Emma D. Sapong, Buffalo News, August 29, 2009
The numbers were already shocking: Eight out of 10 black women are either overweight or obese. But now it’s worse: 40 percent are obese. And 54-year-old Susan Polite of Buffalo can be counted among them. At just 5-foot-2, Polite has weighed much as 240 pounds.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest report on obesity among adults found African Americans to have the highest rates, more than one in three are obese.
{snip}
Obesity, of course, isn’t a problem only among the black population. Americans of all ethnicities and races are battling the growing bulge—29 percent of Latinos and 24 percent of whites are obese. The national obesity rate climbed to 26.1 percent in 2008, according to the CDC. And last year a record $147 billion was spent to treat obesity-related health problems because most Americans are fatter than ever, Pang said.
But African-Americans have a 51 percent higher rate of obesity than whites.
Diet issues
Catherine Lewis-Smith, director of LEWAC, a nonprofit health outreach agency that conducts educational workshops on the lower West Side and in about 25 churches on the East Side, was once overweight and has hypertension and diabetes. She got rid of the extra pounds, her illnesses are under control and she uses herself as an example to inspire other black women to get in shape.
“There’s consumption of food without thought and all of sudden their weight is out of control,” the 63-year-old said. “Fast foods and sodas have become dietary staples in a culture that no longer cooks at home, exacerbating the problem.”
Polite said she made home-cooked meals but high in fat, like fried chicken, and when she didn’t, she and her daughter would eat out at Wendy’s, McDonald’s and Burger King. She had a special weakness for strawberry milkshakes. And each year, Polite gained more weight.
Pang [Liping Pang, the epidemiologist who was the lead author of the CDC study] said there are various factors fueling the racial disparity when it comes to obesity. For one, blacks tend to have less access to fresh fruits and vegetables since their communities tend to have a plethora of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores and few supermarkets, selling fresh foods. And with many inner-cities plagued with crime, taking a healthy stroll through the neighborhood could become a safety issue. The authors of the study also found that black and Latino women tend to be more accepting and comfortable with their bodies.
“A person who is satisfied with their weight is less likely to try to exercise and try to lose weight,” Pang said.
When 20-year-old Robin Turner, who is 4-foot-10 and 160 pounds, stares into the mirror, she’s pleased.
“I love my body—my thighs, my booty,” said Turner, who is Polite’s daughter. “I like being thick; black women are just thicker. We’ve got junk in the trunk.”
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on September 1, 2009)
Comments
The obesity problem for Blacks started when they began having a higher standard of living than previously. This started in the 1970’s when they began to appropriate city, state and federal jobs through affirmative action and subsequently chased all the Whites out. It is a fact that people with a lower IQ are more likely to be obese. The first thing Blacks do - most especially Black women - when they get a little money, is to eat. Black women are more like men than women of any other race. They like being big because it gives them a feeling of “strength” as in large size equating to strength. They like feeling powerful and having so much weight helps to give them that sense of power, absurd as that sounds. Thirty, forty, fifty years ago if a 5’2” was walking around at 240 lbs. people would be abhorred, disgusted. Today, in any city one can see dozens of them and no one bats an eyelash. This has carried over to some Whites as well, especially the lower IQ ‘White trash’ sort of woman that you see occasionally with a Black man. They try so hard to be like their obese Black ‘sistas’. This obesity epidemic has consequences for us too, since obesity is the cause of so many health problems, as Blacks have been allowed to “be themselves”, WE THE WHITE MIDDLE CLASS, pay for all of this in increased healthcare costs. This is just one more price we pay for this multicultural, diversity insanity.
“I love my body—my thighs, my booty,” said Turner, who is Polite’s daughter. “I like being thick; black women are just thicker. We’ve got junk in the trunk.”
Uh, that’s what I weigh, and I’m a six foot man. And nobody calls me skinny, either.
“The numbers were already shocking: Eight out of 10 black women are either overweight or obese. But now it’s worse: 40 percent are obese.”
And you KNOW Lateesha and Monikque are NOT going to go to the gym, change their diet, and take RESPONSIBILITY for their obesity, right?
THIS is the reason health care for all is the biggest ‘freebie’ in the history of the WORLD. When people are not motivated by concern for others, but only ‘how can I get my share’ utter bankruptcy is not far away.
Still waiting for evidence that being fat is a health problem.
