I'm so sorry. This is going to be a long post.
Before I elaborate on the question, here are some factors that I see as a given:
- Processed food (junk/fast food) is scientifically designed to be addictive and calorie-dense. It also tends to be fast (no cooking required) as well as cheap.
- Minorities and poor people are more likely to have worse health/nutrition education in schools.
- In poor neighborhoods, cheap fast food places are very easily accessible.
- Many times, minorities/poor people don't have the luxury of an office 9-5 job/white collar/salaried position with benefits. Many times, there are unconventional work schedules and juggling of multiple jobs.
- In weight loss/fitness communities, there are often talks about personal accountability, personal responsibility, "there are no excuses," and "if you're obese, it's ultimately your responsibility."
So... basically... If minorities/poor people are disproportionately targeted with cheap, addicting, calorie-dense junk food and are not taught about health/nutrition in public schools, is obesity still their fault/responsibility? Why or why not?
My thoughts for "it's NOT minority/poor people's responsibility for their obesity":
- Society has made it way too easy for minorities/poor people to get hooked onto cheap junk food. It makes sense that more minorities/poor people are obese. If using hyperbolic language, it's normal for minorities/poor people to be fat because the deck is stacked against them in multidimensional ways.
- Bullet point #5 can be expanded a bit to say that, on top of the fitness/weight loss community, ex-fat people (a lot of us here) especially tend to have "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mindset, which is a mindset that many social justice-oriented people agree are problematic because it shifts societal, systemic failures onto individuals.
My thoughts for "yes, obesity is ultimately always that individual's responsibility"
- Information is so widely available nowadays with the internet, so lack of public school's nutrition education isn't an excuse--especially when reaching a certain weight, certain amount of visceral fat, health issues from obesity and being overweight.
So what do you all think?
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