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In 2007, African-Americans suffer grievously from the effects of obesity. For our Industrialized Nation, the deaths of tens of thousands are inexcusable results of four, main contributors: 1) Our nation tolerates a poor diet by substituting healthy fruits, vegetables and grains for foods treated with chemicals and additives. 2) Inner-city communities are laden with advertisements geared at smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. 3) Urban neighborhoods lack after-school and summer programs that promote physical fitness, teamwork and positive self-esteem. 4) Negative lifestyles, such as laziness and poor-eating habits are pushed on our younger generation.

Over 50% of all African-Americans are clinically overweight. About half of that percentage are considered dangerously overweight. Consumpution of fatty foods, like neckbone, pig's feet and chitlins are staples in Black America gourmet. However, those "staples" continue to kill hundreds and put many others at a health risk. Cooking food in lard adds high levels of chloresterol. That chloresterol impacts arteries and veins with tragic consequences.

As adults, we have a sense of what to put in our bodies. Our children have no choice. The schools are their caterers. They have to consume what is on their plate or not eat at all. Inner-city school cafeterias are denied the choice in healthier foods. They are denied healthier choices because states cut their funding on education.

Once in a while, I see a commercial on Fox that features an overweight child waiting for lunch. She is watching the cafeteria cooks flip hamburgers and dump french fries into deep fryers. About ten seconds in, four people in white overcoats come and ask for all of the burgers, fries and chicken fingers the cafeteria has. They take them and leave fruits and vegetables in their place. What that says is our government has to step in and enforce a healthier diet. Our state and federal governments should be funding these schools and directing these schools to keep our children happy and healthy.

In suburban schools, healthy choices are a reality. They have the blessing to "integrate" the four, basic food groups and include some "simple pleasures", like hamburgers, chicken fingers and fries. The menu is balanced and equal. Some of these schools have the funding and donations from boosters to hire professional chefs and culinary school graduates. They have the convenience of teaching these overly-qualified applicants their menu.

Those advantages are absent in urban and public school. The children in both institutions are left to fend for themselves. They are left to consume the fats, the sugars and the fried foods. They have no breakfast. They have vending machines of cookies, Slim Jims and sodas when they refuse the cafeteria. They have the luxuries of living as children from the late 1960s and 1970s. They have the luxury to eat an unbalanced diet in an unequal, educational system.

It shouldn't "take a village". Every child should have an opportunity to be the best they can be. No child should be left to behind by apathy.

Source:

I'll Make Me a World Conference (January 27, 2008)

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