Jax makes the worst list

[jtwestside]

Why would jogging be socially unacceptable, yet sitting on a bus bench drinking all day is acceptable? Why would taking a morning walk around the neighborhood be considered socially unacceptable?

I'll let you know when I figure that one out!   

The Rev. Jesse Jackson called Tuesday on Democrats seeking the 2008 nomination for president to give S.C. voters “something to vote for” when they go to the polls in January...
Jackson sharply criticized presidential hopeful and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for “acting like he’s white” in what Jackson said has been a tepid response to six black juveniles’ arrest on attempted-murder charges in Jena, La....

“If I were a candidate, I’d be all over Jena,” Jackson said after an hour-long speech at Columbia’s historically black Benedict College.

“Jena is a defining moment, just like Selma was a defining moment,” said the iconic civil rights figure, who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1965 Selma civil rights movement and was with King at his 1968 assassination.

From WikiPedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting_white

Acting white is an epithet usually applied to African-Americans, and also within ethnic groups such as Asian-Americans and Native Americans as well as sometimes culturally diverse groups such as Latinos and Hawaii residents, which refers to a perceived betrayal of one's culture by incorporating the social expectations of white society.[1] The phrase was coined by Signithia Fordham and first popularized in her groundbreaking 1986 study, Black Students' School Success: Coping with the "Burden of 'Acting White.'"[2] Black people that are accused of acting white are sometimes referred to as Black Anglo-Saxons, a term coined by comedian Paul Mooney.

Case studies
Though not all scholars define acting white in precisely the same way, most definitions include a reference to situations where some minority adolescents ridicule their minority peers for engaging in behaviors perceived to be characteristic of whites. In 1986, Signithia Fordham co-authored with Nigerian sociologist John Ogbu a study that concluded that high-performing African American students in a Washington, D.C. high school borrowed from hegemonic white culture as part of a strategy for achievement, while struggling to maintain a black identity. Ogbu made a related claim in his 2003 book, Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement, concluding that black students' own cultural attitudes hindered academic achievement and that these attitudes are too often neglected. However, as Ogbu made clear in his seminal work Minority Education and Caste (1978), school disengagement among caste-like minorities occurs because of the glass ceiling placed by white society on the job-success of their parents and others in their communities. He reasoned that non-whites "failed to observe the link between educational achievement and access to jobs."

Though the study's conclusion gained a popular foothold and has been exposed by figures such as Bill Cosby, a later study challenged its validity. In 2003, Karolyn Tyson, a sociologist, and William Darity Jr, an economist, both at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, directed an 18 month study at eleven North Carolinian schools. The study concluded that white and black students have essentially the same attitudes about scholastic achievement; students in both groups want to succeed in school and show higher levels of self-esteem when they do better in school.

A 2006 study titled An Empirical Analysis of "Acting White" by Roland G. Fryer, Jr. at Harvard University and Paul Torelli suggested that the phenomenon probably had little to no effect on students achieving at average levels, but might explain a significant role in the disparities between black and white students at high achievement levels.

[Charleston native]

The culture one is immersed in actually controls behaviors and attitudes. Apparently, in many poor areas, it's culturally acceptable to sit on a park bench drinking alcohol and consuming moonpies rather than eating an apple and go surfing. The culture in places like Colorado and California heavily emphasizes exercise and eating right...rather in California, it's more for superficial reasons like looking good in a bathing suit.

Notice that income levels also affect the culture with many of these cities having higher incomes than people who live in the urban core.

I do think this list is BS, because some of the cities that were used show a complete skew in the measurements. Take Columbia, for example. With the lack of decent fitness centers and recreation centers, the heavy emphasis on fried foods and barbecue, and the lack of natural amenities, Cola deserved a much worse ranking than Jax. In addition, you have a lower median income, inferior culture (both thug culture and redneck), and a lack of walkable streets around the area (far worse than Jax, believe me).

[RiversideGator]

No surprise. So many in this city enjoy a steady diet of takeout chinese food, fried chicken, cheeseburgers and pizza.

Sounds good.  You forgot to add BarBQ though.   

[ProjectMaximus]

The story I originally referenced, about Huntington being the unhealthiest city according to the CDC, speaks mostly about the economic struggles as the primary factor and looks to improved education as the most promising solution.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,452864,00.html