Racism & Colorism in the Black Community

The University of Pennsylvania held a “hair-itage” symposium on the challenging politics of Black hair, led by Associate Professor of Religious Studies Anthea Butler, to demystify the versatility of Black hair and encourage Black women to embrace the beauty of their natural Blackness and appearance.

The issue of whether mostly white corporate America allows Black women—and others from underrepresented groups—to be their “whole selves” while succeeding is relevant to the recent debate over R&B singer India.Arie, who is defending the cover art for her new single, “Cocoa Butter.”

While various news outlets say that the singer’s drastically lightened skin color—and rumors of skin bleaching—are “absolutely ridiculous” and simply an effect of intense lighting, Twitter users were quick to slam Arie for her creative choice to not color-correct the photo.

“It’s not the lights, even if it’s make up! Why India Arie!? This isn’t You! Please tweet her and ask her why…” said hip-hop artist Rhymefest.

Arie has been a vocal advocate for Black beauty with songs like “I Am Not My Hair” and “Brown Skin” and also spoke out regarding the controversial casting of Zoe Saldana, a biracial actress, as the lead in the upcoming Nina Simone biopic, which many in the Black community consider “whitewashing.”

Watch this Huffington Post Panel discuss “The Color Complex.”

Corporate America: Racism, Biases Toward Black Hair & Skin Color

The larger issue—rather, #skinversation, as Arie calls it—is racism and colorism in the Black community, which ultimately carries over into the workplace.

In his popular Ask the White Guy column “Do Blacks Need to Relax Their Natural Hair to Get Promoted?” DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti writes:

There’s no doubt in my mind that Black people have been overlooked for promotions because of natural hair or darker skin color. Psychological tests show that people most trust people who look like them. Since white men run most corporations in this country, straightened hair and/or lighter skin is going to be an advantage (disturbing, but let’s keep it real).

Visconti also notes that these types of biases and stereotypes, if left unchecked, can negatively affect your business by reducing a company’s competitive advantage, ability to recruit/retain top talent and its potential for innovation. Allowing employees to bring their whole selves to work (whether that means your appearance, your orientation or your background), and not fear that they will be judged by stereotypes and biases, is key to driving an inclusive corporate culture.

How do you get that? It starts at the top with clearly stated values of inclusion from the CEO and senior executives and is supported by cultural-competence education, which occurs through having active resource groups spreading the word, role models from underrepresented groups in your succession plan, and formal, cross-cultural mentoring relationships that teach high-potentials how to succeed in corporate environments without sacrificing their identities.

The post Should Black Women Straighten Their Hair or Lighten Their Skin? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) looked at the records of 200,000 children seen by 222 doctors at 25 offices in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. They found that Black children were about 25 percent less likely to receive an antibiotic for a respiratory infection than were a group of predominantly white children.

In this case, the disparity may not be such a negative, according to lead researcher Dr. Jeffrey Gerber of CHOP. “We hypothesize that this discrepancy reflects over-prescribing, both for all antibiotics and for the relative proportion of broad-spectrum antibiotics, to non-black patients, rather than under-prescribing to black patients,” wrote Dr. Gerber in the journal Pediatrics.

Gerber and the other study authors said that part of the discrepancy might come from parents of white children asking for antibiotics more often, with doctors following that lead.  But according to the Centers for Disease Control, if antibiotics are used too often for things they can’t treat—like colds or other viral infections—they can stop working effectively when they are needed.

One of the reasons the researchers conducted this study was to determine whether previous instances of racial or ethnic disparities in care were part of a pattern.  Some of the differential care for children that has been uncovered within the past year includes:

• Latino children often have undiagnosed developmental delays and have later been found to have autism, according to researchers at the University of California Davis MIND Institute.
• Black and Latino children with asthma, despite having high rates of asthma compared to white children, are less likely to receive regular care and recommended treatment and are more likely to be hospitalized. The Obama Administration has initiated a task force charged with reducing the environmental risks that contribute to this disparity.
• Latino children treated for appendicitis at community hospitals were 23 percent more likely to experience appendix perforation than white children, and Asian children were 34 percent more likely than white children to experience appendix perforation, according to a recent study conducted by researchers from UCLA Medical Center. Latino patients treated at children’s hospitals were 18 percent more likely to develop this complication than white patients.

