Any topic involving race is dangerous, especially when you throw genetics, slavery and athletics into the mix. But, I think this is discussion worth having and I’ll attempt to do it in the most sensitive manner possible. I won’t be using the term African-American because that’s inaccurate in my eyes: Dikembe Mutumbo is African-American, Allen Iverson is not. Would you call Kevin McHale Irish- American? Many black people living in this country could theoretically trace their roots back to colonial America (ala Alex Haley), so it’d be just as ridiculous as people calling themselves English-Americans.
Now that we’ve laid down a few ground rules, we get to the initial question: are black people better athletes? While many would prefer not to decline or come up with some politically correct answer, deep down inside I think most people believe this to be true. Yes, it’s stereotypical, but at the core of many stereotypes is some truth. Why are the overwhelming majority of NBA players, sprinters, Wide Receivers, and Running Backs black? Surely you’ve asked yourself this question before. Is it a case of perception or reality, nature or nuture? There has to be a sensible answer, right?
A little less than 20 years ago, Jimmy the Greek was fired for attempting to answer this question honestly on the CBS Evening News.
The black is the better athlete. And he practices to be the better athlete and he’s bred to be the better athlete because this goes back to the slave period. The slave owner would breed this big black with this big black woman so they could have a big black kid. That’s where it all started. (http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/cbsfired.htm)
Insensitive? Yes. His statements were very controversial and cost him his job, but was he wrong? While he used a very simplistic way to explain the process, I certainly believe there is a great deal of truth to his theory. More importantly, there’s more dimension beyond the physical that he was unable to explore.
Assuming slavery started somewhere around 1650, for more than 200 years slaves were bred for their physical prowess. It’s important to note that it wasn’t some natural selection process, where females were attracted to the alpha male, it was an outside party controlling who was to “breed”. Since slaves did physical work, stronger stock was more profitable both on the plantation and in the marketplace. I’m no biologist, but anecdotal evidence suggests that typically when two people with great physical size and ability have a child, their child shares many of those qualities and in some cases, exceeds them. During this same period, white people at large chose who they would reproduce with, leaving no distinct pattern about which to theorize.
But, more importantly than the biological effects of slavery and the dehumanizing “breeding” process, is the psychological impact it had and continues to have on both black and white people. In short, suppressing black people was much easier when they were viewed as less than human. But, that greatly increased the focus on their physical abilities, which were considered to be superior to those of “civilized” white people. Unfortunately, both white and black people are still hamstrung by that mentality in the new millennium.
Let me be clear, I don’t think modern white people view black people as less than human. But the residue of that thinking exists in the high regard for the physical prowess of black people. Who gets picked first in the pick-up basketball game? How do you describe the strengths of white athletes? Sadly, the black community at large has embraced this mentality and focused their attention on physical pursuits as opposed to getting the most from their mental capabilities. Who would you pick in an essay contest? What percentage of black people are famous for physical pursuits (sports, singing, dancing, etc.)? To paraphrase Chris Rock, even getting out of prison is more celebrated than graduation.
To answer the question posed by my title: Yes, black people are better athletes in the current state of our society but not necessarily for the reasons one might think. It has just as much (if not more) to do with nurture than it does with nature. At the end of the day, there is no clear solution. I’m saddened by black kids that believe athletics are their only legal shot to make it. I’m angry that in many situations, they’ve been given few reasons or resources to hope for anything different. While the perceived inferiority in physical pursuits can erode the confidence of a white child, but statistically speaking, they have better career options so it’s not as critical of a situation as black people face. As with most important things in life, there are no easy answers.
While many may disagree, my intent was to encourage honest dialogue about race, not just in blogfrica, but in real life. I’m more than open to feedback and criticism. The worst thing to happen to race relations in America was the politically correct movement. I truly believe it removed honesty from many discussions involving race, leaving the subject a hollow shell of procedures and etiquette. And since people aren’t accustomed to honesty, both sides become very sensitive even at the slightest mention of the topic. So, please have an opinion and express it. We have to be the generation that starts to move past this ridiculousness. I promise I won’t call you racist if you don’t call me a race-baiter.
If I had to pick someone for an essay-writing contest, I’d pick Jon.
If it was a photoshop contest, I’d pick Lunchbox.
But that’s just because us white folk have been breeding our top graphic artists with humorists for centuries.
I dislike the “strongest survive” hypothesis; more likely, just as in everyday life, it’s a combination of luck and skill. After all, the strongest might also have been the most physically agressive, and would have then been a target for any taskmaster.
However, I know that whenever I show up at the local basketball court where mostly blacks play and pull off a fancy dribble or pass, or block a shot, I’ll still hear oohs and aahs that are a tad too loud. It’s because a less-than-athletic looking white boy did it, I know. Oh well; it makes it more fun, actually.
