relevant and inspirational act,” Dixon said, reminiscing about those early days when the seeds for GirlTrek were being planted.
One thing they knew off the bat: the solution would not be in focusing on the bad news about black women’s health—to wit, that more than 80 percent struggle with obesity or overweight, according to the National Centers for Disease and Prevention, that 44 percent have hypertension, that 13 percent have diabetes, that they die from heart attacks, hypertension and stroke at higher rates than any group of women. Most black women, Dixon said, don’t need data to tell them that. “We already know something is wrong when we’re barely able to walk and breathe, and we’re having strokes at age 38. We live the statistics.” And often, Garrison added, against great odds.
“Every day, people in our community are making moment-to-moment decisions about surviving—how to put food on the table, pay rent, navigate hostile environments,” she said. “Asking ‘can I take a walk today?’ becomes less important in the scheme of things.”
So, the two women began thinking about how to reframe the traditional concept of “fitness,” which Dixon said can often sound self-indulgent to many black women. “It’s aligned with leisure time, or vanity, or in an emergency, health,” she said. “But that’s never inspiring.”
They already knew that taking 30 minutes a day to walk greatly lowers the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and depression. They knew there was something magical about breathing fresh air, getting sunshine, hearing a supportive shout-out from a passer-by, and when walking with friends, feeling the powerful camaraderie of like-minded women on a mission.
What was missing, they said, were affirming messages that made black women feel they deserved that time, that got them motivated, that gave them a