As more Blacks and Latinos gain equitable access to care under the Affordable Care Act and as hospitals are reimbursed based on patient outcomes, it will be interesting to see if these patterns change. It’s likely that they will.

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Building on Ernst & Young’s successful 2012 Black History Month Executive Roundtable in Oakland, the firm hosted more than 500 professionals, community leaders and students during an expanded 2013 Black History Month roundtable series in Oakland, Los Angeles and Seattle this February. While each event offered unique elements, all featured compelling panel discussions about the career progression and personal achievements of black professionals, as well as diversity and inclusiveness business strategies.

Each roundtable was moderated by an Ernst & Young current or retired partner, including Risk Partner Marcus Odedina in Seattle; Ernst & Young Americas Inclusiveness Officer Karyn Twaronite (pictured above) in Oakland; and retired Midwest Region Managing Partner and Vice Chair Tony Anderson in Los Angeles. Roundtable panelists represented leading West Coast businesses such as: Joanne Harrell, Senior Director of Public Affairs and US Citizenship at Microsoft; Kelvin E. Council, CFO of Boeing Commercial Aviation; Gregory Adams, President of the Northern California Region Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals; and Craig Robinson, Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer of NBC Universal.

“Our Black History Month dialogue in Oakland was remarkable, and I’m so thrilled that business and community demand for these discussions inspired us to create an event series,” said Ernst & Young’s Karyn Twaronite. “Within our organization, I’m consistently reminded of how our black professionals are building a better working world, and these cross-company events made it clear there are so many more success stories to celebrate throughout our businesses and communities — yet we must tell these stories if we want to replicate and multiply them.”

Reflecting on different career journeys

No one’s career starts at the top, and the panelists offered motivating and inspirational stories about their journeys into leadership roles and the C-suite, as well as their unique experiences as black professionals. For example, Kaiser’s Gregory Adams told the Oakland audience that despite growing up in the South in the 1960s and personally experiencing discrimination, “It never defined who I was or who I was going to be.”

During the Seattle roundtable, Microsoft’s Joanne Harrell shared her own stories and perspectives on her success and personal achievements, emphasizing the importance of feeling “centered, comfortable and confident.” Boeing’s Kelvin Council stressed that focusing on performance and technical competency plays a key role in having a successful career. 

Finding common ground in taking risks, learning from mistakes

Each panel provided different takeaways, yet one recurring theme was that taking risks throughout your career is a necessary step to growing professionally. For example, during the Los Angeles roundtable, NBC Universal’s Craig Robinson shared how he is pleased that he pushed through his concerns about taking a job in Columbus, Ohio, a city he had never been to before and was not particularly interested in. “Not only was the opportunity excellent for my career, but it turned out to be the best five years of my life,” he said.

When the Seattle discussion turned to career-shaping opportunities and lessons learned, Boeing’s Kelvin Council commented that, “Everyone makes mistakes, but it is the professional who is willing to take ownership and find a solution who leverages challenges as opportunities to grow professionally.”

Ernst & Young LLP retired partner Tony Anderson noted that this thinking goes to the core of being authentic. “You have to allow people to be who they are at work — not 50%, not 75%, their whole selves. Only then can people truly provide their diverse views, improve the decision-making process and help your organization realize the true value of diversity.”

Building your brand, your network and your board

Another shared theme of the roundtables was the importance of building your personal and professional reputation and continually growing and fostering your professional network. At the Los Angeles roundtable, NBC Universal’s Craig Robinson summarized it well: networking is a quality game, not a quantity game. On the other hand, Kaiser’s Gregory Adams recommended to the Oakland audience that finding a way to disconnect is important, because you can’t bring your true value if you are always connected. He walks an hour and a half a day to unplug.

