Anti-Racism Resources - August 2024
Image description: On a turquoise background is an illustration of three raised fists signifying people of color. Above the image is the text “Anti-Racism Resources August 2024” and below is the text “The Intersection of Racism and Anti-Fatness.”
Each month, we feature educational resources in the NAAFA Newsletter to support our community in working to dismantle systemic racism. These resources are also shared on our social media, blog, and website. Resources vary from month to month, and may include historical information, tools for personal reflection, or information about how to get involved and make change. Many of the resources we suggest will be introductory resources, and this information is never intended to be full coverage on the complex and nuanced topics that are chosen each month. We encourage you to continue learning, and we especially hope you will seek out and support scholars, artists, creators, and activists who represent the communities most impacted by the topic of the month.
This month we invite you to join us in exploring resources about The Intersection of Racism and Anti-Fatness.
Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” to describe how race, class, gender, and other characteristics overlap and compound systemic discrimination and inequality in society. She said, “Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects.” When we talk about the intersection of racism and anti-fatness, we look at the ways anti-fatness is experienced by people who also face racism and the ways racism is experienced by people who also face anti-fat bias.
We hope you’ll find these articles, books, podcasts, and videos helpful as you seek to understand and/or share with others about this topic.
Fat Phobia And Its Racist Past and Present (NPR) - This short 2020 NPR piece features an interview with Dr. Sabrina Strings, author of Fearing the Black Body, about how anti-fatness stems from anti-Black racism. This CBS piece, also from 2020, also interviews the author and explores themes and findings from her book. You can hear more from Dr. Strings in NAAFA's webinar Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Roots of Fat Phobia.
How Racism and Fatphobia Intersect (The Rundown Podcast) - In this short episode of The Rundown Podcast, Erin Allen talks with Sarah Stark, a freelance producer who launched the “Bias Against Bodies” series on WBEZ’s daily talk show, “Reset.”
The Racial Language of Fatphobia (Anthropology News) - There are linguistic connections between dietetics, anti-fatness, and racism. This article outlines how words being used within fat community—or as they say, the "fat politics movement"—are being co-opted by the diet industry and dietitians, thereby stigmatizing fatness and engaging in and profiting from anti-Blackness.
Dismantle Anti-Fatness (Reimagined) - Reimagined, formerly Anti-Racism Daily, looks at the history of anti-fatness and its role in "state-sanctioned violence" today in this thoughtful and well-researched article.
Anti-Blackness, Anti-Fatness, and Food Shaming (Clinical Problem Solvers) - This podcast episode highlights the culture of food shaming and anti-fatness as it relates to anti-Blackness. Featured is Da’Shaun L. Harrison, an author, community organizer, and trans theorist, and Dr. Psyche A. Williams-Forson, an author and chair of the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland. The speakers offer context around the history of anti-Blackness and how it is deeply intertwined with the culture around eating in America as well as the way anti-fatness manifests. Further, they expand on this to discuss how it relates to policing and the court systems in the U.S. Be sure to visit the NAAFA webinar with Harrison about their book, Belly of the Beast: Anti-fatness as Anti-Blackness.
Fat Girls in Black Bodies by Joy Arlene Cox, PhD is a book about combating anti-fatness and racism to reclaim a space for fat, Black women who face concern trolling and abuse online and in-person. Black women have historically been left out of feminism and fat liberation, despite their intense labor for these causes. Cox’s book combines research, community interviews and stories, and personal history.
Ask a Fat Girl: Fatphobia and Racism (Teen Vogue) - Content note: discusses police violence against Black individuals. This columnist who takes reader questions about living in a fat body answers an inquiry about the role body size plays in justifying violence against Black people, sharing the story of Eric Garner and others whose fat bodies were blamed for their death at the hands of police.
How the Use of BMI Fetishizes White Embodiment and Racializes Fat Phobia (AMA Journal of Ethics) - This is an article by Sabrina Strings (author of Fearing the Black Body) on how BMI is based in eugenics and white supremacy. This research article is relatively short, about a 10-minute read.
How Sarah Baartman’s hips went from a symbol of exploitation to a source of empowerment for Black women (FIU News) - This article goes into the history of Sarah Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman who was tricked into becoming a spectacle because of the way her body is shaped. The author interviewed 30 Black women about whether the “Baartman ideal” (the author’s words) is empowerment or exploitation.
Black voices, Black bodies: Life in the age of Ozempic (STAT News) - This piece combines first person accounts and beautiful photographs to introduce us to fourteen Black Americans. Through their words and some of their own art we get a window into what it feels like to be Black and fat as new weight loss “treatments” dominate the news media. Includes the “o” words and some mention of intentional weight loss, but is a rich portrait of the lived experiences of the subjects, including NAAFA’s own Tigress Osborn.
Fat Mutha: Hip-Hop's Queer Corpulent Poetics by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan (2013) - This academic paper is a decade old, but still relevant in how it examines the intersections of Blackness, queerness, and fatness in late 20th century hip hop, particularly in regards to female rappers like Missy Elliot, Queen Latifah, and Heather B.
