'Fat-phobia is rooted in anti-Blackness': CBS News looks at the racial origins of fat stigma

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).

Taylor Mooney reports:

… 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.”

"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