Finally, the Seattle panelists emphasized how critical it is to establish professional mentors and personal accountability. Boeing’s Kelvin Council suggested building a personal board of directors to rely on for regular, candid and meaningful advice. Microsoft’s Joanne Harrell added that she focuses on being accountable for herself rather than investing time in comparing her work to that of others.

“The Seattle event was yet another validation that translating the tremendous potential of black professionals into positions of power requires both personal passion and sponsorship,” said Ernst & Young’s Marcus Odedina. “This series was largely possible because of our Black Professional Network and similar groups, and I applaud their efforts to bring this learning and networking to the community so we can close what is too often a gap between black potential and power.”

For others considering investment in a D&I event series, Neal Sornsen, Ernst & Young’s San Francisco Bay Area Major Accounts Coordinating Partner, added, “The cross-company planning and participation in this series resulted in meaningful relationship building that advanced D&I initiatives and furthered our joint business goals. I joined many firm partners in hosting and engaging in several events from beginning to end. The events may have taken place in the West, but I am confident their impact extends across the US andbeyond.”

* This article features contributed content and has not been fact-checked or copy-edited by DiversityInc.

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New York City cops intentionally are targeting Black and Latino youth for marijuana possession, according to a new report from the Drug Policy Alliance.  The data suggest that the NYPD, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration, is acting on racial bias to inequitably arrest Black and Latinos for marijuana possession—an initiative that’s wasting both valuable taxpayer dollars and more than 1 million hours of police time.

The “One Million Police Hours” study, prepared by Queens College professor Dr. Harry Levine, quantifies that NYPD personnel have made 440,000 arrests (estimated at $1,000 to $2,000 or more a pop) over the last decade and held individuals in police custody for approximately 5 million hours, costing the city a grand total of at least $440 million dollars—the report says estimates can exceed $1 billion.

A 1977 law that decriminalized marijuana possession for amounts of less than one ounce gave police authority to arrest and charge anyone if the marijuana is in public view. It’s a loophole that police have used during stop-and-frisks, which require a person to empty the contents of their pockets or bags, and are used frequently to target Blacks and Latinos.

The NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policies also are being evaluated in the Floyd v. City of New York trial, which argues the motives and definition of “probable cause” searches.

Bamboozle Arrests Total 85 Percent Blacks, Latinos

The people arrested? Eighty-five percent were Blacks or Latinos, with 50 percent under the age of 21. This is despite research that shows the majority of marijuana users are whites.

The report reads: “We agree with Governor Cuomo who said in his 2013 State of the State address, ‘These arrests stigmatize, they criminalize, they create a permanent record. It’s not fair, it’s not right, it must end, and it must end now.’”

Neither the NYPD nor Bloomberg has responded to the report or the accusations of racial bias.

Bloomberg announced in February a slight change to the marijuana arrest policy and a reduction in the legal consequences: Those in possession of low levels of marijuana (25 grams or less) will not need to remain jailed overnight.

The post More Whites Smoke Weed, But NYC Spent $440M Targeting Blacks and Latinos appeared first on DiversityInc.

The debut of the President’s doppelganger as “Satan” on HISTORY channel’s hit miniseries The Bible went viral this week (@bibleseries, #TheBible) once fans, including conservative radio host Glenn Beck, began tweeting their reactions to the uncanny resemblance between the actor (Mohamen Mehdi Ouazanni) cast to play Christianity’s fallen angel and Obama.

You can read some of The Bible fans’ tweets here.

But wait, there’s more: Ouazanni is Moroccan! Without makeup to darken his skin and accentuate his features, he looks nothing like Obama. The actor, who has starred in several biblical TV films, has light skin; long, graying hair; and facial hair. Scroll down to see the image below.

Satan Looks Like Obama? Coincidence?