You are an idiot. Your first statement proves your stupidity. Please shut up about a subject if you have no idea about it.
Biatch!
I knew it – MC Bias is a hot dog.
I totaly agree with that theory.
BLACK POWER
No you mean NlGGER POWER. NlGGER POWER
. Eating
To have an all black town just because people know
By instinct that you the NlGGER Race are soo
Stupid you will kill, hurt people, rape Women,
“At a much much higher rate per black person”
Even more than a race that has a much much
Higher rate of crime and destruction even
Though blacks only make up about 10% of the
Population! You know in Africa Some areas
Are very well known to be cannibals
Foreigners mainly choosing japanese explorers.
Instead of arguing with me look it up yourself
And come to realize how true this fact is in Africa!
Nlggers use tar soap and poop as shampoo
Haha you ignorant people are so funny. It’s humorous to stumble upon your snide comments. Your husband actually washes me and your daughter washes my hair. Tell them great job, especially your man.
And Kim, if Black people bother you so much do yourself a favor and don’t hide behind a screen and a keyboard. Tell them how you really feel in person!
I don’t think sports has anything to with genetics, but I strongly agree with the statement OP made about the sociology behind the idea. Black children grow up thinking “I can only be a rapper or a B ball playa” while white children are told you can be anything you want but stay away from sports cause you will NEVER succeed, when if fact anyone can be whatever they want to be if they try. PS. The stereotype can be limiting to black education and crushing to a white boys physical confidence, so please dont embrace it as truth.
“I don’t think sports has anything to with genetics”
Are you retarded? Or just extremly ignorant? So you are basically saying that a guy that has a height of 5 feet, is blind and has downsyndrome is as good in sports as a guy that has a height of 7 feet and an athletic posture?
Goddamn idiot!!
well said, genetics is everything in sports
Im black and grew up believing I could be anything I wanted to be, but like most other people, we wanna be like “Mike”, not because it’s all we thought we could be, but it was spectacular, or any other adjective you wanna use to describe it……
in america that may be how things are bu not in sunny old england ….
Its in the genes. Researchers in England, trying to prevent a genetic muscle wasting condition discovered that people without the ACTN3 gene were at a higher risk. Everyone has the gene as it is the gene that makes muscles, specifically fast twitch muscle fibers. For the most part Caucasians in England have 1 pair of the gene with 1/5 of the population having none and only the elite athletes having a double pair. Researchers in the United States discovered that Caucasians in the US have more of the ACTN3 by percentage and that as a whole a larger percentage of African Americans have the double gene. Research also showed several Olympic jumpers and sprinters did not have the Gene at all. So while Genes might be 80% of it the most important 20% is desire and training.
I found this explanation more informative then the main article. Thanks
By what this article says, whites will eventually catch up to blacks in sports because the outside breeding influence will be gone and black male athletes breed with white women thereby leveling the playing field.
I think this whole discussion is garbage… Any reasonably healthy person can become a great athlete… Its been proven that this issues is a stereotype issue with society. A study was done to show that all races proformed equally with a made-up sport. First they were just told the rules and all performed roughly the same. Than after they were told that this game takes alot of careful strategy, white people will be better at this. Everyone performed the same except for the black people. Than in another study they did the same thing, but instead told the participants that this sport requires good althletic ability, black people will do better. Everyone except for the white people maintained the same effort. Its all a mental sickness which infects society as a whole…. lol if genes had anything to do with it… I would’ve thrown in the towel a long time ago because neither of my parents or my grand-parents for that matter were the least bit athletically inclined. My family has always been desk jobs and low physical labor, with very few hobbies that were done without sitting down. Its all in your heads, get over it.
i would have to disagree… I played ball in HS and I’m not ashamed to say that i sucked. It didn’t matter how hard i practiced i just was not a good athlete. I didn’t have the size or speed to compete at a high level, and that can’t change no matter what. Yes, i could improve, and i did, but i will never be a peyton manning or drew brees. That’s just life and how things work.
And I’d have to disagree with you. I am a white guy born with a six foot tall, broad, powerful body and with faster-than-average speed even for blacks. I got the good side of genetics to be fair but there are people out there better than me. Constant work and effort enables one to surpass the limitations of average into the extraordinary. Talent (genes) can only take you so far, determination and guts is the only thing that can transform one into a true athlete.
Yo my name is Jamal. I’m 6’5, 245 pounds, thanks to my great-great-grandparents slave owner. I would like to thank Mr. Washington at this time.
why so serious i think i would pick my imaginary friend Sabastion in a pick up baskaetball game, but more importantly i could swim in a bowl of cocoa puffs
I have an alternative idea on the subject. Black people originated in Africa and untill the White Europeans discovered Africa and began to rape and pillage its resources and people they lived in primarily hunter gatherer societys. ‘In the jungle’ so to speak. White people ceased this way of live 1000′s of years before said discovery and rapage. So lets for example say whites have been out of ‘the jungle’ for 1000s of years where as blacks only 100′s. Basicly iam saying Black people are naturally more adapted to physical hardship – at the moment. If this has come across at all racist it was not meant to be. I have equal respect for both cultures and actualy belong to niether. Thankyou.
