The Racist History Behind The BMI

Is there a more perfect pair than racism and fatphobia? The two fit together as if they were made for each other. The truth is the -ism and phobia are inherently linked. 

Scholars say the link began around the start of slavery. Before this time, fat was seen as a positive in society. It meant you could feed yourself and afford to feed your family. But as the whites began to steal African people, they started to notice some carried more weight. Fat became associated with Africans and labeled barbaric and unkempt. Race was no longer enough to distinguish them from the people they were enslaving.

“[Europeans/slavers] decided to re-articulate racial categories, adding new characteristics, and one of the things that the colonists believed was that Black people [loved food] and that Black people were inherently obese because they lack self-control. And of course, self-control and rationality, after the Enlightenment, were characteristics that were deemed integral to Whiteness,” Sabrina Strings an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine.

The term obese is thrown around a lot today. Whether it’s a fat person wearing a bathing suit or eating or even minding their business, pseudo doctors often feel the need to diagnose them as “obese”. But how do we even determine whether someone is overweight? 

What is the Body Mass Index (BMI)?

Doctors use the Body Mass Index, which measures body fat by dividing a person’s weight by their height and has been around since the 1830s. It was created by a white man.

Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, a Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician, and sociologist, was looking to find what an ideal man should look like and what other men should aspire to be. 

His research only included that of other white men. The scale doesn’t even accurately portray modern white men, let alone non-men and Black and Brown communities. Yet we use this tool on a regular basis to determine someone’s health no matter race and culture. 

The BMI does not take into account a person’s surroundings, economic status, poverty, culture, or access to healthy food, all of which have an effect on someone’s weight. It doesn’t take into account muscle versus body fat. 

Black women have the highest rates of “obesity” and being “overweight” by these terms. Meaning we are often classified as “high risk” for things like high cholesterol, heart issues, and so on. Therefore going to the doctor is often something all Black people avoid. Because voicing our concerns can end in two ways: not being heard or it all being chalked up to needing to lose weight, something that plagues anyone above a size 8. 

“But correlation with disease does not always equal causation of disease, and research shows that weight loss isn’t the effective cure-all it’s been made out to be. In fact, chronic dieting can lead to heart attack and stroke.”

The push for chronic dieting is actually having a severe impact on people both physically and mentally. Our health is so much more than the number on a scale. 

You can be skinny and be unhealthy. You can be fat and healthy. Every body is beautiful and worthy despite what we are told on a daily basis. 

About Brianna Milon

Brianna is a local media professional who loves writing, watching Netflix, and playing with her dog, Weenie and her cat, Fancy. She studied Journalism and Broadcasting at SUNY Brockport and was heavily involved in the campus radio station. Brianna also co-hosts a radio show, “Fat, Black, and Femme”, on 100.9 WXIR. You can find out more on Facebook and Blogspot.