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Study Finds Overweight Experience Discrimination
Last week was the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King helped America understand that it's unfair to judge a person based on the color of his skin. In 1964 the US Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. That federal law made it illegal to discriminate because of the color of a person's skin or because of his or her gender.
Most Americans understand that racism and sexism are wrong. But what about weightism? A study from Yale University says that most Americans believe it's OK to fire someone from a job just because he or she is overweight. In fact, overweight women are treated even worse than overweight men. Discriminating against people based on their weight is not against the law.
A scientist who worked on the study thinks that most people believe that if someone is overweight, it's their fault. You can't change your skin color, or whether you're male or female, but shouldn't you be able to make yourself thinner?
A panel at the National Institute of Health says that people can't lose more than 10 percent of their body weight and keep it off. That may be because we have so much high calorie food everywhere. In any case, judging someone by the way they look instead of who they are is still unfair.
I'm Ben and that's what happened in our nation this week.
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