It’s a casting—and costuming—gaffe that has the public slamming The Bible producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey (both white) with accusations of racism. The controversy that according to this married Hollywood couple is “utter nonsense.” Burnett says, “Mehdi Ouzaani is a highly acclaimed Moroccan actor. He has previously played parts in several biblical epics—including Satanic characters long before Barack Obama was elected as our President.”

The stereotype of the devil having a dark-skinned appearance has existed since the early third and fourth centuries. How many films  actually feature a Black actor or someone with darkened skin in that role?

As it turns out, the majority of movies since the early 1940s personify Satan as a white, middle-aged man—The Devil and Daniel Webster (Walter Huston, 1941), Angel Heart (Robert DeNiro, 1987), The Witches of Eastwick (Jack Nicholson, 1987), The Devil’s Advocate (Al Pacino, 1997), The Reaping (David Morrissey, 2007); as a large red monster—Legend (Tim Curry, 1985) and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (voice of Trey Parker, 1999); or as a seemingly innocent, possessed white child—The Exorcist (Linda Blair, 1973) and The Omen (Harvey Stephens, 1976, and Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, 2006). You can click here to see more examples.

Research shows the damaging effects that stereotypes can have on individuals’ sense of self. For example, Dr. Claude Steele’s study on stereotypes in the workplace and schools (detailed in the video below) shows a direct correlation between negative slurs and low performance.

What The Bible Producers, HISTORY Channel Have to Say

So why did Burnett and Downey think this was a good idea? In a statement, they denied any intended connection between Blacks and Obama and the Satan character.

Downey added that both she and Burnett, her husband, love and respect Obama. She says that “false statements such as these are just designed as a foolish distraction.”

HISTORY channel, owned by A+E Networks, also released a statement that similarly expressed its approval and respect for the President. “The series was produced with an international and diverse cast of respected actors. It’s unfortunate that anyone made this false connection,” the statement read.

But are their responses enough? Will The Bible lose its status as Sunday’s No. 1–watched show? As Lisa Suhay writes on The Christian Science Monitor’s website: “The problem with ‘utter nonsense’ is that people just can’t seem to stop uttering it all over the Twitterverse and other social-media sites.”

–Stacy Straczynski

The post HISTORY Channel Racist? Why Satan Looks Like Obama appeared first on DiversityInc.

Greenlining is also asking the magazine for demographic data on its staff and management, a more thorough and heartfelt apology, and a follow-up story on the true causes of the housing crisis (bank greed) rather than blaming the collapse on Blacks and Latinos.

The cover showed a caricature of Black and Latino people literally rolling in cash because of the improved housing market.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VIEW

So far, neither the mayor nor the magazine have responded. If there is no response, Greenlining plans to contact the magazine’s regular advertisers and event sponsors—including several DiversityInc Top 50 companies, such as AT&T, IBM, Verizon, Toyota and Dell—and ask them to pressure the publication. Other advertisers in the 84-page issue with the inflammatory cover included Xerox, Bank of America, State Street Corporation, Netsuite, T. Rowe Price, Microsoft, UPS, Hampton Inn (owned by Hilton) and Capital One.

“I don’t think these companies want to be associated with a company that can do something so despicable and backward. We will ask them to send Bloomberg Businessweeka note and speak up that diversity does count and Bloomberg should comply with our information request. They owe the community a better policy and it needs to be written in their magazine,” said Greenlining Executive Director Orson Aguilar.

A look at the top management of both the magazine and its parent company, Bloomberg LP, shows its senior management is mostly white and male. That includes Editor Josh Tyrangiel, Creative Director Richard Turley and Publisher Hugh Wiley at the magazine, and President Daniel Doctoroff, Chairman Peter Grauer, Chief Content Officer Norm Pearlstine and Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief Matthew Winkler at Bloomberg LP.

