[Bel Marduk]

Jesus Christ....... Why? Why? Why? "Black Women are unattractive" "Black women are fat" "Black women won't marry outside race" Does having a fucking black first lady in the white house give ANYONE pause before writing these kids of things? They serve no one.

A black first lady who has emphasized fighting obesity and promoting fitness for kids. I don't know if you've noticed, but she isn't overweight.

[DrFunk]

Kind of of put your on twist on the article title no? Makes it more controversial. The original is "Black Women and Fat".

gotta get those thread replies

A black first lady who has emphasized fighting obesity and promoting fitness for kids. I don't know if you've noticed, but she isn't overweight.

That's what he's saying -- a black woman in a high position that isn't overweight, and yet articles like this are still published.

Not sure GAF can handle it (anything Black + women spells doom), but it's worth discussing.

[Jokergrin]

Solution: stop listening to your husbands? Stop marrying black dudes, if necessary? Being fat isn't the recipe for health or success or anything good in life.

yeah, but more cushion for the pushin

[Bay Maximus]

I wouldn't doubt that women with partners that like bigger women are more inclined to pack on pounds or stay at a higher than healthy weight. After all, people have shown they will take potentially deadly risks to attract and/or maintain mates. That said, I don't believe this is the primary reason for the issue, just a contributing factor.

[Mammoth Jones]

I think black women are obese for exactly the same reason American people are obese - because of convenience food culture, because of food marketing culture, because of the cost in money/time/effort to eat healthy, because of quick-fix culture (why exercise when you can binge on Stacker 5 and Shake Weights!), and so on. But the image of the sassy black overweight "mammy" is so ingrained in American imagery since back in the day that it's easier to see it as some black woman-specific issue...right? I mean, there are just as many negative connotations with being overweight/obese in the black community as there is in any other community (ironically, no one else seems to be grouped monolithically like this, but whatever), but if you aren't black in America, all you see and think you know is what you see in media - and in media, black women are either neck-snapping, eye-rolling ohnoyoudidn't hood chicks, rap video chicks, or Mo'Nique/Precious. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground for black women anymore.

This, this, and this. America as a whole are overweight. Why single out Black Women?

[Baconsammy]

Just so it's clear I'm not making stuff up (and because people find these issues contentious), here is one of many articles on the interracial marriage issue. http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Media/black...ry?id=10830719 22 Percent of black men marry outside their race, while only 9 percent of black women do, despite the fact that black women are, again, significantly more educated, and more professionally successful. The net result is that there are proportionately more unmarried black women in America than there are any other gender/race combination.

May have something to do with the fact that black males are more desirable physically to non-black females than black females are to non-black males. I think asserting that people look first and foremost at bank account/job status when choosing a mate may be off the mark a little. I don't have any stats to back any of that up though. I may be way off base with my guess.

[Slayven]

A black first lady who has emphasized fighting obesity and promoting fitness for kids. I don't know if you've noticed, but she isn't overweight.

Depends on who you ask.
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011...dietary-advice

[ThisWreckage]

Maybe I'm wrong for feeling this way, but I don't think black women exercise as much as white women. I don't know why that is. Go to your local gym and take note at who is taking yoga classes, aerobics, etc.

There are bigger issues, however. Americans, on the whole, don't seem to exercise or care about their well being.

[Emily Chu]

Honestly... the real secret ?
Stop eating so much fatty and sugary stuff.... carbs included
Been said a billion times

But its true

[captmcblack]

A black first lady who has emphasized fighting obesity and promoting fitness for kids. I don't know if you've noticed, but she isn't overweight.

She, like her husband, is a secret Kenyan Muslim New World Order lizardman and isn't really a black woman.

At least, she isn't a black woman of consequence that should be considered when grouping black people together as a uniform, monolithic group. It's easier for Aunt Jemima or JR Smith's sister to get burn when we talk about black women than it is for the First Lady.

[marrec]

This, this, and this. America as a whole are overweight. Why single out Black Women?