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20090625/study-overweight-people-live-longer
4’ 10” and 160 pounds is not “thick”, it’s downright porcine! And at only 20 years old—it’s indecent. But everytime I go downtown it’s the same thing, as a middle-aged white woman of normal porportions, I am buffeted on all sides by waves of obese brown and black women. I do see the occasional white cow in the throng, but mostly it’s dark-skinned women, who have no compunctuation about running right over the top of you if you don’t move out of their way quick.
As the rate of obesity goes up the average life expectancy will fall. Or we will be taxed to death to make sure that morbidly obese blacks get the health coverage they “deserve”. It’s called Obamacare.
“blacks tend to have less access to fresh fruits and vegetables since their communities tend to have a plethora of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores and few supermarkets, selling fresh foods.”
Well, why? Is it a reponse to a demand?
“And with many inner-cities plagued with crime, taking a healthy stroll through the neighborhood could become a safety issue.”
—————————————————
What next? How else will jounalists and researchers manage to blame it on “society”?
A black female co-worker of mine (who is also a friend) ALWAYS has meat at every meal. Greasy fried chicken, greasy fried fish, etc. Loves French fries, sodas, potato chips, candy, and any kind of junk food. Hates fruit and doesn’t like vegetables. She won’t drink milk, claiming her body can’t handle it (but strangely, she loves ice cream and milk chocolate — go figure!).
She’s getting up in years now, is oveweight, is on a lot of prescriptions, and has serious health problems. Still, she won’t change her diet for anything. I’ve tried, helpfully, to suggest to her that less meat and more fruits and vegetables would be healthier for her. It falls on deaf ears. Not interested! I might as well talk to the wall. To her, food means meat, nothing else. Fruits and vegetables are not food. And if it’s not salty, sweet, or greasy, she doesn’t want it.
She’s eating herself into the grave, just as her mother and grandmother did, but she cannot understand that. Her daughters now are following in precisely the same steps. And soon her young granddaughters will too. As an onlooker, I can see this, but she can’t. And I have to hold my tongue.
I recall, quite some time ago, sometime in the mid 1990’s (I was living in Montréal at the time), the «Montréal Gazette», an utterly wretched publication whose demise is long overdue, published an preposterous article, perhaps even an series of articles, treating the issue of black obesity, physical appearance and body image. Incredibly, the blacks who were interviewed said almost the same sorts of things. Particularly compelling was the statement, «black people are thick.»
I believe that the population of British ex - patriates, who are still, to this day, relatively numerous in the Montréal area, living in enclaves on the West Island, Deux Montagnes, and Ste Anne de Bellevue, found this comment hilarious. In the idiom of the United Kingdom, a person who is «thick» is considered stupid. A dimwit, a moron.
I think, in fact, that the Gazette may have received an number of letters to the editor (which, knowing the Gazette, were never ever printed), informing the newspaper of this. At any rate, the paper never dared print another article, or another series of articles, which treated this theme. «Black people are thick.» I should just say so. And worse.
“We’ve got junk in the trunk,”
“blacks tend to have less access to fresh fruits and vegetables”
Geeze, you mean “the man” forces them to spend their FS and WIC on processed foods? Maybe they just don’t care about eating healthy. Maybe they are built for the African feast or famine lifestyle and therefore put fat on more easily than non-blacks.
Really? Is that a fact? Or is it typical, politically correct (PC) baloney that makes excuses for blacks’ poor choices?
If blacks CHOOSE to buy more fresh fruits and vegetables instead of greasy burgers and fries, guess what?
Their communities would have plenty of stores selling whatever sells, including fresh fruits and vegetables.
I can’t stand it when the media make excuses for poor choices of stupid people.
As with all things, Blacks take zero personal responsibility for their misfortunes, shortcomings and issues, thus they either blame others(nast ‘ol Whitey) or simply re-invent the situation as a positive after all! Hence, we get the “I love my booty…we got junk in the trunk…” and all this similar Afro-culture goobeldygook. And indeed many, perhaps most Black women seem entirely happy with or even proud of their unsightly(to say nothing of unhealthy)corpulence. What a peculiar race…
Fr. John wrote — “And you KNOW Lateesha and Monikque are NOT going to go to the gym, change their diet, and take RESPONSIBILITY for their obesity, right?”
(To anyone seriously interested in losing weight, forget every lie you’ve ever been told about fat. Fats don’t make you fat. Carbohydrates make you fat. I largely gave up carbohydrates and I eat a high fat diet of oils and meats. It’s not the deep frying in fat that’s the problem, it’s the fact that fried foods are breaded (carbohydrates) and french fries are a pure carbohydrates. As counter intuitive as is seems, eat fat to lose fat.)