Bloomberg does not participate in the DiversityInc Top 50, so we do not have actual management demographics. By comparison, 18 percent of the senior level (CEOs and direct reports) of the DiversityInc Top 50 are Black, Latino or Asian, 80 percent more than the average of the Fortune 500. And 24 percent of the senior level of the DiversityInc Top 50 are women, 20 percent more than the Fortune 500 average.

The Greenlining Institute—which is supported by the Greenlining Coalition, comprised of 37 business and community groups—wrote in a letter to Bloomberg and the editors:

<blockquote>It may well be that you would have done it “differently” if you had known the cover illustration would garner so much public outcry. Nonetheless, your magazine is only reacting to negative feedback from its readers and the nation. The vast majority of America’s Latinos, Asian-Pacific Islanders and African-Americans may still be hard-pressed to understand why a serious magazine with excellent writers and substantial literary acclaim believed that insulting America’s diverse citizens was the best way to portray “The Great American Housing Rebound.”</blockquote>

The letter was signed by Aguilar and Economic Equity Senior Program Manager Sasha Werblin.

Referencing the advertisers/sponsors, the letter stated: “After all, what company would want to make enemies with the fastest-growing consumer segment in America?”  The letter also questioned whether the “tone deafness” of the cover and the staff that approved it is a reflection of the lack of diversity among the management and the staff.

The cover was designed by Andres Guzman, a freelancer who was born in Peru and now lives in Minneapolis.

The image and the cover lines are particularly offensive because Blacks and Latinos were disproportionately impacted by the subprime crisis from 2007–2009, which has been demonstrated by the billions of dollars of fines levied against the likes of Bank of America and Citigroup.

Pew Research Center noted that the bursting of the housing bubble caused far greater damage to these two communities, mostly because of the subprime loans given to people who didn’t have enough money or credit to qualify.

According to Pew, from 2005–2009, Latino wealth fell by 66 percent and Black wealth fell by 53 percent, compared with 16 percent for whites.

One study found that during the subprime years, banks were twice as likely to approve whites for prime mortgages with the best interest rates, while Blacks and Latinos received two to four times more subprime loans, most of which had such high rates they put the borrowers “under water” quickly. Another study found that the major banks made 70 percent of their high-cost loans in neighborhoods that were predominantly Black and/or Latino.

After the cover came out, Tyrangiel issued this “apology”: “Our cover illustration last week got strong reactions, which we regret. Our intention was not to incite or offend. If we had to do it over again we’d do it differently.”

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A joint study by the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that two-thirds of the estimated 2.6 million adults who will become eligible for federal subsidies in California’s health-insurance exchange are Black, Latino or Asian, and 36 percent of those currently uninsured and expected to be covered under ACA have limited English proficiency.

While the ACA mandates that health plans be translated into appropriate languages in areas where 10 percent or more of the population speaks a language other than English, the bigger challenge is getting culturally competent information out to explain the new rules.

California is one of 18 states setting up its own health exchange to help newly insured people compare and purchase health-insurance plans. The remaining states will default to the Federal Health Exchange.

The California exchange chose its name—Covered California—because it translates well into several of California’s commonly spoken languages. The organization’s website has a Spanish version as well as one in 11 other languages, including Farsi, Khmer, Lao, Russian and Tagalog. The site contains clear information about what is covered and includes definitions of new healthcare terminology.

Consumers may well choose a health insurer based on the resources insurers can share about how patients will be cared for in a culturally competent manner under each insurer’s plan. WellPoint’s Anthem Blue Cross (WellPoint is No. 34 on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list) and Kaiser Permanente (No. 3 on the DiversityInc Top 50) are among the four largest insurers of the approximately 30 that will be offered by Covered California. WellPoint offers services in five languages  and has an online Spanish video that introduces members to its most popular programs. Anthem has produced a cultural-competence resource for physicians and healthcare professionals that is intended to help reduce health disparities caused by a lack of culturally or linguistically competent care. The new toolkit is available on a website dedicated to cultural and linguistic competency.

