Can white people get sickle cell disease? or is this disease exclusive to black people?

Yes and No: The genes by which a person inherits skin color are different from the genes for inheriting sickle cell trait and disease. Therefore, in the U.S., where many people marry others with different skin colors, kids can be born with sickle cell trait or disease and have any skin color. The disease occurs in about 1 out of 400 black (racial) Americans, and 1 out of 16,000 Hispanic (ethnic) Americans.