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Why Did Weight Become the Scapegoat for Health Issues?: A Q&A with Sabrina Strings, PhD

By Sabrina Strings — 2020

When the associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine examined current assumptions around body fat, she found them to be overly simplistic and lacking in evidence. For example, there are numerous examples of what the medical establishment calls overweight or obesity being associated with better health outcomes compared to underweight or normal weight. And an examination of 17 million health records revealed that the increased risk of dying from COVID-19 among Black people is not explained by obesity or diabetes. In her book, Fearing the Black Body, Strings shows how slavery and racism have shaped common views of body fat and its health consequences. Her work underscores why it’s imperative that poor health outcomes are traced to their structural and social roots and not blamed on individual choices.

Read on goop.com

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The Legacy of Audre Lorde

There is this thing that happens, all too often, when a Black woman is being introduced in a professional setting. Her accomplishments tend to be diminished. The introducer might laugh awkwardly, rushing through whatever impoverished remarks they have prepared.

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The Past Is a Very Living Thing: Try Not to Forget It

The Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers petition to Pope Benedict XVI asking to revoke the three papal bulls authorizing the conversion and subjugation of the Indigenous Peoples of America.

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The History that James Baldwin Wanted America to See

As both James Baldwin and Martin Luther King, Jr., insisted, America is an identity that white people will protect at any cost, and the country’s history—its founding documents, its national heroes—is the supporting argument that underpins that identity.

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Q&A with the Rev. William Barber, Building “Fusion Coalition” that Unites People Against Poverty

Barber makes clear his belief that the role of Christians is to call for social justice and allow the “rejected stones” of American society—the poor, people of color, women, LGBTQIA people, immigrants, religious minorities—to lead the way.

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American Democracy Cannot Breathe

Yes, we must radically transform policing in America. But we cannot stop there. We must transform the pervasive systems of economic and carceral injustice that are choking our common life.

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Misty Copeland Says Ballet Industry Is ‘Extremely Behind’ on Racial Equality, Justice

Misty Copeland is speaking out about racial injustice and inequality in ballet.

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‘What I Know’: A Black Woman’s Words

“Being Black overrides everything for me. Nothing is as thunderous in my life as racism. It seems to eclipse everything. It’s the repetitiveness of it. And the fact that it comes from every corner and nook.”

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Racism