Shay:

Alas, I don't know anyone personally but the issue is sufficiently interesting
that I did a bit of looking.  I don't want to conflate your interest in fitness
with one in sports/sports, but there could be some useful crossover.  Not sure
about the authors' external or self-identified racial identities, but these
might be some good sources.

- Sheila Scranton. Chapter 10: Reconceptualizing race, gender and sport - the
contribution of black feminism. In 'Race', Sport, and British Society.  Eds. Ben
Carrington and Ian McDonald. London: Routledge. 2001.

- Nancy E. Spencer. Sister Act VI: Venus and Serena Williams at Indian Wells -
"Sincere Fictions" and White Racism.  Journal of Sport & Social Issues 28(2):
115-135. 2004.

- Virginia M. Leath and Angela Lumpkin. An Analysis of Sportswomen on the covers
and in the feature articles of women's sports and fitness magazine, 1975-1989.
Journal of Sport & Social Issues 16(2): 121-126. 1992.

And I know you are trying to steer away from studies, but perhaps this study is
more up the right alley?  It looks like the best of the bunch, IMHO, if only
based on the narrowness of the subject and the use of philosophically relevant
toolsets like that from Collins and the acknowledgement of the dominant
culture's model being fundamentally biomedical.

- Margaret Carlisle Duncan and T. Tavita Robinson.  Obesity and Body Ideals in
the Media: Health and Fitness Practices of Young African-American Women. Quest
56(1). 2004.

ABSTRACT: This study explores the female body ideal and its implications for
health and fitness practices in African-American culture. Employing Patricia
Hill Collins's (1986) notion of the “outsider-within,” we analyze a focus group
discussion on women's body ideals, exercise, and fitness. Our group comprises 9
young, college-educated African-American women who reject the White-American
ideal of thinness, yet recognize that the “thick” (full-figured) African-
American ideal is problematic, especially when considered in the context of the
dominant culture's biomedical model. Prompted by their examination of popular
mass media images selected by the coauthors, the women discursively negotiate
between two contrasting cultural standards: an unrealistically slender body
ideal and a heavier body weight and shape that may lend itself to the kinds of
diseases associated with obesity.

Probably didn't help much, but it's a very interesting issue!

Best,
  Alison Reiheld

   --------------------------------------------------
   Alison Reiheld
   Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy
   SIU-Edwardsville
   American Philosophical Association Committee on Pre-College
      Instruction in Philosophy
   http://plato-apa.org/



Quoting Shay Welch <[log in to unmask]>:

> Does anyone know any black women professors who are writing on black women
> and fitness?  I've been searching amazon, google, google scholar, and the
> library website and can only find science articles doing comparative
> studies.  There is a book titled Body Language: Sisters in Shape but it is
> written by an asian scholar.  Any suggestions would help.
>
> --
> All my best,
> Shay Welch
> Assistant Professor of Philosophy
> Spelman College
>
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