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/r/all"Obesity isn't an epidemic" (i.imgur.com)

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[–]chintzy 186 points187 points  (80 children)

OK I really don't want to sound racist but obesity is more prevalent among black and Hispanic communities.

Here is a neat source

Take a look at black women specifically - nearly 60 percent obese. Over 80 percent of black women are either overweight or obese.

[–]Slizzard_73 227 points228 points  (18 children)

There's nothing racist about stating facts. It's what you say after the facts that defines you.

[–]thisbaseball17 109 points110 points  (15 children)

Or more accurately, how you interpret those facts.

It's not racist to say "X% of violent crimes in America are committed by black people."

It's racist to say "X% of violent crimes in America are committed by black people because being black makes them inherently more prone to violence," because there is no data backing that skin color is linked to tendency towards violent behavior. Racism is a rejection of the scientific method.

[–]_pulsar 37 points38 points  (6 children)

On many parts if Reddit the first example will get you banned and deemed a racist. But yes I agree with you.

[–]thijsje656 7 points8 points  (4 children)

Yeah but to be honest it is Reddit we're talking about, anything you say can get you any kind of banned. Shadowbanned, banned from a sub, banned from all the subs one moderator moderates because he got extremely frustrated with your single comment, we all know the stories.

[–]aceshighsays 3 points4 points  (2 children)

In 2 years of membership, I wonder how many people are in good standing with all of reddit (ie: not get banned at all). I never say anything radical, but I do find myself getting banned from a few reddit subs and other websites (facebook, aol). I wonder what those numbers are after 5 years of membership and after 10 years of membership.

[–]radleft 2 points3 points  (1 child)

5yrs + & no bans.

Moderator (totally inactive) on 9 subs.

[–]thijsje656 [score hidden]  (0 children)

can you ban me from one of them but don't tell me and i'll forget it and get upset in a year or 2 when i find out i'm banned for a subreddit i normally wouldn't care about?

[–]mikejmarvin [score hidden]  (0 children)

I got banned from /r/wtf for calling Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton racists. I was banned for racism.

[–]Hara-Kiri 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think it depends on what order the fact is put in. If the fact is put to support a previous racist comment then it's fair to assume it's by someone racist.

[–]Slizzard_73 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah I gotcha.

[–]ch4os1337 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The issue now is people projecting. They think that people who say your first quote mean the second quote. How do we get people to take us at face value?

[–]BadGoyWithAGun 1 point2 points  (1 child)

But some people also treat the facts alone, without interpretation, as racist.

For example, I don't particularly care what the causes of black crime are - I don't need to do so to know that statistically, I should feel less safe around random black people than random people I can visually identify with. This is true regardless of what the underlying cause of criminality might be. A lot of people seem to consider this basic inference alone to be racist, as if I'm required to forget the concept of conditional probability (and/or my survival instinct) to remain "politically correct".

[–]EnlightenedNarwhal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, that's not exactly true. If you're in an area where the circumstances that lead to the higher amount of violence aren't present then you should feel no less safe around a random black person than anyone else.

[–]canteloupy 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Also, nowadays, who needs race when you can get haplogroups or even genotyping?

[–]Kandierter_Holzapfel 0 points1 point  (1 child)

You cannot see haplogroups

[–]canteloupy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure, it's handy to be able to casually discriminate people you meet, but how useful is that really when you're discussing health statistics? Even in common health practice, it's soon going to be routine to genotype disease variants in patients.

[–]Mred12 -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

You can state facts, but don't state statistics. Because statistics are bullshit.

Ex:

Person A and Person B steal a bottle of milk each to feed their growing milk addiction - 2 crimes have been committed.

The next day, buoyed by his recent success in milk theft, Person A returns to the scene of the crime and steals four bottles of milk.

If you're in the business of keeping people calm, you could say that a single crime has been committed (1 act of grand theft milk as opposed to 2 instances of milk related theft) and crime has reduced by 50%.

If you're in the business of fear mongering you could say there has been a 100% rise in milk related crime (2 bottles stolen vs 4 bottles stolen).

In both cases you'd be correct, because the statistics will show that you're correct. Because statistics are bullshit.

Sorry about that. I'm passionate about statistics.

[–]ampason 64 points65 points  (1 child)

This article on that site explains quite well why we see racial distinctions in the rate of obesity. It isn't down to genetic variation.

[–]chintzy 52 points53 points  (0 children)

I didn't mean to imply it was due to genetics, although re-reading the comment I replied to I can see how it might look like I did.

The source you posted (same website as mine) gives a great overview for why the disparity exists.

[–]jollyshitlordShitlording with a wild eyed grin 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Food is the most basic, available and cheapest form of entertainment/comfort so there is a big correlation with being socially fucked and obesity, also a big correlation with broken societies and obesity rates (why yes I'm Eurotrash how did you guess? )

[–]willmaster123 17 points18 points  (5 children)

Black and Hispanic communities haven't grown THAT much since the 70s though. People tend to overestimate how many minorities are in America, it's something like 68-70% white.