Kaiser Permanente has a link on its website to numerous in-language plan materials and just released a Spanish version of its healthcare-reform website. Kaiser, which provides healthcare as well as health insurance, also has a National Linguistic & Cultural Programs department that develop strategies to ensure meaningful access to healthcare and services for people with limited English. Kaiser presented its program to train and use staff members as bilingual translators and its Diversity and Health Video Series, a cultural-competence training tool, at a recent DiversityInc Innovation Fest!

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This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

The Howard University School of Law is one of the oldest law schools in the country and the oldest law school at any historically black college or university (HBCU). Its Civil Rights Clinic has filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8 by highlighting how all of the arguments against same-gender marriage equality are simply recycled variations on arguments that were used to justify prohibitions of interracial marriage until Loving v. Virginia was decided in 1967 (citations omitted):

In the Jim Crow era, the denial of marriage rights to interracial couples served as one of the most potent symbols of the less-than-equal status of  African-Americans. As recently as 1967, sixteen states still had anti-miscegenation statutes on their books; the last such statute was not officially repealed until 2000. Opponents of interracial marriage justified criminal prohibitions against such unions by pointing to the purported detrimental effect of interracial births and parentage, the supposed destruction of society if people marry between the races, and the so-called natural law rationale for keeping the races separate.

While public debate over interracial unions has generally died since Loving v. Virginia, today the opposition to marriage for same-sex couples relies on arguments strikingly similar to those raised in opposition to interracial marriage. Without acknowledging the racial provenance of these discredited arguments, opponents of marriage equality have attacked same-sex couples as a threat to American society, American families and heterosexual marriage, as an affront to the laws of God and nature, and as a menace to their children.

The brief goes on to highlight five distinct arguments that transcend the debates between marriage equality for interracial couples and marriage equality for same-gender couples:

• SOCIAL ORDER: Marriage equality is a threat to the social order and would “introduce a form of pollution to marriage.”
• SEXUALIZATION: The people who want to get married have relationships that are purely sexual, promiscuous, and “deviant.”
• PSEUDOSCIENCE: Researchers have distorted research to raise fears about supposed consequences of marriage equality.
• JUDEO-CHRISTIAN VALUES: The Bible forbids recognizing these relationships.
• CHILDREN: These relationships will cause physical and psychological damage to the children they raise.

The similarities are jarring, and Howard provides plenty of examples for each to demonstrate just how unoriginal the arguments against same-gender marriage truly are. The brief concludes with this stirring rebuke of equality’s opponents, including a quote from gay Black poet James Baldwin:

But the certainty and monotony with which some will always sound the death knell for society, morality, and faith, just because two adults choose to marry, cannot obscure the reality that we heard virtually the same arguments for almost three hundred years to justify preventing two black people from marrying and then a black man from marrying a white woman. Nor, when all is said and done, can these jeremiads about how marriage equality for same-sex couples will lead to our final slouching toward Gomorrah obscure the reality that it is “an inexorable law that one cannot deny the humanity of another without diminishing one’s own.”

(HT: Kathleen Perrin.)

The post Black Lawyers to SCOTUS: We’ve Heard These Anti-Marriage Equality Arguments Before appeared first on DiversityInc.

• Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick last week proposed taxing soda and candy, the latest state leader to do so. About a third of Massachusetts children and 58 percent of residents are either overweight or obese. A similar proposal last year was unsuccessful.

• South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley wants to seek a waiver from the federal government to prohibit food stamps from being used for unhealthy foods like soda, candy and chips. South Carolina has the eighth highest rate of obesity in the country and is one of only two states that does not categorize obesity as a disease under Medicaid.

• Florida State Senator Ronda Storms introduced similar legislation last year and was met with a good deal of resistance; the effort ultimately failed. Storms told New York Times columnist Mark Bittman that soon after she proposed the bill, “Coca-Cola and Kraft were in my office” hating it.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reported that a tax-related 20 percent price increase on caloric sweetened beverages could cause an average reduction of 37 calories per day (3.8 pounds of body weight over a year) for adults and an average of 43 calories per day (4.5 pounds over a year) for children, resulting in a measurable decrease in obesity.