Because if the 4 out of 5 statistic is correct, then maybe we need to focus on the demographic most in need of help?

[cuevas, PhD.]

May have something to do with the fact that black males are more desirable physically to non-black females than black females are to non-black males. I think asserting that people look first and foremost at bank account/job status when choosing a mate may be off the mark a little. I don't have any stats to back any of that up though. I may be way off base with my guess.

We maybe if they weren't so fat!

[Opiate]

This, this, and this. America as a whole are overweight. Why single out Black Women?

Because black women are much more likely to be overweight, statistically speaking.

http://www.cdc.gov/Features/dsObesityAdults/

Black women are nearly twice as likely to be obese as white women, and more likely to be obese than any other race/gender combination by a wide margin. That is why.

[Zane]

Also, stop with all the goddamn tattoos. Yeah, it's harder to see on black skin. It's still discusting when you're covered in them.

You know they're not getting those tattoos to please you, right?

[Gr1mLock]

'Of Color'. What is this 1953?

[CrushDance]

May have something to do with the fact that black males are more desirable physically to non-black females than black females are to non-black males. I think asserting that people look first and foremost at bank account/job status when choosing a mate may be off the mark a little. I don't have any stats to back any of that up though. I may be way off base with my guess.

Bacon, are we living in the same universe?

She, like her husband, is a secret Kenyan Muslim New World Order lizardman and isn't really a black woman. At least, she isn't a black woman of consequence that should be considered when grouping black people together as a uniform, monolithic group. It's easier for Aunt Jemima or JR Smith's sister to get burn when we talk about black women than it is for the First Lady.

I died.

[XiaNaphryz]

This, this, and this. America as a whole are overweight. Why single out Black Women?

The opinion piece is from a black woman trying to draw more attention of the issue to the black community, which is why they're being singled out.

FOUR out of five black women are seriously overweight. One out of four middle-aged black women has diabetes. With $174 billion a year spent on diabetes-related illness in America and obesity quickly overtaking smoking as a cause of cancer deaths, it is past time to try something new. What we need is a body-culture revolution in black America. Why? Because too many experts who are involved in the discussion of obesity don’t understand something crucial about black women and fat: many black women are fat because we want to be. ... I call on every black woman for whom it is appropriate to commit to getting under 200 pounds or to losing the 10 percent of our body weight that often results in a 50 percent reduction in diabetes risk. Sleeping better may be key, as recent research suggests that lack of sleep is a little-acknowledged culprit in obesity. But it is not just sleep, exercise and healthy foods we need to solve this problem — we also need wisdom. I expect obesity will be like alcoholism. People who know the problem intimately find their way out, then lead a few others. The few become millions. Down here, that movement has begun. I hold Zumba classes in my dining room, have a treadmill in my kitchen and have organized yoga classes for women up to 300 pounds. And I’ve got a weighted exercise Hula-Hoop I call the black Cadillac. Our go-to family dinner is sliced cucumbers, salsa, spinach and scrambled egg whites with onions. Our go-to snack is peanut butter — no added sugar or salt — on a spoon. My quick breakfast is a roasted sweet potato, no butter, or Greek yogurt with six almonds. That’s soul food, Nashville 2012. I may never get small doing all of this. But I have made it much harder for the next generation, including my 24-year-old daughter, to get large.

[EviLore]

I think black women are obese for exactly the same reason American people are obese - because of convenience food culture, because of food marketing culture, because of the cost in money/time/effort to eat healthy, because of quick-fix culture (why exercise when you can binge on Stacker 5 and Shake Weights!), and so on. But the image of the sassy black overweight "mammy" is so ingrained in American imagery since back in the day that it's easier to see it as some black woman-specific issue...right?

Looking up studies:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2569574/

RESULTS: The prevalence of overweight or obesity in 2005 among U.S. adults was 63%. Racial disparities in obesity were observed among women, not among men. The mean BMI of non-Hispanic black women was 29.8, significantly (P < 0.01) higher than that of non-Hispanic white women (26.7).