[–]chintzy 16 points17 points  (4 children)

Right, black folks are around 12 percent of the national population but the states that have the highest obesity tend to have a higher black population. Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia are all over 30 percent black wiki sauce

[–]HelperBot_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Non-Mobile link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_African-American_population

HelperBot_™ v1.0 I am a bot. Please message /u/swim1929 with any feedback and/or hate. Counter: 8496

[–]canteloupy 1 point2 points  (2 children)

That's more poverty than anything.

[–]newguyeverytime 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Poorest places in the nation are white though.

[–]canteloupy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

And they're fat too.

[–]Serviu 40 points41 points  (7 children)

It's more prevalent due to socioeconomic disparity, not race.

[–]chintzy 13 points14 points  (5 children)

Hmm, I did a cursory investigation into your claim but much of what I'm finding is saying poverty doesn't always correlate to obesity like you might think.

Do you have a source?

[–]Serviu 16 points17 points  (3 children)

http://jn.nutrition.org/content/131/3/871S.short

Lots of good links there

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1733121/pdf/v059p00670.pdf

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/4/1338.full

This one is specifically youth

[–]chintzy 10 points11 points  (2 children)

So taking a look at these sources, what they are saying is that in developing countries obesity becomes a problem due to changes in activity levels and diet, and that countries with high income inequality have more obesity.

It still doesn't answer the question of why- in the United States - there is such a disparity between the obesity rates of white people and black people. I'm not buying that it's just because a higher percentage of black people are poor than white people because the disparity is too great to be explained by that reason alone. I'm still not finding anything that answers that question but I'm sure social scientists have looked at it before.

[–]Serviu 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It's actually very accurate. It's like saying black men commit crimes more than white men and leaving it at that without factoring in history, socioeconomic status, segregation, and a myriad of factors.

The last source I will link you to, while specifically talking about women, clearly shows that socioeconomic status increases likelihood of obesity. If an overwhelmingly amount of people of a race are poor ( http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gaps-great-recession/) then of course they're going to have a higher rate of obesity. I understand it's in part culture and other factors do have an influence but a huge factor is income.

"The idea that food insecurity increases the risk of obesity may seem counterintuitive, but the present study is at least the third to confirm this association. In our study, NHW women who were food insecure without hunger were 36% more likely to be obese than food secure NHW women; women of other race/ethnicities reporting food insecurity without and with hunger had 1.5 and 2.8 times the risk of obesity, respectively, compared to their food secure counterparts. The studies of Olson and Townsend also found intermediate levels of food insecurity to be positively associated with risk for obesity or overweight (3,12). Olson categorized household food insecu- rity according to the Radimer/Cornell measure and found that mean BMI and prevalence of obesity (BMI 􏰃 29 kg/m2) were greater for women from food insecure households compared to women from food secure households. Townsend categorized household food insecurity (mild, moderate or severe) using the USDA food sufficiency indicator, and found that women from households with mild food insecurity were 30% more likely than food secure women to be overweight (BMI 􏰇 27.3 kg/m2)."

http://jn.nutrition.org/content/133/4/1070.full.pdf

[–]UCgirlCries in planes, trains, and automobiles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think finding this out would require a multiple regression examining many factors including race, parents weight, socioeconomic status, location of (real) nearby grocery stores, and cultural trends followed. And probably more factors. It's not a simple problem.

[–]UCgirlCries in planes, trains, and automobiles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe cultural norms for diets.

[–][deleted]  (31 children)

[deleted]

    [–]elzeardclym 15 points16 points  (4 children)

    Did I just watch someone die?

    [–]Hitlerdinger 5 points6 points  (3 children)

    what was it?

    [–]elzeardclym 12 points13 points  (2 children)

    A fat girl jumping in the air and landing in the splits and then twerking. And then another girl jumps over someone's head doing the same thing, only doesn't make it over them, and lands on them really hard. The person appears to be unconscious (at the least).

    [–]uberfission 2 points3 points  (1 child)

    Sounds like daggering and yes, you may have just watched someone die.

    [–]AbCynthia956 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    ...aaanndd I just googled that. Not sure how it would kill somebody, but I'm OK not knowing. TIL

    [–]Drewisawesome 3 points4 points  (0 children)

    What in the ever loving fuck was that?

    [–]maybesaydiePersonally ruining reddit for an entire year![M] 7 points8 points  (22 children)

    Fatpeoplehate went to voat. I suggest you do the same if this is your idea of an appropriate comment.

    [–]GottlobFrege 42 points43 points  (19 children)

    Didn't mean to ruffle any feathers. I read the rules before posting. What rule did I break so I know how to post going forward?

