, 28 March 2008 (UTC)