Cape Town - Diabetes experts have kicked back at claims by alleged racist Belinda Magor that diabetes caused her to do a racist rant.
Bridget McNulty, who advocates for those living in South Africa with diabetes, said blood sugar issues did not make you a racist.
In a statement, McNulty of the Sweet Life Diabetes Community said although blood sugar did affect your concentration, you were fully aware of your actions.
“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,” explained McNulty.
“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.
“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.”
Magor was quoted in another interview, 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.”
“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.
“If my sugar is out of whack, that is why I don’t do an office job. I cannot do it.”
McNulty said people all over South Africa, which included people from all walks of life, even children who had diabetes were able to lead normal lives.
“It is entirely possible to do an office job - or fly a plane, or parent a child, or operate heavy machinery - with diabetes,” McNulty added.
“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.”
Magor, who allegedly called for black women’s uteruses to be removed and black men to be burned because they steal, kill and rape, was arrested.
Weekend Argus reported that the South African Human Rights Commission was preparing to send Magor a letter of demand and that if she did not respond, they could possibly see the inside of the Equality Court.
Magor sent racial remarks via a WhatsApp group which went viral.
She reportedly made the comments in defence of pit bulls after a foundation lobbied for the banning of the breed as domestic pets following the death of a ten-year-old boy in Gqeberha.
National police said a case of crimen injuria was opened on Friday, and Magor was released on the same day on a warning. She is due to appear in court on March 27, 2023.