Fitness vs Fatness on HBCU campus
22 replies
·
10605 views
·
Started by WileECoyote06
·
Nov 2004
I wasn't getting much response on the Yard so here
One of the major issues on HBCU campuses today is fitness. As a staff member at NCCU, we are really concerned with the amount of overweight women (and by default men) on our campuses.
A high-ranking female administrator once said "It seems like these young ladies don't care about their bodies. They act like it's cute to show their midriffs, even though it's often misshapen and jutting out. On top of this, they put belly rings in their navels to bring attention to it. Many of them have hips like a grown child-rearing woman. These women are going to deal with weight problems seven to eight years down the road."
Those were words from a prominent woman on campus, and many of the staff and faculty feel the same way. Sometimes, I believe that we as a people give too many excuses for why we can be fat or obese, and not enough for why we should try to remain fit.
We've heard about black and latino women having different body types, from other types of women. I can't argue with that, but the difference might be the chicken/hamburgers we're eating every other day. It is ironic that just last week, we had many people on this board condemning smoking, saying it leads to emphysema, heart disease and lung cancer; yet we as a community ignore overeating which can lead to ulcers, diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol.
#11
Reply
i agree w/ u all. i'm an RA @ MSU and when the freshman came in over the summer for orientation and stuff, me and my girls were like 
. sum of them girls were huge, lookin like 30 yr old mammys and what not (lol, well,maybe not 30). its definitely a problem. this semester i even started taking my fat **** to the gym, but morgan's gym succs! we dont even have a treadmill. what kinda gym does not have a treadmill?? :roll:
. sum of them girls were huge, lookin like 30 yr old mammys and what not (lol, well,maybe not 30). its definitely a problem. this semester i even started taking my fat **** to the gym, but morgan's gym succs! we dont even have a treadmill. what kinda gym does not have a treadmill?? :roll: Maybe you should sponsor an afternoon jog for your students since there is no treadmill.
#13
Reply
i really dont know what to say :? im kinda in a split opinion because i have a belly ring and yes sometimes my stomach does show. ontop of that im athletic i do work out/run. obesity is not hereditary for me. matter of fact i got the skinny-ish gene wit the long legs from my dads side. i may eat lots of cheese burgers and what not but i also eat my yogurt and i love salad. i just eat alot my metabolism burns faster than i can eat.
i guess now that i think about it i see where your coming from. it might have been that ladies comment and what not i dont know
#14
Reply
Aggie Highlander wrote:I agree with all of you, but I still don't see any suggestions as to HOW we are to correct this problem, only reasons why we are generally overweight and almost seem to promote obesity. I myself feel that it is important that the main source of the student diet promote healthy eating. I'll give it to A&T (since I don't know about other schools) on somewhat giving it a shot. The salad bar in our cafeteria is placed closer to the seating area than the regular service line. There are also people back there to help you with other items at the service bar. We also offer take home containers for salads. However, this still doesn't get the job done. Its is not enough to simply promote that the food is out there, the mentality has to change as well. As long as we are willing to accept obesity as being "okay" and as long as there is a large constituency of people that accept it as being attractive, then we're going to have problems. If we don't also include the fact that obesity is unhealthy as well, then we'll still have the problem. Are there enough facilites in or around campus for students to work out? A&T has two facilities as well as a YMCA within walking distance of campus, however none of them are promoted. I got a whole lot more to say, but my train of thought just got derailed... :?
