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July 26, 2007
Latinas avoid college because they are fat?
The fact that Latino/as have the highest drop rate in the states in not new, but to discover that Latinas want to avoid college because of their weight is astounding to me.
Wow. I have three daughters, and only one of them is overweight. It took me years to deprogram her into believing that there is nothing wrong with wearing a size 14-I know plenty of men that like women with meat on their bones. Here is the irony of this situation-education is a priority for me, so I made it a point to live in a one of the best school districts in the country. The only problem is (you guessed it!) that it is a predominantly white school district filled with young women who would rather starve than buy stretch jeans (and boys who only want to date skinny girls). So, while my daughter was getting the best education I could provide her with, the price was high. It wasn't until my mother suggested a trip to Puerto Rico that it occurred to me that once she saw how WE define beauty, she would realize that the problem had more to do with ethnocentricity than obesity. I am happy to report that she returned from Puerto Rico scantily clad and proud to be who she was, but what if my mom had not taken her on that trip? How would I have ended the dangerous cycle of depression that she was experiencing prior to that trip? I don't know what I would have done.
The sad part is that it is a lose-lose situation. Education vs. Self-Esteem. If we want to go to the best schools, that usually means that we are not around our own people, unless we reside on our homeland. If we want to surround ourselves with our familiars, then that means we will most likely not be going to the best schools possible. What do we do? To assume that schools will amend their curriculum to include teaching self-esteem to a particular ethnic group is a great hope, but alas unrealistic. If we can't even get new textbooks for many our Latino/a students, how do we begin to actually effect any change regarding this issue?
The fact that it has become so important to join the (ab)norm distresses me, because it means that our culture is being forever impacted by another culture's standards...is that one of the tenets of colonialization?
Posted by dvaldesd at July 26, 2007 04:54 PM
Comments
Powerful post, D.
I can think back to being the only brown face in many of my classes. Fortunately, I was able to walk out of my class and be amongst friends and family that looked like me. In that regard, I was a little more fortunate than Am, however the inner conflict of being overly conscious of your speech, your academic prowess, and other issues left enough of a scar. I'm not sure that there's any way to avoid that kind of damaging. Kudos to your mom for stepping in when she did.
On a separate, but somewhat related note, recenlty my friend told me of a "theory" that her older white-male law professor shared with her. Apparently, the reason why so many professional women of color are overweight and let themselves go "physically" is because they are aware of the scarcity of professional men of color. Unlike white women who go to the gym and maintain their figures in pursuit of a professional WASP male, women of color don't need to do so because they are the economic breadwinners.
I was speechless when I heard this....
Posted by: Tamika at July 28, 2007 02:24 PM
Dang. See, and it's this exact belief that is damaging our young people. And, this is where assimilation becomes dangerous-no matter how encultured, assimilated, conquered, we may become, we will never be anything other than who we are.
Posted by: Denise at July 28, 2007 07:34 PM
The sad part is that it is a lose-lose situation. Education vs. Self-Esteem. If we want to go to the best schools, that usually means that we are not around our own people, unless we reside on our homeland. If we want to surround ourselves with our familiars, then that means we will most likely not be going to the best schools possible.
This is right on point Denise. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't. But in this case, you can just give your daughters that good home fortified self-esteem and make sure they know themselves enough to not get caught up in this stuff.
It's really sad that the weight stuff is starting to effect women of color. I remember when the saying was girls of color weren't as concerned about weight, etc... :-(
Great post!
Gwen
Posted by: Gwendolyn Pough at July 30, 2007 08:46 PM