Obama's fat surgeon general has some tough questions to answer

A friend just called from America to talk about Obama’s appointment of a fat woman, Dr Regina Benjamin, as surgeon general. “I guess I can’t use the phrase ‘elephant in the room’, but this raises some very, very delicate issues,” she said.

As Alex Spillius reports, America’s new top doctor has been strongly criticised by health lobbyists for her weight. But my American friend has noticed that some people are already making a connection between Dr Benjamin’s embarrassing weight problem and the fact that she’s African-American.

They should be careful. You see, while the obesity of poor whites and red-state Republicans is an international target of amusement, and one is positively encouraged to mock them as lardbutts at every opportunity, the “weight issues” with which many black Americans (and especially women) “struggle” are either avoided or have to be discussed very respectfully indeed. (Unless they’re Oprah. No one, and I mean no one, feels the need to be polite about her.)

I’m going to chicken out of this one, I think. If Dr Benjamin reinforces various racists’ negative stereotypes of African-American woman, that’s too bad. They won’t stop being racist if she loses weight.

On the other hand, what on earth does she think she’s doing talking about preventible illnesses such as diabetes, for God’s sake, when she looks like she wolfs down a bucket of KFC for elevenses? Imagine if she agonised about lung cancer while puffing on a Marlboro Light.

Not that Dr Benjamin lacks defenders. Here’s an eloquent statement suppporting her:

The preoccupation with the ‘war on obesity’ must not be turned into a war on one extremely talented, proficient woman. America needs the best of the best to lead it through these difficult times and Dr Benjamin is one of those people.

She’s a little heavy. Nothing disastrous. If she were really an superbly accomplished woman one would just say (as I have posted before) that she should make an example of herself for black, white, and Hispanic people in the US and show that one can lose weight successfully.

However, she is really just a simple if determined country doctor with no experience at running a major bureaucracy or dealing with problems on a national level. She also supports abortion “rights.” She is not qualified to be Surgeon General, fat or no fat. And that is the issue, not her weight.

From Jay Nordlinger’s column in the National Review Online yesterday:

(begin excerpt)
I find the controversy surrounding Dr. Regina Benjamin one of the most depressing in memory. She is the southern doctor chosen by President Obama to be the surgeon general. She sets up medical clinics for the poor, etc. She is an example of the humanitarian in medicine. And what they’re saying — they, the controversy-makers — is that she’s too fat to be the surgeon general. She will set a bad example. What idiocy, what stupidity. To me, she is pleasantly plump: warm, inviting, reassuring. Also very pretty. She looks like she should look. She looks like a trustworthy doctor — someone you’d want to go to, or send your children to. She is well-nigh Norman Rockwellian (southern-black version). I am glad she will be surgeon general. And her body-crazed critics can go jump in a lake.

(I was going to say something other than “jump in a lake,” but then I remembered this is a family column — most of the time.)

In preparing to write about this, I was looking at a news article, which had a photo of Dr. Benjamin. And I thought, “Hang on, I think I know this person.” I had forgotten her name. I had not forgotten her act. Some years ago, I was at a large conference, dominated by liberals. I was one of the handful of conservatives there. And, at a big plenary session, I made some statements about race: I said I thought the country was too soaked in race; that we could use a rest from race; that race-consciousness was killing us; that separate graduation ceremonies, and separate proms and so on, were heartbreaking and wrong; that we should not give up on the integrationist ideal; that we should cling to E pluribus unum; that we should not be black and white but Americans and human beings; etc. You know: my usual anti-racialist spiel.

These remarks fell pretty flat, I figured. And, when the session was over, I made a beeline out of the hall. And as I was leaving — racing — someone was chasing after me. Running, I think — in high heels, I think. It was a woman, and one of the few blacks in attendance. When I turned to greet her — not knowing what was coming — she said, “I just wanted to thank you. That was great. It really needed to be said.” Do you think I was touched?

And I realized, looking at the news article, that this was Dr. Regina Benjamin. Which has nothing — nothing — to do with my feeling about the “fat” controversy. Just so you know. I was going to write what I’ve written about the controversy before I realized that I had encountered this woman.

I must say, I will love Regina Benjamin forever.
(end excerpt)

“How about the comment that red-state Republicans are obese?”

Actually, not all of us are, but we have our share. Why are so many of us Southerners fat? My guess is it has to do with the foods we love and the fact we now are behind the desk and not behind the mule. I try to eat right 6 days a week. Fish and chicken, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. On Sundays, my wife and I treat ourselves to the foods we grew up on. We fry everything! Sunday dinner after church is always a highlight of my week. I should take a walk or go in the backyard and swim in the pool, but I usually lay on the couch and go to sleep. I see I have gone completely overboard on this - which just goes to show the place food has in a Southerners heart. I have lived in the south my whole life, and I have met very few Southern folks, Black or White, who didn’t love having the fellowship of family and friends around a good meal.-—JM

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