• Last month, the Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to determine a safe level of added sugars for beverages as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce Americans’ dangerously high sugar consumption. Ten health departments, 20 public-health organizations and 41 health professionals signed a letter in support of the petition.

• While New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been successful in enacting a ban on jumbo-sized sugary drinks, set to go into effect this month, it was an extremely hard-fought battle. Even in New York City, where the rate of obesity among Blacks, Latinos and those in low-income communities is 70 percent, Bloomberg has gotten pushback on the soda restriction.

Although 39 states already tax sugary drinks, the huge processed-food lobby prevented a soda tax from being approved last November in two California locales, and even First Lady Michelle Obama, a staunch anti-obesity campaigner and healthy-eating advocate, refused to comment on the Florida food-stamp proposal while it was being debated. Further, existing state taxes are too small to significantly reduce consumption, and almost none of the revenues are earmarked for health promotion.

Efforts to get Americans to eat healthier are facing seemingly insurmountable pressure from groups like the American Beverage Association, which reportedly spent more than $3.5 million to help defeat the two recent California ballot measures, and the processed-food industry, which is harshly criticized in Michael Moss’ new book, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us (excerpted recently in The New York Times Magazine) for knowingly appealing to consumers’ addiction to salt and sugar.

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Organizations that advocate for local businesses, like the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, say that Walmart’s two-year-old healthier-food program, endorsed by First Lady Michelle Obama, is a ploy to help the company make inroads into urban areas and push out smaller food retailers. Others, such as Huffington Post business editor Jillian Berman, question whether even this huge effort is enough to wean consumers from the junk food that has become a dietary addiction.

One of the important studies cited in Mrs. Obama’s Wall Street Journal op-ed piece about the initiative referenced the payoff that offering healthier, lower-calorie foods can bring to business. If other companies see the value in following Walmart’s lead, there may be hope for curbing the obesity epidemic that is contributing to health disparities and soaring healthcare costs.

The program has a number of elements that should lead to healthier eating habits:

• Reformulating packaged foods to contain less sodium and sugar.
• Lower prices on fresh foods because of Walmart’s economies of scale with producers and suppliers.
• More than $9.5 million in grants to nutrition-education programs.
• Opening between 275 and 300 new stores in urban and rural so-called food deserts by 2016.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 14.9 percent (17.9 million households) were food insecure in 2011. Food-insecure households had difficulty providing enough food for all their members. Walmart has already opened 86 stores in food deserts since 2011, using the Department of Agriculture’s Food Desert Locator to pinpoint locations. The new stores serve both urban and rural areas including Atlanta, Durham, N.C., and Springfield, Mo., where Mrs. Obama spoke last week.

The healthier-food effort is in step with Walmart’s declaration late last year that 100 percent of its growth will come from multicultural customers, which includes groups, such as Blacks and Latinos, that are at highest risk for obesity—in turn putting them at risk for diseases triggered by poor nutrition, such as diabetes and heart disease. Combine that with the fact that 56.7 percent of Walmart’s customers have household incomes below $50,000, and it’s clear that even if the healthier-food efforts are being made for self-serving reasons, they likely will help reduce healthcare costs that currently represent about 18 percent of the GDP.

In another push to bring health awareness to its customers, Walmart last week also announced that it would be putting healthcare kiosks into 2,500 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores this month. The kiosks, made by SoloHealth, will allow people to check their blood pressure or heart rate while buying their fruits and vegetables. SoloHealth said it plans to update the kiosks so that they include smoking-cessation tips, diabetes testing and programs for helping consumers enroll in health plans. Consumer advocates have raised privacy concerns about the kiosks, which ask consumers for their email addresses to send follow-up information. But if the machines are raising awareness among those who might be uninsured or not inclined to see a physician, they might just motivate consumers to take charge of their health.

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