"The perfect journey is no need to go."
- A. A. Ammons
.....has become a code phrase for African or Asian youth who are in combat situations, sometimes against their will. It is never used to describe Europeans or youth from the USA, many of whom have only just reached their 18th birthday. Anyone over the age of 30 realizes that these youth are still children by any meaningful definition, and will remain so until about the age of 27. And by "child," I mean " has no experiences that qualify them to determine who lives and who dies."
Submitted to Diverse Issues in Higher Education 11/30/09
©2009 Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin
Stop in the Name of Love and Legality: HBCU Fat Discrimination
I am a plump African American professor at the oldest HBCU in the country and a national expert on media weight discrimination and people of color in the professoriate. I am concerned about some of the statements in Dr. Marybeth Gasman’s response to the Historically Black University Lincoln’s policy that penalizes its students who are “heavy” in body as well as mind by forcing them to pass an additional “Fitness for Life” course or refusing to graduate them. The policy is certainly unethical, probably illegal and ironically racist, sexist classist AND counter-productive.
The policy is racist because African Americans whose ancestors survived slavery – i.e. were able to work 12 hours a day on little more than a single chittlin’ and a biscuit under horrific psychological stress – have a very efficient metabolism and for a many reasons tend to be fatter than other Americans. Most of these reasons don’t have to do with being lazy or pigging out. We are constantly facing so much discrimination based on our body size already that it is a scary second (third, fourth…) slap in the face to have an HBCU that has a concentration of African American women, should discriminate against us too when the students are supposed to be showing intellectual rigor to graduate rather than be punished by an extra course to pass than those who were born with a luckier genetic draw from the deck.
The policy is sexist because African American women tend to weigh more than all other race women in the country and Understanding Gender At Public HBCUs reports that females are 63% of the students enrolled at HBCUs. It’s also physiologically harder for women to lose weight than it is for men.
The policy is counterproductive because fat people, especially fat women, are already under full attack on every front. We know we are fat. Others who feel they have the right to openly harass big people, just as it used to be okay to harass us because we are Black, wouldn’t let us forget it even if the media did. Just last week, as an HBCU African American full, tenured professor, a male student screamed repeatedly at me from an open dorm window “Dr. D - Fat Ass!” The female students are under even MORE harassment.
The policy is classist because as a group, students who go to HBCUs are more likely to be first-generation college students; poorer than any other 4-year college student; often overscheduled and over working to earn part or all of their way through university, usually with no financial help from their impoverished parents. Lincoln’s policy places greater time AND financial demands on students who are struggling with far more than their weight. Also poor people are more likely to be bigger too because they have less access to affordable, tasty, healthy food.
Preventing students, no matter how brilliant, from graduating from college just because they are big is counterproductive. It only adds to their humiliation and stress, increasing the likelihood that they will exercise less and, if they do compulsively eat – eat more of the wrong kinds of foods.
If Lincoln University really cares about the obesity epidemic in the Black community it ought to require ALL students, not just the ones with “more bounce to the ounce,” to complete their Fitness for Life class as they do (or as part of) Freshman Orientation or any physical education requirement. The thinner students may be as unhealthy as some of the fatter students or worse. Notice I said, “SOME” of the fat students because one can be fit and fat. I eat a well-balanced, health oriented diet, exercise 5 times a week and I am still a plus-sized woman. I refuse to use the “O” word because I am NOT a walking disease or symptom for that matter. I am not alone. Many of our thinner counterparts are couch potatoes and eat far more so-called bad foods. Also thinner students who eat poor diets and don’t exercise regularly will find themselves slipping in to the discriminated size range as their youthful metabolisms age.
I hope Lincoln University stops this ugly size discrimination before a big student with deep pockets successfully sues them for a gigantic number of dollars and contributes to the demise of another precious HBCU. Gasman is wrong when she says physical education has long been part of our intellectual development. It’s part of our physical development that, in the effort to attract more students with faster-to-complete programs, most colleges have dropped. Also at a time when colleges are offering more online degrees, ending physical education and even exit exam requirements, Lincoln University should be ashamed of their nasty fat phobic fitness course. I would implore them that as their namesake “freed the slaves,” may Lincoln University let my chubby people go. Let freedom ring and let my chubby people graduate if they’ve got the grades… to go.
To see Gasman’s story go to: http://diverseeducation.com/blogpost/183/1.php
NPR stories on how race is no longer an issue in our country are frustrating personally and misleading to the public. Rather than political strategizing, one of the reasons African Americans often object to notions of “diversity” and “multiculturalism” rather than curing the ills of racism, more accurately white supremacy – is that so many people of color have to deal with some form of unearned white privilege or racial discrimination every day.
