Physical Activity Among African American Women: A Response to Karla A. Henderson

Abstract

Reading Karla Henderson’s paper, “Physical Activity among African American Women: Change and Ways of Knowing,” tweaked my memory of a popular 1997 movie, Soul Food. Soul Food is about an African American family’s forty-year tradition of sharing dinners on Sunday afternoons, which inevitably burst from the kitchen as fried chicken, greens, black-eyed peas, corn bread, ham hocks, sweet potato pie, butter beans, turkey, biscuits and gravy, and chitlins. In essence, the movie centers on a matriarchal character named Big Mama Jo and her role within the family bonds, particularly with her three sisters. Everything begins to deteriorate when Big Mama Jo is hospitalized with complications from diabetes—she suffers a stroke and loses a leg. This movie is also about the intersection of family, church, and the neighborhood wrapped around the lives in one African American family. Mama Jo’s family, and Henderson’s paper, struck me as similar in nature when they referred to the same tragic story and negative consequences of untreated diabetes, high saturated fat food consumption, and lack of physical activity—issues too often encountered among the youth and older adults in the African American community. The study of physical activity among African American women is more than timely, considering that this population tends to display higher levels of sedentary behaviors and elevated levels of obesity as compared with their white female counterparts. According to Diabetes Data Stats (2010), from 2003 to 2006, African- American females were 70% more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic white women. African American males are equally at risk; they are 60% more likely to die of a stroke than their white counterparts. From 2006 to 2008, African Americans had 51% higher prevalence of obesity as compared with whites. The highest prevalence of obesity was found in the Midwest and South. This finding is not surprising given the fact that a large segment of the African American population resides in these two regions of the country. Much is at stake, and a critical eye on Henderson’s line of research shows a scholar who has a mission to eradicate all social inequality, serving as a social justice advocate for fairness, equality, and mutual respect. A review of some of her published manuscripts over the past ten years reaffirms her commitment to this noble cause of “social justice.” Specifically, Henderson’s research can be classified into three dis tinct categories: (1) injustice and inequality in the pursuit of leisure among minority women, (2) kids’ camps and health promotion development, and (3) physical activity and older adults. Please permit me to expand my discussion on each of these areas.