[Pharmboy]

Gee whiz...TIME left this fact out: the south has, in general, a much larger percentage of African Americans than any other segment of the country. For example, while New York, Massachusetts, New Jesey and Pennsylvania have, respectively, 17%, 6.3%, 14.4% and 10.5% of their populations as African Americans, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina have 29.2%, 26.3%, 36.6% and 29.9% of their citizens as African Americans. For the source, click here.

This is primarily driven by African American women, as can be seen in this chart:

[Jack of all Trades]

So really, the question should be “Why are so many women fat?”.

Perhaps it usually has something to do with the ratio of burned to consumed calories being less than one. Just throwing out a wild idea here...

[TLI]

Gee whiz...TIME left this fact out: the south has, in general, a much larger percentage of African Americans than any other segment of the country.

A glance at the Calorielab graphic from the actual article and your postulation is clear.

[Chickensoup]

You have hit the nail on the head. Brown and black people tend to have a genetic propensity to obesity.