Anonymous wrote at 7:11 PM on September 1:
“4’ 10” and 160 pounds is not “thick”, it’s downright porcine! And at only 20 years old—it’s indecent. But everytime I go downtown it’s the same thing, as a middle-aged white woman of normal porportions, I am buffeted on all sides by waves of obese brown and black women. I do see the occasional white cow in the throng, but mostly it’s dark-skinned women, who have no compunctuation about running right over the top of you if you don’t move out of their way quick.”
There are definitely some black men who date obese white women. I sometimes wonder if black men who date those obese white women truly admire obesity in females.
If there is any black male reading this, could you please provide us with insight?
“sofita wrote at 7:09 PM on September 1:
Still waiting for evidence that being fat is a health problem.
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20090625/study-overweight-people-live-longer “
This article deals particularly with obesity, not with being overweight. Nevertheless, the study in your link admits that those who are overweight receive more treatment earlier in life, which may prolong their lives.
That being said, apart from being more attractive, maintaining a healthy physical condition produces a healthier life. Something that has been confirmed by hundreds of studies and common sense, and something your study doesn’t overlook.
What surprised me was the TV footage after Hurricane Katrina.
“… blacks tend to have less access to fresh fruits and vegetables…”
Maybe no one was interested in buying them years ago and the shopkeeper was sick of seeing them rot on the shelves, so he thought, ‘I’ll make a better living stocking ice-cream!’ And frozen burgers etc.
“…their communities tend to have a plethora of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores…”
Where I live (not USA - Australia) the number of fast food places and convenience stores in my neighbourhood is unbelievable! However, I choose not to go there and instead choose to cook at home (which I like doing) with fresh vege’s etc. I look at the price of fast food and calculate that instead of buying one greasy meal for two people, you could buy about three (or more) meal’s worth from a decent supermarket.
They go to the shop to get junk food don’t they? Excuses excuses!
When 20-year-old Robin Turner, who is 4-foot-10 and 160 pounds, stares into the mirror, she’s pleased.
There yo go. Straight from the horse’s mouth. Looks like a no-brainer!
Mr. Taylor… or whoever wrote it…
“A waist is a terrible thing to mind”?
That’s the funniest line I’ve read in ages!!! You had me in stitches!
Junk in the trunk is absolutely appropriate. It sure looks like junk to ME…
The ‘government’ (term used loosely) is never going to learn that you cannot save people from themselves. Never. Ever.
I wonder if the “lack of access” to fresh fruits and vegetables has to do with the lack of supermarkets in “da hood.”
And whose fault is that…?
The fast food places are not going to set up shop in an area where people have absolutely no money. There may be some that are next door to the local homeless shelter, but I’ve never seen one. However, there are LOTS of Fast Food places near housing projects (i.e. section 8) in the major metropolitan area near where I live. I guess shoplifting and robberies have a tendency to drive off major chain grocery stores.
The closest big box warehouse club near me has a fairly high percentage of blacks and hispanics, but I rarely see them lingering around the produce area. Is there a lack of access for cell phones (with every feature known to man), big screen tv’s, “Sprewell’s” (Big spinner rims), and Malt Liquor? In my house there is. This is similar to the argument that minorities have “less access” to the internet. Every library in America has internet thanks to the Al Gore telephone tax. Lack of motivation on your part does not make for a crisis on my part.
In 1939, well over 50% of the US would have been “below the poverty line” by today’s standards. Yet, if you see photos or movies from that era, there are hardly any fat people. Go to the local license branch to renew your license and you will see people who are so fat that they would have been circus freaks 125 years ago. Also, a typical 15 y.o. boy is now 1 -2 inches taller and 10 lbs heavier than the typical man who landed on the shores of Normandy on D-Day.
Most of our grandparents were truly poor (in a monetary sense). But is is not as if these people had absolutely no access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Most of your grocery stores in that era were not much larger than a typical convenience stores of today. This is a crisis of responsibility, not of supplies.
Obesity is something that affects all races, some races more than others. You can see loads of obese whites too.
I, however, don’t buy the excuses used. I grew up poor and lived in the city. My neighborhood was just like that of all neighborhoods in any other city. We had our fast-food joints and we had our local small corner stores. Vegetables and fruits are no harder to get in a block of city then a suburb.
Most of my white neighbours planted little gardens in their small front or back yards to supply even a small amount of tomatoes, ect. I believe obesity comes from culture and economic situation.