Comedian Chris Rock’s recently released documentary Good Hair wouldn’t have been controversial if Black women weren’t pressured on so many fronts to repeatedly do what is for so many an expensive, painful and shame-full ritual of chemically straightening our hair at the root just to be considered acceptable socially, professionally and psychologically. For example, at the eve of 2010, a White doctor I visited for the first time clowned around in his reception area in his imitation of what he thought was a Black man’s voice talking about how some Black people didn’t have “good hair.” When I objected to his unprofessional, disrespectful behavior, he told me maybe I wasn’t a “good fit” for his practice.
A few years ago I left the Montgomery (Alabama) Area Black Journalists Association because a black woman executive editor with chemically straightened short hair verbally attacked me and a few male and female student journalists for wearing our natural kinky hair. She said that our hair wasn't "professional," and that if White subjects we were interviewing called us, "The N-Word," it would be our fault because we wore our neat, clean kinks.
Also a few years ago, a white television news director, with the blessings of an older black female reporter who straightens her hair, sent a national award-winning black female communications student out of the room crying because they verbally attacked her neatly styled kinky hair as "unacceptable." Afterward the victimized, dark skinned student returned to my class, in a white-scalped, pin-straight “Tina Turner – Rollin’ on the River” type wig because her self-esteem was so wounded from that, not-the-first, attack on her blackness.
As an African American journalist and media scholar who studies white supremist notions of beauty in the media, including good hair, I am the author of "What I Dreaded." It's one of the chapters in the book, Children of the Dream: Our Own Stories of Growing Up Black in America, about the dramatic change for the better it can make to stop the painful, time-consuming, expensive, shame-full experience of straightening our hair. “Dreading” my hair into Nubian locs allowed me to stop dreading my natural self.
I also belong to a local group of Black women who wear our hair kinky and support each other in that powerful self-esteem promoting decision that sometimes makes us the target of racial discrimination whether from people of other races or those of our own suffering from their own internalized racism. Learning how to love our naturally kinky hair can be painful but in the frizzy end is … as good as it gets!
Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin is a professor of communication at the nation’s oldest public Historically Black University, Alabama State.
Black Friday is the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season. When are you planning on beginning your holiday shopping?
Sponsored by Best Buy. Find holiday gifts for everyone on your list.
I start my holiday shopping the day after Christmas. If I see something throughout the year that I know a loved one would want I pick it up and store it in the 'gift closet' until it's time to pull out the Christmas paper and wrap it all up.
That being said. This year I bought stuff that will just stay in the closet until next year. I found some puzzles on clearance and picked them up as little 'hey Mom, saw this and was thinking about you' gifts. But, Mom has decided that we are not buying for anyone other than the great-grandkids this year. So, Mom doesn't get her puzzles and Jordan gets left out, too.
We may just stay in Tuscaloosa for Christmas this year. bah humbug!!
Submitted to NPR's Morning Edition 11/23/09
The Historically Black University Lincoln’s policy that penalizes its students who are “heavy” in body as well as mind by forcing them to pass an additional “Fitness for Life” course or refusing to graduate them is certainly unethical, probably illegal and ironically racist, sexist, classist AND counter-productive.
It’s racist because African Americans whose ancestors survived slavery – i.e. were able to work 12 hours a day on little more than a single chittlin’ and a biscuit under horrific psychological stress – have a very efficient metabolism and for a many reasons tend to be fatter than other Americans.
The policy is sexist because African American women tend to weigh more than all other race women in the country and Understanding Gender At Public HBCUs reports that females are 63% of the students enrolled at HBCUs.
The policy is counterproductive because fat people, especially fat women are already under full attack on every front. Just last week, as an African American full, tenured professor at the nation’s oldest public HBCU, a male student screamed repeatedly at me from an open dorm window “Dr. D - Fat Ass!” The female students are under even MORE harassment.
The policy is classist because as a group, students who go to HBCUs are more likely to be first-generation college students; poorer than any other 4-year college student; often overscheduled and over working to earn part or all of their way through university, usually with no financial help from their impoverished parents. Lincoln’s policy places greater time AND financial demands on students who are struggling with far more than their weight. Also poor people are more likely to be bigger too.
Preventing students, no matter how brilliant, from graduating from college just because they are big is counterproductive. It only adds to their humiliation and stress, increasing the likelihood that they will exercise less and, if they do compulsively eat – eat more of the wrong kinds of foods.
