Black and White and Red Cross

During Sunday Night Baseball tonight on ESPN, there have been several ads for the Red Cross, many sponsored by Major League Baseball (and narrated by Bud Selig, whose voice--like most everything about him--is something less than compelling). The thing I couldn't help noticing is the proportion of white people to black in the ads: a lot more white people were depicted, both as victims and as volunteers. Most of the people of color were children or old people (harmless! nonthreatening!).

Do they really feel that people are more likely to donate if it looks like you're helping white people? That would be sad.

Are people more likely to donate if the victims appear to be white? That would be sadder.