“It’s not the Klu Klux Klan killing [black folks]. It’s a hamburger and fries.”
~ some man on the Cousin Jeff Chronicles (y’all have seen the BET commercial)

So, did the hamburger jump in your mouth? Did the fries run you down a dark alley and force themselves upon your gut? I wasn’t aware that Pepsi was burning crosses on people’s lawns in 2005. So tell me how the HELL the epidemic of obesity is killing black people like a white supemacist terrorist group.

I seriously take offense to that because it’s such an *UGH* statement. I don’t even have an adjective for it… only an exasperated sigh. People are fat because they eat a lot and don’t move. There are a lot of fat people in America. Some of them are black, and some of them are white. I daresay that this might be one area where we all are right on par with each other. So what is this big argument about fatness and black people (especially poor black people)? It’s not about race, it’s not about class… its about YOUR LAZY FAT ASS!

Black cuisine in America has remained pretty much unchanged since, like, slavery. We love delicious, fried, fatty, grease laden stuff. We eat fatback and chitlins and leafy green vegetables stewed with bacon strips. We save grease drippings and use them as a flavoring aid. I’ve eaten more than one mayonaise or sugar sandwich in my day, and that was in the lean time. But if I’m not mistaken, my grandma cooked the same stuff for her kids. And her grandma cooked the same for hers. So the diet obviously isn’t the problem?it’s that instead of being locked outside after breakfast, coming back for lunch, and having to be dragged back in at dinner, I spend more than 8 hours a day in front of one kind of screen or another and eat my fatty dinner in the chair I’ve been sitting in all day. Before my generation, there were “school clothes” and “play clothes” because playing required going outside and doing active things that would get your clothes dirty. That’s why kids?all races of kids?are growing fatter and fatter every year.

“But they fill the hoods with fast-food restaurants, and healthy food is so expensive. Low income people can’t afford to eat healthily on limited incomes.”

The last time I checked, a steady diet of fast food is much more expensive than comprehensive grocery shopping. The cost of 2 Happy meals will fund enough ingredients to feed a family of four and maybe have some leftovers. Ramen noodles are about the cheapest food the world has ever known, and trust me– they will not get you fat.

And struggling with obesity doesn’t even sound like a problem that poor people should have. Think about it. If you’re low on disposable income, you might be taking public transportation, so you should be walking at least a little bit from bus stop to bus stop. If you’re living in a tenement you damn sure shouldn’t have any video games or high speed internet, so what the heck are you sitting in the house for (ain’t too much to watch on air tv)? There’s your daily exercise right there. So clearly, if you’re poor and fat, you have way too much going on in your life. Prioritize much?