If the university really cares about the "obesity" epidemic in the Black community, it ought to require ALL students, not just the ones with “more bounce to the ounce,” to complete their Fitness for Life class as they do (or as part of) Freshman Orientation or any physical education requirement. The thinner students may be as unhealthy as some of the fatter students or worse. Notice I said, “SOME” of the fat students because one can be fit and fat. I eat a well-balanced, health oriented diet and exercise 5 times a week and I am still a plus-sized woman. I am not alone. Many of our thinner counterparts are couch potatoes and eat far more so-called bad foods.
I hope Lincoln University stops this ugly size discrimination before a big student with deep pockets successfully sues them for a gigantic number of dollars and contributes to the demise of another precious HBCU. At a time when, in the effort to attract more students, colleges are offering more online degrees, ending physical education and even exit exam requirements, Lincoln University should be ashamed of their nasty fat phobic fitness course. I would implore them that as their namesake “freed the slaves,” may Lincoln University let my chubby people go. Let freedom ring and let my chubby people graduate if they’ve got the grades to go.
Totally Terrible Things on Tuesday:
- Starting to send out resume's looking for my next career opportunity.
- Jordan's grades--again.
- If I could find a way to make $75 a month cover: groceries, prescriptions and gas then I wouldn't 'need' a job.
- Fleas. Found out the dogs have fleas when one jumped on Chris. Chris is now crabby until I can prove the fleas are gone.
- Stressing about how Chris is going to handle meeting his newest nephew who was named after his grandpa and his cousin--Samuel.
- My parents deciding that Jordan is to old for Christmas presents. They are only buying for the 'little ones'. Read---Great Grandkids.
- Weird rash on my right collar bone and in the crook of my left elbow.
Totally Terrific Things on Tuesday:
- Thanksgiving is next week. Mmmm...turkey and pumpkin pie!
- Seeing Annie, John and the girls.
- My Christmas list, for my side of the family, just went from 20 to five. Six if we decide to get something for the newest baby in the family.
- Great compensation package. If I have to lose my job there is no better way to lose it than by getting 12 weeks notice followed by a month of salary plus a week for each year with the firm then there is unemployment that I can collect. So, right now we will be getting my salary through the first week of February.
- Already putting up Christmas decorations. Yay!! I love Christmas and Christmas decorations.
11/12/09
©E-K. Daufin, 2009
The Montgomery Advertiser big Sunday story about Black women's "good hair" opinions surprised me. A few years ago, I left the Montgomery Area Black Journalist's Association because a Black woman with chemically straightened, short hair, who was the executive editor of a local national chain newspaper, verbally attacked me and a few male and female student journalists for wearing our naturally kinky hair. She said that our neat, clean hair wasn't “professional” and that if White people we were interviewing called us, "The N-Word," it would be our fault because we wore our naturally kinky hair.
Also a few years ago in Montgomery, at a local, top-rated, television news station Associated Press Broadcasters seminar, the White news director at the time, with the blessings of an older Black female reporter who straightens her hair, sent a national award winning Black female communication student out of the room crying because they verbally attacked her neatly styled kinky hair as “unacceptable,” though news director said he would hire me with my longer kinky locks. I immediately offered my services for hire. He turned red and laughed nervously but didn’t make me an offer. The victimized student returned to my class on the Monday after the seminar, in a white-scalped, pin-straight “Tina Turner – Rollin’ on the River” type wig because her self-esteem was so wounded from that, not-the-first, attack on her blackness.
As an African American journalist and media scholar who studies white supremist notions of beauty in the media, including "good hair," I am the author of "What I Dreaded." It's a chapter in the book, Children of the Dream: Our Own Stories of Growing Up Black in America, about the dramatic change for the better it made in my life to stop the painful, time-consuming, expensive, shame-full experience of straightening my hair and "dreading" my hair into Nubian locks. “Dreading” my hair allowed me to stop dreading my natural self. I also belong to a local group of Black women who wear our hair kinky and support each other in that powerful self-esteem promoting decision that sometimes makes us the target of racial discrimination whether from people of other races or those of our own suffering from internalized racism.
It was sad to me that your illustrious list of all the beautiful Black women you interviewed didn't include anyone with our powerful perspective on what learning how to love our naturally kinky hair can be -- painful but in the frizzy end is … as good as it gets!
Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin is a professor of communication at the nation’s oldest public Historically Black University, Alabama State.