At a 5'4" height, that would be 155.5 lbs for white women and 173.5 lbs for black women on average. Pretty significant and worth discussing.

[captmcblack]

Maybe I'm wrong for feeling this way, but I don't think black women exercise as much as white women. I don't know why that is. Go to your local gym and take note at who is taking yoga classes, aerobics, etc. There are bigger issues, however. Americans, on the whole, don't seem to exercise or care about their well being.

Curiously, I go to the gym in Brooklyn NY, and most of the women in the gym are black women, and other colored/non-minority women.

And my gym is in Downtown Brooklyn near Brooklyn Heights - an area that isn't a "black neighborhood". Where do you live? Where do you go to the gym? Perhaps there could be a demographic reason for why you see that and think that way?

Or what kind of gyms/yoga classes do you go to? There could be a socioeconomic reason for your gym's clientele; I'd wager the Wall Street Equinox would have far less minorities in it than a Bally's in Queens...and that's probably because the Equinox is far more expensive to attend.


[EDIT: Evilore, I see the numbers - but do the numbers address why? Is there a context for those numbers?]

[Opiate]

Curiously, I go to the gym in Brooklyn NY, and most of the women in the gym are black women, and other colored/non-minority women. And my gym is in Downtown Brooklyn near Brooklyn Heights - an area that isn't a "black neighborhood". Where do you live? Where do you go to the gym? Perhaps there could be a demographic reason for why you see that and think that way? Or what kind of gyms/yoga classes do you go to? There could be a socioeconomic reason for your gym's clientele; I'd wager the Wall Street Equinox would have far less minorities in it than a Bally's in Queens...and that's probably because the Equinox is far more expensive to attend.

Your anecdotal evidence is irrelevant. Large scale statistical surveys consistently show that black women are more likely to be obese than any other race/gender combination by non-trivial margins.

This does not mean black women are "bad," or "evil," and we will ban people who suggest it does. Those are bad responses to this problem. But another bad response to this problem is to pretend it doesn't exist, or that it's being made up. It isn't.

We cannot solve or even understand a problem unless we first acknowledge that the problem actually exists, and available demographic and statistical evidence suggests it does.

[Baconsammy]

From Professor Rick Banks, who apparently wrote a book on racial disparities:

A big part of the reason that black women do not intermarry is that they do not want to. In the book I unravel the multifaceted desires and fears that keep black women the most segregated group of people in the nation, but in this brief post I emphasize only one factor: for many black women, to marry across the race line feels like a betrayal of the race, as though they are leaving behind black men who, these women know all too well, are among the most disadvantaged group of people in society. Many successful black women want not to abandon black men, but instead to lift as they climb. For these women, the personal is most definitely political.

So according to him, black women are making the choice not to marry outside their race, and not a case of them simply being less desirable to non-black males.

[commedieu]

Just so it's clear I'm not making stuff up (and because people find these issues contentious), here is one of many articles on the interracial marriage issue. http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Media/black...ry?id=10830719 22 Percent of black men marry outside their race, while only 9 percent of black women do, despite the fact that black women are, again, significantly more educated, and more professionally successful. The net result is that there are proportionately more unmarried black women in America than there are any other gender/race combination.

Well. I definitely don't want to be banned about this issue. Just thought I could help explain the % differences. Think you can see my edit, and see if it qualifies under your 'bad'/'evil' column.

[BreakyBoy]

Kind of of put your on twist on the article title no? Makes it more controversial. The original is "Black Women and Fat".

gotta get those thread replies

Before you crucify the OP, you should click the link again and look at the title of the webpage in your title/tab bar.

[ThisWreckage]

Curiously, I go to the gym in Brooklyn NY, and most of the women in the gym are black women, and other colored/non-minority women. And my gym is in Downtown Brooklyn near Brooklyn Heights - an area that isn't a "black neighborhood". Where do you live? Where do you go to the gym? Perhaps there could be a demographic reason for why you see that and think that way? Or what kind of gyms/yoga classes do you go to? There could be a socioeconomic reason for your gym's clientele; I'd wager the Wall Street Equinox would have far less minorities in it than a Bally's in Queens...and that's probably because the Equinox is far more expensive to attend. [EDIT: Evilore, I see the numbers - but do the numbers address why? Is there a context for those numbers?]

