At The Root, Linda Villarosa explains that girls and women of color are not immune to eating disorders:

Anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders have spread beyond the core population of white, middle-class girls and into groups that were once considered invulnerable, according to Kate Taylor, editor of the new anthology Going Hungry: Writers on Desire, Self-Denial and Overcoming Anorexia (Anchor Books).

Taylor, a culture reporter at the New York Sun, was hospitalized for anorexia during her junior year at Harvard. She expected the other patients to be “pathetic, passive, probably former ballerinas with nothing more important on their minds than how many calories are in a carrot stick or a slice of diet bread.”

But her peers at the hospital were very different. “The other patients defied all stereotypes,” she writes. “Very few were young, rich white girls. At the first treatment unit outside Boston and in a later program in New York, I met anorexics who were middle-aged, who were mothers, who were African American, Latino, Orthodox Jewish and even male.” Read more…

On Harlow’s Monkey, learn more about the inaugural gathering of adopted and fostered adults of the African Diaspora.

Announcing the 1st annual gathering of adoptees (transracial/international and same race) and foster care alums of African descent in Oakland, California, November 7-9, 2008.

AFAAD (Adopted and Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora) was formed specifically to support adopted and fostered people, to share our common and divergent experiences around race, adoption, joy, loss, family, search and reunion, and self identity and to celebrate our unique creativity, stories and community. AFAAD’s First Annual Gathering, Healing Ourselves, Making Connections is designed with you mind. Read more…

From the Associated Press, a temple in an Alabama small town is offering Jewish families $50,000 to relocate to the community: 

DOTHAN, Ala. – Larry Blumberg is looking for a few good Jews to move to his corner of the Bible Belt.

Blumberg is chairman of the Blumberg Family Relocation Fund, which is offering Jewish families as much as $50,000 to relocate to Dothan, an overwhelmingly Christian town of 58,000 that calls itself the Peanut Capital of the World. Get involved at Temple Emanu-El and stay at least five years, the group’s leaders say, and the money doesn’t have to be repaid. Read more…