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Harvard Doctor Claims Racism and Obesity Are Inextricably Linked

Harvard Doctor Claims Racism and Obesity Are Inextricably Linked

“Is obesity a manifestation of systemic racism? A ten-point strategy for study and intervention”

This is just further proof that the left sees racism everywhere. And this is coming out of Harvard? Sad.

Boston.com reports:

Racism and obesity are inextricably linked, says a Harvard doctor – and here’s how she thinks that can change

Systemic racism plays a significant role when it comes to Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) experiencing obesity, according to a recent article by two experts from Harvard.

And the interlocking of the two issues is far reaching, the article says. It includes the ongoing stress that goes along with experiencing racism, and statistics that show that businesses like dollar stores, which sell highly processed foods, crop up in poor and minority neighborhoods. The makers of these foods also engage in “disproportionate marketing” toward BIPOC, particularly Black and Hispanic kids.

The article, titled “Is obesity a manifestation of systemic racism? A ten-point strategy for study and intervention,” recently appeared in the Journal of Internal Medicine, and was co-authored by Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician, scientist, policy maker and educator who works at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr. Daniel Aaron, an attorney with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a fellow at Harvard Law School, and a member of The Justice Initiative, a partnership between Harvard Law School and Howard University School of Law that works toward racial justice.

Dr. Stanford is devoted to examining obesity and its nuances, in order to understand the biases surrounding not just obesity but also race, she said in a recent interview with Boston.com.

“The two most common forms of bias in the United States are race bias, which is by far the most common, followed by weight bias,” she said, noting that she wanted to “delve deep” when looking at these issues. “In this particular article, I begin to explore some of these connections, and explore how there is a big interplay between weight, and weight bias, and weight stigma and race and its disproportionate impacts, particularly on Black women.”

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Comments

The Friendly Grizzly | September 23, 2021 at 12:24 pm

Oh, please…!

So I’m overweight because I’m white?

    The Friendly Grizzly in reply to irv. | September 23, 2021 at 1:15 pm

    Yes. You have more to eat because white neighborhoods don’t have food deserts and also because you vote against more welfare for the colored people of color. Look at how skinny they are, you racist.

    Or something.

    henrybowman in reply to irv. | September 23, 2021 at 7:11 pm

    No, that’s not what the study says. It say that blacks are overweight because whites force them to survive on Twinkies, Doritos, and Apu’s roller weiners, by siting only Dollar Trees and Circle Ks in their neighborhoods instead of Salad To Go outlets and Trader Joeses’.

    Further study is indicated to determine why blacks are helplessly dependent upon whites to provide them markets instead of establishing their own healthy markets; why they buy so much heat-and-eat box and can food at traditional supermarkets instead of “ingredients,” and how often they sit down to actual family breakfasts that don’t involve a Captain, a vampire, or a Flintstone.

      The Friendly Grizzly in reply to henrybowman. | September 23, 2021 at 8:05 pm

      Interesting you bring up Trader Joe’s. They were set to build a store in the part of Portland populated most heavily by blacks.

      All was going well until the Reverends and other troublemakers stepped in with demands for black contractors, demands for a percentage of black employees, demands for this, demands for that.

      Trader Joe’s said “no”, ceased their plans, and walked away.

        Of course, then the Reverends and troublemakers immediately organized all the available blacks they wanted hired, and made plans to erect their own Trader D’Shaun’s. When is it opening?

          The Friendly Grizzly in reply to henrybowman. | September 24, 2021 at 7:51 am

          As soon as all the bullet-proof plexiglass dividers can be ordered for the service counters. Due to supply chain issues, the bearings used on the carousel – style pass-throughs for money and merchandise are in short supply.

      Antifundamentalist in reply to henrybowman. | September 24, 2021 at 9:40 am

      “Further study” isn’t really required. All anyone needs to do is to go back and listen to the speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He laid it all out more than half a century ago. And when you apply what he had to say to all races, It is pretty clear that he was not wrong. However, today, if you say what he said, you’re a racist. Because no one wants to hear the truth.

It couldn’t have anything to do with genetic differences between racial groups. Dollar stores show up where they believe their customers are. This is not nefarious. If there were no dollar stores at all they’d be accused of being racist.

    The Friendly Grizzly in reply to randian. | September 23, 2021 at 1:16 pm

    My town is 5% “vibrant” but we have plenty of dollar stores.

      We have a town close to us named Congress (and yes, their town library gets lots of phone calls from idiots). If there is anybody but white and hispanic people there, I’ve never seen any.
      Up until about seven years ago, they survived with an average of two diner/restaurants, an on-again-mostly-off-again general store, and if you wanted gas, meds, or serious groceries, you had to drive 20 minutes to the “big town” (almost defeated the purpose of getting gas).
      Today, they have their own gas station with a Shell mini-mart and a Family Dollar. The residents there are ecstatic. And, to my observation, no fatter than they were 20 years ago.

Hmmm..the entirety of the south/southwest must be considered low income to her then. I’ve never lived in a place where I couldn’t find a dollar store relatively closeby.

The Friendly Grizzly | September 23, 2021 at 4:53 pm

Harvard… more and more a punch-line and less and less a college.

Wouldn’t this argument work better on a class basis? That poor folk buy junk food and thus organisations benefiting from such sales target such areas and populations?

In Mexico for instance obesity is a real problem because poor people can afford junk food but not healthy food, and thus their girth grows.

    henrybowman in reply to George_Kaplan. | September 23, 2021 at 7:28 pm

    It would indeed, if our Marxists were classical Marxists. But Classical Marxism doesn’t sell well in a society where even the worst off among us are better off than the best off in many other countries. That’s what CRT is all about — tailoring class warfare into race warfare even the most classless society has races.

I’m suffering under the effects of systemic racism. In the past 10 years, I’ve gained 30 pounds and gotten a beer belly.

I used to think it was just because I was eating too much high-calorie food and drinking too much beer. Now, I feel much better knowing it’s not my fault, and that I’m just another victim of those awful racists.

I used to think I could lose the weight by eating and drinking less high-calorie food, so that gave me something to work toward. But now that I know that It’s systemic racism that made me fat, I can’t control that, and losing the weight is hopeless. So go ahead and super-size that order, and bring me a pitcher of beer.

Does she ever mention the fact that when such stores are placed in minority neighborhoods that they usually close within a few years due to looting, shoplifting, robbery, burglary and other violent crime? Of course not. Or does she mention that stores who do offer fresh produce see it not sold, but spoiled on the shelf or just rotting away?

Take a look at the woman’s biography at the Mass General website. She’s never had an honest privately employer job in her life. It’s always been at someone else’s largesse and not based on her own entrepreneurial efforts. Everything she has was handed to her on a silver platter from some charitable organization. To say that her perceptions of reality are grossly delusional is a big understatement

I’ll listen if she mentions racist cities where they cannot have a Walmart. 4$ at the Mart buys about a week’s worth of broccoli and cauliflower.