The question is why the europeans were more advanced? Could it be because they were more intelligent?Darwin pointed out that a species will devlop traits that will enable it to survive. It may have taken more phyical stamina to surive in Afica because food was more abundant and more intelligence to surive in europe because food was less available. Good news, we will be mostly one race sooner or later.
Ummmmmmm africa isnt a country…. neither is america… so its an accurate term.. lol they live in the united states but are from africa and live on the continent of north america hence african americans.
kay Duuude, America is definitely a country. Seriously?
No, America isn’t a country. North America and South America are continents. The country is called the United States of America. If you just say “America” you could be referring to Canada, Mexico, or any South American country.
yeah but really if i want to refer to canada id say canada not america.
You all can fool yourselves into thinking that any healthy person can be a great athlete, blah, blah, blah……..this is simply not true. It is in the genes, whether or not you agree or accept it. If you don’t believe this, go train for sprinting at your local gym. Call me when you run a 4.3 second 40 yard dash. Its not gonna happen folks. You are either born an athlete, or you are not. Does being black help? Absolutely. Only 13 percent of the U.S. population is black. However they compose over 90 percent of professional football and basketball players. Statistics simply do not lie.
ted with all due respect your theory is retarded you’re a go damn idiot and nice false stats fag
go experiment with your daddy’s gun
Really Phil? You can’t express yourself better than that?
Genetics will Influence far more of the athletic outcome than training. Fast twitch muscle fibers, a longer soleus muscle, shorter torso and longer legs are the genetic advantages that black athletes have. There are exceptions to everything, but even a Steve Nash does not move, shift, or contort his body as well as black counterparts.
Ted, the 90% statistic is horribly, horribly wrong………. where did you come up with that?
awesome. FINALLY someone who believes what i believe, and can say what i thought without ignorant people yelling “racist!” i’m a minority myself(asian) so i guess there’s a whole other stereotype with us being really good and math and science? like you said…all stereotypes are rooted in truth, and i would say that 70 percent of all the kids in my math and science classes (at a 95 percent white university) are of Asian descent…the answer is nature AND nuture!
I’m 6’7 225 and white. I’m an athlete at an NCAA D1 school. its not genetics. besides, 200 yrs is not enough time to breed a genetic difference anyways. evolution takes millenia.
evolution takes millenia, selective breeding takes a generation
very true, I watched a show about using selective breeding to domestic wild animals. It only took 9 generations to domesticate a fox. Which was only about 30 years. But it is a combination of genetics and will power. You can be the most gifted athelete ever but if you never play sports how can you know? I think that since black people are statistically shown to be poorer and less succesful (look it up 39.8 percent of people on wellfare are black with them only making up 14% of the population, as well as most universities usually are only comprised of 5% or less blacks, not racist these are statistics), so they spend more time and put more focus on becoming atheletes.
Deductive reasoning doesn’t always give you the correct answer!
Blacks will never dominate all sports because it has been proven that while they are better at doing physical things due to their genetics, they lag behind whites in making up their minds on a course of action (brain processing speed). This is why we still have mostly white quarterbacks and we will never see blacks dominate hockey.
This is terrible. Have you ever seen a group of black people decide not to try out for football and hit the skating rink instead? Blacks just don’t learn to skate and choose to develop their talents in other sports while looking up to black athletes. I think most people view ice hockey as highly specialized. It’s the same reason why blacks don’t dominate soccer leagues. The USA would dominate international play if our team looked like our Olympic basketball squad. Basketball and football are much higher paying professional sports than soccer, so even many white athletes choose not to develop their skills there.
Regarding quarterbacks, I’d say this is more a function of athleticism(whites know they can’t complete with blacks at the other positions that require more speed and strength) as well as history(coaches were less likely to entrust their teams to black players), so the captain role became a stereotypically white QB position.
Basketball and football are much higher paid? Look at guys like David Beckham, Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi. All these guys earn more money in a year than Kobe, Lebron, etc etc..
yeah true mate but you have forgotten one thing, they are international players and the top of the world in their game. he is stating that domestically in the U.S there is nowhere near as much money that football and basketball receive DOMESTICALLY!
Blacks don’t play hockey because many of them come from low income urban settings and can’t afford to buy a full set of hockey gear, or the ice time to practice. It’s much easier for them, or anyone for that matter, to get 1 basketball or football and share it.
exactly. in city perks you see basketball courts a fields, not hockey rinks.
Agreed! It has nothing to do with “brain processing speed”.
“The USA would dominate international play if our team looked like our Olympic basketball squad.”