I live in NC. It's just anecdotal evidence, but most of the black people I see in my local gym that are black are overwhelmingly black males.

Opiate nailed it. It doesn't matter what either one of states anecdotally, because statistics show that black women are far more likely to be obese than white women. It isn't up for debate. I'm not sure why black women are more likely to be obese, but it is a huge problem.

[Baconsammy]

An educated black woman responds to the marriage disparity:

Many, many black women, like myself, are not limiting our options to only black men, so this “shortage” has no impact on us. Divested and self-actualized black women have the skills and the talents to lure in men of all races, ethnicities and nationalities. Self-actualized, confident, secure single black women are not sitting around, “lamenting” about the fact that there are no “good” black men. Self-actualized black women are not waiting on a black knight in shining armor to come and rescue us from our dark, gloomy days.
My livelihood and destiny are not intertwined with black men. Like Oprah said in her support for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama: I am a free woman.

[Ghost_Protocol]

The NewYork Times is not some bastion of integrity striving to bring enlightenment to the masses. It's a newspaper, looking for ratings, like everyone else. That's all this is.

It's the latest example of a disturbing trend that shamelessly spotlights negative stereotypes/ issues/ caricatures related to black women. I just read a similar story about black women being unnattractive, and another about why they don't/can't marry outside their race. All within the last few months. These "articles" aren't addressing anything. They're cheap ratings grabs in a climate where race and gender critiques equal profit.

[captmcblack]

I live in NC. It's just anecdotal evidence, but most of the black people I see in my local gym that are black are overwhelmingly black males. Opiate nailed it. It doesn't matter what either one of states anecdotally, because statistics show that black women are far more likely to be obese than white women.

Like I said in the post you quoted, I see the numbers and acknowledge their veracity, but do the numbers come with a context for them? That's what I am curious about. Thanks for replying w/your location too!

[FStop7]

Sir Mixalot takes issue with this article.

[SapientWolf]

I don't think this line of reasoning holds up for obesity. I just don't see any evidence for it.

[Dreams-Visions]

Yes, I'm sure this is a discussion topic that GAF can meaningfully parse and analyze.

:-/

[.GqueB.]

Interesting article. I live in Brooklyn NY and always felt that black women were over weight simply because they could be. Black men don't seem to have standards when it comes to weight so there's no real incentive for black women to worry about it so much.

But I never assumed that we were "asking" women to remain over weight. I've personally never heard of such a thing.

[blame space]

some pretty shocking racism in this thread

[Baconsammy]

Interesting article. I live in Brooklyn NY and always felt that black women were over weight simply because they could be. Black men don't seem to have standards when it comes to weight so there's no real incentive for black women to worry about it so much.

Except personal responsibility and health.

[EviLore]

Transcribed from the full paper:

whereas 68.6% of black women were overweight or obese, 56.0% of white women and 54.5% of hispanic women were overweight or obese. Whereas 41.5% of black women were obese, 19.3% of white women and 26.2% of hispanic women were obese. For men, whites were more overweight than the other two racial/ethnic groups, and blacks were more obese than the others.

detailed stats:




Education doesn't appear to do anything to close the respective BMI gap racially for black women, though college seems to correlate strongly with lower BMI across all women. I'm guessing the inverse relationship women-wide there is because of childbirth-related weight gain (less education, more baby-making), but that's outside of the purview of the study.

[catfish]

most people are fat because their calories in is larger than the energy expended over time.

Perhaps there is magic where black ladies are related though, I can't be sure, I'm not a wizard.

[.GqueB.]

Accept personal responsibility and health.

Maybe so but that really depends on the individual. I'm talking right out of my ass here but I would say that most people go to the gym mostly for aesthetic. Yes health is definitely a reason but most just want to look good. That's 70% of the reason I personally go.

