Lower-income older U.S. teens are suffering obesity at higher rates than their counterparts from wealthier households, according to a new study led by a Johns Hopkins University researcher. Causal factors identified in the above-linked Baltimore Sun article include unsafe streets, lack of organized sports and other physical activity, plus few nearby grocery stores selling healthy food. Soft drinks, junk-food snacks and fast-food thus come to dominate the diet for many older low-income teens. In the same study, the household income-teen obesity link was not evident among 12-14 year olds, and a larger issue - as it were - is rising obesity across the U.S. Nonetheless, the news on older, poorer teens and obesity is ready-made for those with a political agenda to highlight disparate social, economic and educational outcomes as an indictment of capitalism and class structure in Western society.

And so....presto vivace: the Associated Press asserts that the research "seems to underscore the unequal burden of obesity on the nation's poor." Except. Whom are we supposed to believe is actually imposing this burden on the poor? Dare one mention the role of parents in setting an example with their own diet, in setting dietary rules for their children and packing healthy lunches for school, in shopping at produce markets, and in making an extra effort to arrange physical activities for their children? And speaking of inconvenient and unmentionable.....what about getting out of poverty to begin with? Whose job is that? Oh, never mind. Really, who wants to go there?

You may have missed the news of Minnesota's first "tobacco disparities" conference. From the press release:

MINNEAPOLIS, May 11 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 100 community advocates from across Minnesota will gather at the Expanding the Movement 2006 Minnesota Tobacco Disparities Conference on Friday, May 12, at the Crowne Plaza Northstar in downtown Minneapolis. This full-day event is the first of its kind to focus exclusively on tobacco-related health disparities in Minnesota. The conference is co- sponsored by the Leadership and Advocacy Institute to Advance Minnesota's Priority Populations (LAAMPP) and the Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco (MPAAT). This conference will highlight critical tobacco control issues for the African, African American, American Indian, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Chicano and Latino and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities in Minnesota.

"The tobacco industry has a long and sordid history of targeting diverse communities with their deadly products," said Rod Lew, Project Director for LAAMPP and Executive Director of Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy and Leadership. "As a result, our communities' health and economic well-being are disproportionately impacted by tobacco and we must take action. This conference will educate community leaders about how to counter the tobacco industry."

Indeed. Poor, helpless, ignorant minorities. The idea that on his or her own, an individual of color or an alternatively-gendered person could summon up the reason and fortitude to say no to emphyzema, lung cancer and heart disease by choosing not to smoke is a heroic concept, but indeed, as the bold and prescient Rod Lew well understands, sadly unattainable due to the crushing dominance of evil, multi-national tobacco-peddling corporations. A social justice intervention is clearly imperative.

The Times of London reports police there are deflecting race-based criticism after a report showed 46 percent of all arrests made with automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) technology were of blacks, who make up 11 percent of the city's population and no more than 25 percent of the population of any given neighborhood in the city. The devices in certain patrol cars scan an image of vehicle license plates and automatically check the number against a database showing vehicles that have been reported stolen, uninsured, are thought to have been used in commission of a crime, or for which license taxes remain unpaid. The ANPR cars are deployed in high-crime neighborhoods with higher concentrations of black residents and, presumably, black passers-through.

I suppose there is no failsafe way to prove some police aren't fishing to bust black drivers, as opposed to standard procedure, which is to check cars that are visibly violating the law. But there is no proof they are targeting blacks, either. The "disproportionality" theory merely gives launch to suppositions which immediately define the entire discussion, deflecting attention away from crime and its underlying causes.

It is a dubious game of racial "gotcha." Shouldn't the real focus in any at-risk community be the education and moral instruction of youth? The channeling of their energies toward responsible adulthood, career and family, and away from a life of crime? Apparently not.

Obliterating notions of personal and familial responsibility, the musty victimhood construct accretes social mass because politicians and media have - reprehensibly - allowed it to become institutionalized.

TECHNORATI TAGS: DISPROPORTIONALITY, VICTIMOLOGY, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, BALTIMORE, TEENS, OBESITY, INCOME, MINNESOTA, TOBACCO, DISPARITIES, LONDON, VEHICLE STOPS, ARRESTS, BLACKS

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at May 26, 2006 10:12 AM