Tracye McQuirter is a DC based nutritionist that has been vegan for 20 years. She directed the first ever federally funded, community based vegan program, the Vegetarian Society of DC Eat Smart program. I loved her site co authored with her sister, Marya (who also has her own site) http://www.blackvegetarians.org/
She now has a site called (LOVE THIS NAME!) By Any Greens Necessary http://byanygreensnecessary.com/
Her book by the same name is available for pre order on Amazon:
It’s scheduled to come out May 1, 2010.
Check out this interview of her during a conference in India:
Vegans of Color 
While I think this project is a great idea, the idea that a part of its purpose is to help folks “loose weight” turns my stomach. No pun intended. A big part of why I can’t get down with so many vegans and animal rights activists is the rampant fat-phobia so many of them espouse. This kind of thing is *totally* wrapped up in ableism, classism, racism, and misogyny–just for starters. Some people aren’t healthy when they’re fat–sure. Some people aren’t healthy when they’re thin. People can be healthy at any size. The idea that fat is necessarily unhealthy is rooted in so much oppressive ideology, based on standards of beauty centered on the perception of upper- and middle class status, whiteness, and a misogynist beauty standard. Fat people move through a world constantly telling them–in very literal terms–to feel shame for taking up too much space. This is a sentiment that extends to all oppressed people, and radical folks and activists need to work against this kind of harmful ideology.
If you read the book, you’ll see that she’s trying to address the concerns of those black females who believe their weight is affecting their health and she is hoping that this book will help what is seen as an “obesity” issue within the black female community. I’m wondering since the book is coming from that angle, is it still “fatphobic?” I am reading it to review it right now and I don’t get the same type of angry fatphobia that I sense from “Skinny Bitch”. But, that’s just my interpretation and perhaps it would be nice to read the book first before assuming that her agenda is the SAME as “fatphobic” agenda. The book, thus far, does not find “disgust” with fatness but is responding to what the author feels are health-food related issues in the black female community that many of her clients have spoken to her about. Would it be less unappealing to you if she changed it to “get fit?” Woul that make it more acceptable to you and less “fatphobic?”
@Breeze: To answer your question, yes, the loosing weight equals gaining health is very much fatphobic. “Obesity” is a medicalized version of fatphobia that can be no less harmful do to its assumed authority. (Please note that in spite of their scornful contempt for fat people, the authors of Skinny Bitch justified their hate with obesity research and clams that loosing weight is the same as getting fit.) “obesity” is a medical construct that masks an ideology of anti-fat oppression as neutral “science.” “Obesity” is really about social-political power dynamics and the normalizing certain bodies, as opposed to health. That is, the association of adiposity (the storage of fatty tissue on the body) with disease/being unfit serves to justify hatred of body fat and fat people — even suggesting the hatred is for fat people’s own good. Fat is not a valid indicator of disease, ill-health, or lack of fitness. It is exactly the false belief that being fat and fit or “obese” and healthy are mutually exclusive that is itself a perpetuation of fatphobia.
Six months ago I found out I would need surgery to remove polyps in my nose due to severe allergies. In preparation for the procedure, I was given several medications. One week before surgery I was called by the hospital to tell me that my blood sugar was high. I immeaditely called my family doctor. Diabetes runs rampant in my family and I am overweight. Luckily, I was not diagnosed with the disease, but it was a wake up call. I became a vegetarian June 6, 2010. I don’t think that vegans are “fat-phobic”…but I do h
Think that overweight people like to make excuses for their weight issues. I know because I did. I’m glad I made the change, I look forward to a healthier life!