Bridget McNulty
Sweet Life Diabetes Community, on behalf of people living with diabetes in South Africa, wholeheartedly opposes the racist rant blamed on diabetes.
There are many reasons diabetes should be in the news. It’s the number one killer of women in South Africa, and the second leading cause of death overall. It is possible to live a healthy, happy life with diabetes, but only with the right interventions – which are proven and available, yet not prioritised in South Africa.
A racist rant blamed on blood sugar is not why diabetes should be in the news.
Belinda Magor, allegedly the woman behind the disgusting voice note, blames her diabetes for the terrible things she said. TimesLIVE quotes her as saying: “I’m diabetic. When your sugar is out of whack, which happens quite often, you don’t think clearly, you can’t focus. There’s like a cloud over your mind.”
This is partly true. When your blood sugar is high or low, you don’t think clearly. Sometimes you say things in a less eloquent way or muddle a word or two. But blood sugar fluctuations do not in any way make you a racist. You are still entirely aware of what you’re saying.
What high or low blood sugar may do is remove some of your social filter – making it more likely for you to say what you actually feel. This is perhaps what happened in Ms Magor’s case. Maybe if her blood sugar had been stable, she would have kept these appalling thoughts where they belong: buried deep and never spoken aloud. Preferably never even thought.
She continues by saying: “Unfortunately, I don’t get that quite often, I’m on insulin,” which makes no sense. Does she mean unfortunately her blood sugar is high or low quite often because she’s on insulin? Blood sugar fluctuations are common for those with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes on insulin, as they are trying to perform the action of a pancreas, which is complex and difficult. But these fluctuations are simply part of life with diabetes, not an excuse for any kind of poor behaviour.
Ms. Magor ends her confusing tale of life with diabetes by saying: “If my sugar is out of whack, that is why I don’t do an office job, I cannot do it.”
It is entirely possible to do an office job – or fly a plane, or parent a child, or operate heavy machinery – with diabetes.
There are millions of South Africans with diabetes who manage to go through life every day as fully functioning members of society, without saying disgusting, racist things.
Diabetes did not make her do it.
Bridget McNulty is the voice of Diabetes in South Africa and an advocate for all those suffering with the disease.
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