    [–]maybesaydiePersonally ruining reddit for an entire year![M] 49 points50 points  (18 children)

    We don't post pictures of people just being fat. There has to be some fatlogic to go with it. Fatlogic coming from the person involved is what we're looking for.

    [–]GottlobFrege 53 points54 points  (6 children)

    OK thanks for explaining

    [–]maybesaydiePersonally ruining reddit for an entire year! 15 points16 points  (5 children)

    You're welcome.

    [–]CAPTtttCaHA 48 points49 points  (4 children)

    This has to be the weirdest encounter I've ever seen. People being reasonable on the internet? My word.

    [–]GangrelMalkav 9 points10 points  (1 child)

    Have a cookie. It'll help you feel better

    [–]xardas_eu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    And it doesn't count because it's consolation. Actually, have two.

    [–]maybesaydiePersonally ruining reddit for an entire year![M] 14 points15 points  (1 child)

    Ayyy

    we do our best

    [–]Scarscape 3 points4 points  (0 children)

    lmao

    glad the mods actually try

    [–]Knight-of-Black -2 points-1 points  (10 children)

    Isn't the fact that they are fat in the first place showing that fat logic is available presently within that person.

    Fatception.

    [–]Tuub4 4 points5 points  (7 children)

    Not really, no.

    [–]Knight-of-Black -3 points-2 points  (6 children)

    So you're saying only some fat people are capable of committing or possessing fat logic

    Seems like fat logic.

    [–]carorea 4 points5 points  (0 children)

    Fatlogic is when they try to pass it off as healthy/natural/good/etc to be fat though, or get offended by anything related to weight.

    As an example, one of my best friends is pretty overweight. He doesn't care if you say he's fat, he doesn't try to justify it, encourage people to be fat, or blame it on some condition. He knows it isn't healthy or natural, and he knows it's because he eats a lot, but he just doesn't feel like putting in the effort to change it (though when I am around him I'll occasionally encourage him to go to the gym in supportive ways if it is relevant).

    He doesn't have any problems involving fat logic.

    [–]Tuub4 2 points3 points  (4 children)

    You seem to be saying it's impossible for a fat person to lack fatlogic until they pass a certain threshold of BF% or BMI or whatever, when they aren't fat anymore.

    You're trying way too hard to sound intelligent.

    [–]Knight-of-Black -1 points0 points  (3 children)

    If this is what someone trying to look intelligent looks like to you then I pity you.

    You seem to be saying it's impossible for a fat person to lack fatlogic until they pass a certain threshold of BF% or BMI or whatever, when they aren't fat anymore.

    Yes. Some sort of train of thought or behavior put them past that threshold of BF% or BMI.

    [–]maybesaydiePersonally ruining reddit for an entire year![M] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    No, that's not the way we do it. We prefer that we don't get banned by the reddit admins.

    [–]phukka 7 points8 points  (1 child)

    Reddit caved to pressure from people with legitimate conditions to stop hating on something that is entirely controllable.

    [–]maybesaydiePersonally ruining reddit for an entire year![M] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

    And yet here we are, trying to keep this sub available. We're following their rules because we're on their site.

    [–]cityguy01 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Great point

    [–]sniffing_accountant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    What the hell...

    [–]ozzymustaine 2 points3 points  (1 child)

    But wanna know something ?

    It seems black people have a less tendency to be fat . I mean most of the young black people I see are athletic . And don't get me started on the ones I train at the gym . They seem to have very good genetics when it comes to lose fat and gain muscle .

    I live in Europe and its uncommon to see fat black people .

    Sometimes I wish I was black so I could get that leanness I train so hard to achieve ...teheh.

    [–]JPZ__ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    But that's completely incorrect.

    [–]OfficialKimJongFun 4 points5 points  (0 children)

    That's not racist. It's just the facts.

    [–]James_Locke 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Why are more black women obese than overweight? Thats a pretty crazy skew, you would think that it would be more of a bell curve but whoa...

    [–]kersey79 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    It's more of a poverty / less access to education issue which is over represented by minorities especially in the still very-segregated bible belt.

    [–]ericchen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Not only that, but blacks at a similar BMI to an otherwise equivalent white person are also at higher risk for diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and dyslipidemia.

    [–]PixelsAreYourFriends 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    ....but....South dragging nation down....we're not racist...../s

    [–]A_600lb_Tunafish [score hidden]  (0 children)

    That's a cultural/economic problem.

    [–]ILoveSunflowers 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    it doesn't sound racist, people of those ethnic backgrounds have been systematically marginalized

    [–]TheEternalThrowaway 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    The correlation between race and obesity exists because of the correlation between race and poverty.

    [–]sla_oracle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    It's linked to poverty if you see compare poor white people to poor black people, and the same for rich people. You'll see the trend to be near exact. It's just that there are more poor non-whites.