Which is why I feel many black women don't see the incentive. The aesthetic is generally considered fine and they get hounded in the street all the same.

[CrushDance]

41.5%....Yikes.

[Alucrid]

Transcribed from the full paper: detailed stats: [img]http://www.abjecthubris.com/images/bmistats.jpg[img] Education doesn't appear to do anything to close the respective BMI gap racially for black women, though college seems to correlate strongly with lower BMI across all women. I'm guessing the inverse relationship women-wide there is because of childbirth-related weight gain (less education, more baby-making), but that's outside of the purview of the study.

hm what do I do for asians? add white+hispanic and divide by 2?

[joelseph]

Stop marrying black dudes, if necessary?

Wow!

[CrushDance]

Wow!

Yeah, not sure what that means.

[AbsoluteZero]

I don't think this is race specific. Some guys like big gals and some like small gals.

[ThisWreckage]

Blaming someone else for your obesity seems like a lame excuse and it's a total rejection of responsibility. "I'm overweight because my husband wants me to be" does not fly with me whatsoever.

[zoku88]

Transcribed from the full paper: detailed stats: Education doesn't appear to do anything to close the respective BMI gap racially for black women, though college seems to correlate strongly with lower BMI across all women. I'm guessing the inverse relationship women-wide there is because of childbirth-related weight gain (less education, more baby-making), but that's outside of the purview of the study.

is there something about income in there? Black women tend to be a lot poorer than other women, iirc

[ViewtifulJC]

Damn, it's like every week we gotta have "Black people are worse then other people" thread. And the sad part is that there isn't much of a discussion because THE STATISTICS rule all in internet debates. Just have to nod your head and say, "Yep, I guess that another thing we're just inferior to all races on."

[ThisWreckage]

Damn, it's like every week we gotta have "Black people are worse then other people" thread. And the sad part is that there isn't much of a discussion because THE STATISTICS rule all in internet debates. Just have to nod your head and say, "Yep, I guess that another thing we're just inferior to all races on."

I don't think anyone has said that black people are worse or inferior in this thread whatsoever. I also have an issue with your statistics comment. Would you rather pretend that those stats don't exist? Because that would surely help solve a definite problem, yes?

[EviLore]

is there something about income in there? Black women tend to be a lot poorer than other women, iirc

Yeah I'd like to see this cross-referenced with economic status and not just education, but for some reason they only looked at income with regards to perception about health and obesity, and not the actual obesity statistics? Maybe in another study.

[Copernicus]

Damn, it's like every week we gotta have "Black people are worse then other people" thread. And the sad part is that there isn't much of a discussion because THE STATISTICS rule all in internet debates. Just have to nod your head and say, "Yep, I guess that another thing we're just inferior to all races on."

Sounds like you're the one injecting the superiority argument when you see a discussion about race and it's probable correlations and causations.

[CrazyDogg77]

I don't think anyone has said that black people are worse or inferior in this thread whatsoever. I also have an issue with your statistics comment. Would you rather pretend that those stats don't exist? Because that would surely help solve a definite problem, yes?

I think he's tired of the viewing of black people as some monolithic group like we're all the same. It is pretty tiring to be frank.

[Alligatorjandro]

The same reason white women are fat.

[Sho_Nuff82]

The NewYork Times is not some bastion of integrity striving to bring enlightenment to the masses. It's a newspaper, looking for ratings, like everyone else. That's all this is. It's the latest example of a disturbing trend that shamelessly spotlights negative stereotypes/ issues/ caricatures related to black women. I just read a similar story about black women being unnattractive, and another about why they don't/can't marry outside their race. All within the last few months. These "articles" aren't addressing anything. They're cheap ratings grabs in a climate where race and gender critiques equal profit.

The worst thing we can do is hand-wave these kind of statistics as attacks by the media. Obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are real problems in the black community. Attacking the problem head on is the best bet. The author of the opinion piece tries to rationalize the factual trend with some anecdotal evidence, but whether or not she is correct, it's still a problem.