You’ll have blacks buying what they consider cheap fast-food, or they’ll buy discount soda, ect. I could walk or drive to my local stores. I had no more advantages than any other person black or otherwise residing in a city. Even at a fast food joint you can make right choices, they sell grilled salads and fruit cups. I use to go to my local store, instead of buying soda I would buy milk, water, jucies or V8 jucies. I always decided that eating home was healthier, so I would never eat fast food. After all, fast food really isn’t that cheaper. With 10 bucks I could buy canned vegetables, turkey, milk, and cerial that could last me for the whole day or more. I made decisions like any other city resident. Eating healthy is a choice everyone can make, even the poorest can eat healthy. Most blacks rather eat meaty greecey food than eat some veggies.
Some 55 years ago, I got sixpence a day for bus fare to school and back but I was a greedy little sod, saved the money and walked the three miles to school and back. By the time I was 20 I was a very fit athlete, 6’1” and 160 lbs. Now that I am well past retirement age I am no longer as fit, but I am still 160 lbs. I do not eat a lot of fruit and vegetable, very little in fact and I am still healthy as a horse. The only thing I never eat is fast or prepared foods. God knows what they put in it but I am sure that is the major cause of obesity.
“in the TV footage after Hurricane Katrina….I had never seen so many clinically obese women in my life, yet the the voiceover insisted on calling them ‘poor’ … for time immemorial poverty was always associated with skinniness”
To Africans seeing that footage, those massive Katrina “victims” must have been rolling in wealth! …. The wealth the white man produces for them in America.
— Howard W. Campbell wrote:
“Vegetables and fruits are no harder to get in a block of city then a suburb.”
In fact, they are probably EASIER to find in the city, as you can just go out and walk to a store down the street. Or many stores. In the suburbs you would have to DRIVE a couple of miles (or take a bus) to the nearest supermarket. That entails a whole trip.
“Most of my white neighbors planted little gardens in their small front or back yards to supply even a small amount of tomatoes, etc. You’ll have blacks buying what they consider cheap fast-food, or they’ll buy discount soda, etc.. Eating healthy is a choice everyone can make. Even the poorest can eat healthy. Most blacks would rather eat meaty, greasy food than eat some veggies.”
Another point to be made is that those little corner stores in the city, which overcharge so much, often allow their customers to buy on credit. That’s the big attraction — credit. Since blacks (and some Hispanics) are so improvident (not “poor”, but improvident!) they fail to plan ahead and are always running out of money. Thus, they are forced to buy on credit, but they end up paying much more than they would in a supermarket.
There is no reason to be obese in today’s society. I’m not buying it. We have produce stands all over my city with fresh produce that is cheap, so there is no excuse, it’s pure laziness.
Every single time my area has it’s local fair, you see the same people. Obese black people, white women with black men and mexican women all chowing down on fair food, which BTW is not cheap. They gotta have ‘dose shrimps.
When I was a little kid I had no one in my neighborhood who was fat. We were outside all day playing. We didn’t come inside until darkfall and that was only because we were hungry and dinner was ready.
Less access to fruits & vegetables?? I live in the heart of the south, and the local blacks shop the same grocery stores I do - all of which have the same produce departments when they go shopping as when I go. The produce department doesn’t vanish behind a curtain when blacks walk by… And fruits and vegetables are qualified items on food stamps. Less access?? Let’s come up with another excuse; that one doesn’t wash.
“I look at the price of fast food and calculate that instead of buying one greasy meal for two people, you could buy about three (or more) meal’s worth from a decent supermarket.”
You can buy a whole chicken, a head of cabbage for colelsaw, and a pound of rice for the price of one fast food hamburger fries soda meal about $5.00.
The chicken coleslaw and rice are 3 dinners for one person.
I’d be willing to bet a fair chunk of change that in this country whites with IQs equal to those of black Africans (80-85) have similar obesity problems here in the US. Stupidity is, after all, largely about making poor choices and being unable to resist impulsive behavior.
Ironically, I’d also be willing to bet that in grossly impoverished societies without plentiful food, those of substandard intellect tend to be underweight.
Fr. John wrote:
Don’t let the obesity and health problems of blacks (who are still just 13% of the overall population) influence your view on the health care crisis we have in this country. I’m amazed how many WN’s and race realists are against the idea of universal health coverage when practically all of the other White Western countries have some sort of public health care (and it works).
Ain’t this a kicker:
Obesity may cause brain damage
Swedish researchers recently found that adult obesity in women are more likely to lead to brain tissue loss, such as brain atrophy of the phenomenon will cause brain damage and dementia. Although this study did not explain why obesity will lead to brain tissue damage, but the researchers believe that obesity will increase with the risk of diabetes and hypertension, diabetes and hypertension will cause shrinkage of the brain injury. The study that obese women may be caused by Alzheimer’s risk factors.
