Foolishness in black and white

The New York Times recently published an article by Alice Randall, who is an educator at Vandervilt, claiming that "four out of five black women are seriously overweight" because, among other reasons, it's "a part of black culture" to be fat. It's a conscious choice they make. She claims that many black men worry that their women's weight will drop below 200 pounds.

They're also making a political statement. A "...fat black woman can be a rounded opposite of the fit black slave." Their fatness is "an explicit political statement and active political resistance."

To her credit, she goes on to say that the black community is in crisis and that weight reduction needs to be made a priority. But I am aghast at this foolish intellectualization of the problem. Only an academic would come up with this kind of dizzy, misguided logic. I'm going to take a walk down to the Fulton Mall in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and ask the fattest black woman I can find if she's worried that losing weight will remind her of slavery.

The quasi-liberal in me is squirming at my keyboard. I've been conditioned to feel that any criticism of the black community equates to racism. Here in New York, you can be the most ardent supporter of Israel (Which I am. It's the only true Democracy in the middle east) but if you hazard to suggest that, perhaps, the West Bank land grab isn't in anyone's best interest, you're made to feel like an anti-Semite. Pretty clever.

The EXACT SAME DAY, the Times printed an article about Katherine Ziegler, who is a Wantologist. Do you know what Wantology is? Wantology is a new psychological practice that therapists and life coaches apply to help their patients figure out what they want in life. Through this miracle of science, "Dr." Ziegler was able to help one of her clients figure out that she wanted a bigger house.

The whole idea of a life coach has always made me kind of snicker, and this Wantology scam is the cherry on top. Do you know who has the disposable income and free time to employ life coaches and Wantologists? Wealthy, white, navel-gazers on the upper east side who have it so soft and easy that they can afford the luxury of introspection. Can you imagine things going so well that you got the blues because you couldn't figure out what you wanted in life? Personally, I'm too busy trying to insure that the mortgage gets paid on time. Once again, the Times distinguishes itself.

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This canine has stolen my daughters away from me. I still don't have any warm feelings towards her, but I'm trying.