Unfortunately, the focus of the class will be "...examines fatness as an area of human difference subject to privilege and discrimination that intersects with other systems of oppression based on gender, race, class, sexual orientation, and ability."
To me, that is a tragedy; an epic waste of an opportunity.
Historically, Black people have struggled with obesity and secondary syndromes like diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary disease, strokes, maternal mortality and so on. These are not trivial issues!
If University of Maryland had given me the task of developing the class, I would have discussed the climate in the parts of Africa where the progenitors of today's African-Americans came from, specifically southern Togo, Benin, Nigeria and western Cameroon. Very humid. Very hot. Grain rots or germinates in storage. Sweet potatoes have limited shelf-life. The only sure way to store calories was to save it as body-fat. It climates where famines are frequent, many people are genetically endowed with something call "the thrifty gene".
I would have discussed the food culture of America Blacks. What is soul-food? What are the least expensive sources of flavor (hint, fats, salt and spices)? What was the cuisine of poor, rural Whites in the south circa 1870?
What are the economics of present-day food distribution? What kinds of foods have the highest profit margins and how does retail theft impact an outlet's ability to deliver low-margin foods and foods with short shelf-life or require special on-shelf treatment or large "footprints"? What are those low-margin and special treatment foods?
I would discuss the exercise culture of second-generation immigrants. Typically, the primary breadwinner (first generation) worked a physically arduous job and collapse on the couch. There was a dearth of roll-models of Dad or Mom going out for a run or kayaking or playing pickle-ball after work. Sadly, Black Americans are trapped at the second generation stage.
I would survey the students in the class on what enablers would be required to make their neighborhoods safe to exercise in. Traffic? Crime? Lack of social support? No parks? Needles, broken glass and other Sharps? Then I would ask them to brainstorm solutions. If nobody has a bicycle, maybe bike-lanes should be rebranded as "running lanes".
I would also delve into the less-tangibles. Medea Benjamin, author of No Free Lunch wrote about the lingering legacy of slavery where Black Cubans found any social cue associated with slavery (imagined or real) to be repulsive. He stated that a Black Cuban would wait 20 minutes in the sun for a bus to show up rather than walk three blocks because "slaves" walked everywhere. Black Cubans would spend three times as much for rice as they would for corn grits because slaves ate corn. How much of Black Americans' aversion to sweating is related to associations of hoeing cotton in mid-summer?
There ARE positives that can be leveraged. Caribbean cultures make extensive use of vegetables in their cooking. Many cities with Black majorities are centers of fusion-cuisine where herbs and spices from many traditions are swirled together to produce novel flavors. There are many fantastic athletes from African countries and they are not all "power" athletes. The world's greatest marathon runners are from Ethiopia and Kenya.
The problem with viewing this issue through the lens of "victimology" is that it disempowers the people with the greatest incentive to make changes.
And that is a wasted opportunity.
The other thing is the amount of processed/junk foods blacks tend to consume vs. other cultures.
ReplyDeleteThat is at least partially due to the high profit margins and long shelf-life of those foods making them economically viable in high cost, high "shrinkage" retail outlets.
DeleteThose foods become the cultural norm, just like "orange drank".
Skittles iz a food group....................
DeleteYour class, ERJ, would be worthy of the time invested; this one appears to be yet more "reinforcing of victimhood"
ReplyDeleteBoat Guy
You are correct, however the Communist/Marxists running the revolution from the universities don't want data driven no-nonsense solutions. They're trying to indoctrinate permanent victimhood into their students.
ReplyDeleteWhen the paradigm doesn't add up, doesn't mesh with the observable actions, its the paradigm that is wrong. They aren't reaching for knowledge and higher learning at Universities anymore. Haven't for a long time.
“ The problem with viewing this issue through the lens of "victimology" is that it disempowers the people…”
ReplyDeleteNonsense, Joe. It’s an attempt at EMPOWERMENT and sadly - it works. If you study the shitlib degenerate and their intellectual derelicts as I have been forced to do … at unhealthy close ranges - you’d see that victimology isn’t exactly what’s going on here.
Intersectionality is the game. As we have seen, the various official victim groups are proliferating as the white guilt grift enters its final stages. The groups are starting to collide and conflict as their status and credibility goes into steep decline. Intersectionality is an effort to assign the various group a place on the Grievance Totem Pole… and stupid fat black women are making their play. That’s what these fake theses and studies are all about. That, and vengeance. The Z-Man used to do hilarious reviews of such fake academics, calling it “Xirl Science”. The authors of such claptrap studies were often sexual degenerates, poorly spoken and struggled with literacy and numeracy… and were treated with fawning adoration by other fake academics and intellectuals in the liberal arts.
I suspect the questions you have could easily be answered by any competent dietician willing to speak informally and off the record. The second you introduce race or gender vectors to such studies, powerful social justice warriors in the professions will destroy you if your science dares to challenge their narratives.
Reality, Darwin and Murphy will eventually deal with those people, but for now, if you don’t respect their power and influence in professional settings they will bring it to bear on you and you will regret it.
Most excellent !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThey would see it as you dismissing their victimhood.
ReplyDeleteTelling people that they are the issue, and that THEY can fix the problem?
Blasphemy.
It is the White Man's Fault. Because Slavery. Oppressions.
They are the only ones who CAN fix their problem.
DeleteUnless the goal is a shake-down for easy money.
Winner winner chicken dinner!!
DeleteI saw some dumb documentary awhile back written by a black author, forget his name. It was all about how his dad died of a heart attack and it was all us mighty-whities fault because slavery. The old man worked for Ford, retired, gained a ton of weight, and had a heart attack. Dog bites man stuff. Many such cases, my dad for one. Their diets were horrible, and when a guy isn't as active (like not working in a factory) but keeps the same diet, they bloat up. If memory serves, he died at 70, like many of my dad's generation. Most black men I've worked with had horrible diets. May too much salt, way too many carbs, too much processed and fast food. Doesn't take much study. Simply walk through a Golden Corral and note what they are eating.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest the level of obesity in white Americans is much higher than their European equivalents. This would indicate slavery has nothing to do with body mass.
ReplyDeleteVirtually all of these negative issues exist due to the MASSIVE abundance of material goods, especially food, that capitalism and modern society has made possibile. And this situation, like the peaceful prosperous world most of us have assumed to be the normal way of life is actually a precarious and most likely temporary condition. Historically modern America is bizarre aberration compared to about 99% of human history.
ReplyDelete