Dumb, dumber, and rotunder,
“Nevertheless, the study in your link admits that those who are overweight receive more treatment earlier in life, which may prolong their lives.”
The results of the study are very clear. “Overweight” people live longer than “normal” weight people, which makes one wonder how we define “normal”. Indeed, what we think of as “normal” may actually be dangerously thin.
The article does contain a totally unproven speculation that the reason “overweight” people live longer is because they are more likely to be screened for hypertension or diabetes or other diseases than thin people, and to get treatment for those diseases. But then if that is true then the whole premise that fat people aren’t as healthy is called into question. Maybe more thin people have hypertension, we just don’t know it because they aren’t diagnosed.
“That being said, apart from being more attractive, maintaining a healthy physical condition produces a healthier life. Something that has been confirmed by hundreds of studies and common sense, and something your study doesn’t overlook.”
As for it being more attractive to be thin, you are entitled to your aesthetic preferences, but you are not entitled to demonize people who do not choose to conform to your preferences and claim that we are costing you money when in fact that is not true.
I agree that “maintaining a healthy physical condition” makes for a better quality of life, but you can be in good condition and still be fat. That much is undisputed.
I advise any white nationalist to leave this issue alone. It is divisive and irrelevant to our cause. It makes me suspicious of posters’ genuine goodwill towards all whites.
Having been a 5th grade teacher and observing the violence, bullying and intimadation tactics of blacks, I must agree with the author that black girls enjoy being big because they can use their size to overpower normal sized girls.
Adult black women use their size to shove others out of their way in public. Blacks like being big because they are essentially bullies.
Back before 1865 in the USA many Southern Blacks were very fit and trim because they only ate healthy locally raised foods and they worked hard too which meant plenty of exercise.
Now everywhere you look in The South many Blacks are some of the fattest and sickliest people around…perchance ‘liberation’ hasn’t been as great as it was supposed to be?
Numerous studies over the years have shown that black women have a better “body image” than whites; they aren’t bothered by being overweight. This is regardless of income, educational level, or economic class. I remember a black guy at a summer job I had, long ago, rhapsodizing over his obese black wife’s enormous backside. As I (a white woman) am a classic pear shape, this has been a constant issue for me. When I’m fatter, I constantly get looks/comments from black men. Believe me, I work damned hard to lose weight and stay fit - and attractive to my white husband.
My younger son is on a majority-black football team. All the black kids are not only taller than he, but outweigh him by 15-50 pounds. They also throw up all the time at practices in the Dallas area heat - either from their excess weight/poor physical condition, or the fast food burrito they got to eat on the way to practice. And the coaches all tell the kids not to have any “dairy” products during the season! My kid gets most of his protein and calcium from milk and cheese, and has never eaten a burrito (fast food or otherwise) in his life.
I’ve found that a good hard day’s work five or six days a week has kept me fairly thin no matter what I eat. I guess this could be construed as an unfair and racist comment by the minorities mentioned above. Still, the ideas of accountability, hard work, earning one’s keep, etc. is a strange concept to grasp for this particular noisy race.
However, what really depresses me is that we are supposed to be concerned that some of these folks will have a shorter life span due to their own lack of decipline. Frankly, that’s the only good part of the story.
Our world’s on fire yet we still find time to worry about the well being of those that hate us and would take everything we own if given the chance.
“the coaches all tell the kids not to have any “dairy” products during the season! My kid gets most of his protein and calcium from milk and cheese, and has never eaten a burrito (fast food or otherwise) in his life.”
“Believe me, I work damned hard to lose weight and stay fit - and attractive to my white husband.”
I just try to eat in moderation. My husband would be bored with me if I were always on a diet, cooking food that nobody likes because it has no taste.
He likes it that I am willing to go to the movies with him and share popcorn (the kind that tastes good, with butter on it) or go out for ice cream.
“However, what really depresses me is that we are supposed to be concerned that some of these folks will have a shorter life span due to their own lack of decipline. Frankly, that’s the only good part of the story.”
I guess no one read the story I posted. Actually, fat people live LONGER than so-called “normal” weight people. Higher mortality doesn’t show up until you reach into the “extremely obese” category of a BMI of 35 or higher.
I thought we Amren readers didn’t ignore statistics just because they go against conventional wisdom and political correctness.
