First they came for the tobacco, and I did not speak out because I
was not a smoker. Then they came for the alcohol, and I did not speak
out because I was not a drinker. Then they came for my food, and there
was no one left to speak out for me because misery loves company.
By Selwyn Duke
We've all heard about driving while black. Now we have eating while fat. But, unlike the former, size profiling is more reality than rhetoric. As to this, and coming on the heels of the recent story about a mother arrested for having an obese son, is more folderol from the fatism front: a proposal by the Urban Institute to tax "fattening" foods to fight obesity. In other words, if you're overweight, you're guilty until proven innocent and thus fair game for the most onerous "corrective" action.
Reporting on this in the Los Angeles Times, Melissa Healy writes: "'Facing the serious consequences of an uncontrolled obesity epidemic, America's state and federal policy makers may need to consider interventions every bit as forceful as those that succeeded in cutting adult tobacco use by more than 50%,' the Urban Institute report says."
Read the rest here.
