The Racist Roots of Fighting Obesity

Black women have also been identified as the subgroup with the highest body mass index (BMI) in the U.S., with four out of five classified as either "overweight" or "obese." Many doctors have claimed that black women's "excess" weight is the main cause of their poor health outcomes, often without fully testing or diagnosing them. While there has been a massive public health campaign urging fat people to eat right, eat less and lose weight, black women have been specifically targeted.

Perhaps — just spitballing here — perhaps black women have been specifically targeted by public health campaigns addressing obesity because, as the author says earlier in the same paragraph, "Black women have also been identified as the subgroup with the highest body mass index."

Just a thought?

The next sentence is just *chef's kiss*:

This heightened concern about their weight is not new; it reflects the racist stigmatization of black women's bodies.

To be clear: The Scientific American is telling you that the most obese subgroup in the U.S. is black women, and that concern about the health implications of obesity — championed by folks like, say, Michelle Obama — "reflects the racist stigmatization of black women's bodies."

LINK