When you think about it, the New York Times’ 1619 Project meant to reframe all of American history through the lens of slavery didn’t need to be written; mainstream media outlets have been doing that job under the radar for a while now. We’ve already heard at least three takes on how national parks and camping are racist, and we think we reached the peak when Teen Vogue interviewed two women going under the name Black Power Naps who argued that systemic racism was present in sleep and that sleep deprivation was inherited from slavery.
Now CBS News is not only reporting on something called fat-phobia but its racist origins as well.
The racial origins of fat stigma https://t.co/frCnPi98na
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 20, 2020
The whole story relies on one person as a source: Sabrina Strings, a sociology professor (of course it’s a college professor).
… Strings says that many of these ideas were taken up by Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the U.S. in the 19th century.
“What they wanted to do was show that they were both morally upright and racially proper, in the way in which they ate and how they maintained their figures,” said Strings. “And so, they were very clear that to be of the elite race and to be a Christian peoples means that you need to show what they would call temperance in the face of food — or restraint is the way we might think of today — because if you did not show temperance, that was evidence that you were one of the savages, and also, that you were un-Christian.”
…
“We cannot deny the fact that fat-phobia is rooted in anti-Blackness. That’s simply an historical reality,” she said. “Today, when people talk about it, they often claim that they don’t intend to be anti-Black … they don’t intend all of these negative associations, and yet they exist already, so whenever people start trafficking in fat-phobia, they are inherently picking up on these historical forms of oppression.”
Um, yeah we can deny it.
Journalism in 2020 folks
— Josh Smith (@josh_smith2002) August 20, 2020
I am dumber having read this.
— JoseCanusee (@josecanusee512) August 20, 2020
I just……i can't……i mean it's so…..i actually can't do this any more……i'm done.
— Matt (@mj_5891) August 20, 2020
Oh gawd. Just when you think race could not possibly be injected into yet one more thing, here comes another “scholar” to prove you wrong. Exhausting, I tell you you, exhausting.
— Mary Anne Bailey (@chattamab) August 20, 2020
Oh, honestly. ? ?
— A Momo (@mlbcrick) August 20, 2020
How can health not be the main angle on an article like that?
— Mark Burlison (@TheBurlison) August 20, 2020
Wake up. It's 2020. We have bigger fish to fry, like proving we're Woke Left.
— Cuppa Joe (@joecuppa) August 20, 2020
The health risks linked to obesity are mentioned in the space of less than one sentence.
Heart disease is a social construct, apparently.
— Jefé (@PequenoJefe) August 20, 2020
"Fatness wasn't always culturally undesirable in the Western world. For centuries, being heavier was actually considered an attractive characteristic".
Yes, and then modern medicine learned more about heart disease, diabetes, sleep apnea, hypertension, etc.
Clown world ?
— Gunter Sharp (@GunterSharp) August 20, 2020
Health, it’s what stigmatized fat.
— Steve Macy (@SteveMacy4) August 20, 2020
Also, attractiveness.
I promise… people would prefer the 200 pound version of me from 15 years ago over the 240 pound version of today.
— Just James (@NoMassAppeal) August 20, 2020
Oh my god ?
— Alan Garcia 93 (@GcAlan1093) August 20, 2020
Fire the author.
— S Achtor (@Swachtor) August 20, 2020
So much for science.
— Syrah Shiraz (@Syrah_Shiraz) August 20, 2020
Left wing "academics"…. are not real scientists or real philosophers or really honest.
— Wild Wild Westcountry (@BristolComSense) August 20, 2020
Enough.
— JohnZUSA (@JohnZUSA1) August 20, 2020
OMG, give it a rest.
— Miranda Veracruz de la Hoya Cardinal ◼️ (@RW_Crank) August 20, 2020
Just stop.
— Katherine McKinney (@Katheri39354668) August 20, 2020
Man, that was painful to read.
— Kenny (@unclekennyken) August 20, 2020
Everything is racist, part 347
— Mr. Jeremy Turner ?? (@MrJeremyTurner) August 20, 2020
"One scholar" says something absolutely ludicrous and CBS News decides it's worthy of an article. Man, it pays to be woke these days.
— The Middle Indian (@TheMiddleIndian) August 20, 2020
Time to add to the growing list of things that are racist, like master bedrooms and math.
Related:
‘Sleep is racist’: Teen Vogue explains how two women are addressing systemic racism in sleep https://t.co/J4POpnqliq
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) July 16, 2020
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