This is just evidenced by the enormous success of African teams and West European Africanized teams, isn’t it?
Seriously? What the_____? That is 100% pure racist BS. You are basically implying that black athletes are incapable of being cerebral in any activity other than sports. That is so idiotic. They do not have many black quarterbacks because they are racist and do not think that black athletes are mentally equipped and intelligent enough to lead a team. White quarterbacks are given way more chances, opportunities and media hype even when they are mediocre, average. How can black athletes dominate hockey when there is not a hockey rink in sight? I guess you also missed when ESPN did a special on black hockey players from Canada. Your ignorance is really showing after your sheet fell off. Read a book. Do research. Just sad!
every male olympic running event held by a black person, under 10sec in 100m been done 200 times…not once by a white man. Says it all
black people excelling in sports is not an isolated occurence it has been happening all over the world. research it, but thats genes acclamated to climates in a specific geographical location over a long period of time . Not necessarily slavery which was to short for such drastic variations in athletic ability among different races( of course race does not exist so i use the term loosely) . determination etc. are equally important in sculpting an athlete of any race. im being as objective as possible.
One ‘sport,’ if you want to call it that, which never seems to get much attention in these types of debates are strong men competitions. I don’t disagree that blacks do seem to have an inherent genetic advantage when it comes to athleticism, but what about strength? Many attribute blacks success to being stronger due to muscle development, but might their advantages come from bone structure and muscle placement? Whites dominate strong men type events, but even with massive strength it doesn’t mean you can jump high or run fast. I guess I just don’t agree with the concept of white physical inferiority, I just think our physical assets entourage success in different areas. Another thing to consider is ‘Whites’ from region to region (primarily in countries of origin) can have significantly different physical traits, as I’m sure is true with Blacks. Thoughts?
SHagggssssss I’m the best athelete in this post and I ain’t even black man. It’s all about dedication, heart, focus, hard work, etc. not the fact that you black what the hell.
I believe all men are created equally but are not treated equally in any part of the world, even today. We all have the same mental ability and brain power but not the same opportunities, thus making it much harder for people of colour achieve full potential. There is a physical difference with the races due to the geographical location of all our decedents, which could explain exceptional athletic ability of black people. The diffrences are due to changes that have taken place over thousands of years. As we all know century after century our physical body adapts to better suit current conditions and climates, like any other creature or animal. The truth of the matter is we all originate from Africa (yes, even white people), and the only change is our physical appearance which will change over time to suit environment, i.e. white people who left Africa tens of thousands of years ago and settled in Northern Europe started off as black people and after thousands of years in the cold climate, the genetics of inhabitants adapted to the climate. Part of this change caused people to start losing the pigmentation in skin originally designed to protect body from the African sun as well as other features common to the Caucasia. You guessed it black people in Europe were slowly turning white over a period of thousands of years.
Interesting to note that in the entire article the word athlete is not even defined.
1. What is athleticism? Does that include critical decision making such as QB or baseball hitters and pitchers?
2. How is athleticism showed? Hockey a rough athletic sport is dominated by whites…. Pitchers and Hitters are relatively white along with Hispanics. European soccer players are mostly white too. -Spain, Italians, Dutch, Spanish Portuguese are all white.
3. There are plenty of strong and fast black men but an important part of being an athlete has to do with decision making.
do mexicans also have an advantage on whites like black do. and if so are mexicans and blacks the same cause werent they slaves too?
No way dude. Mexicans get the worst end of the deal compared to all other races.
alot of people on here seem upset by the fact that blacks are better athletes.Hockey is a sport dominated by whites because alot of the black youth don’t get into it.They got thousands of black pro football players but how many of them are kickers.They just don’t see the beauty in doing it.in baseball most records you would want to hold are held by blacks.and hispanics are a tribe of africans.Blacks think very well with their bodies they are very creative look at Silva in the ufc or Ali in boxing or Barry Sanders in football its like a work of art watching them poetry in motion so their brain speed has to be pretty damn good.whites are better at swimming and this is by nature they have lighter bones and less musle,fat is lighter than musle.its just the gift god gave to africans to be strong and athletic our asian brothers are also very athletic but you don’t see many on a football field or b ball court,my point what you find beauty in you wanna be.
I believe that black people are better at atheletics mainly because of the adaptation to their former climate in Africa. Like all living species even humans you adapt to your climate and surroundings. African people lived in the hot deserts of Africa which has a very dry climate which is the reason why their noses are generally wider to pick up more humidity, from that white people usually have smaller nostrils due to the colder climates that they have lived in such as germany. Anyway the genetics relates to that Africans have a more narrow developed which makes them more adaptable to move quickly due to size in heigh and leg length which helped them in the deserts to travel long amounts of time quickly with increase stamina, black people generally have stronger legs due to their adaptation. which makes them faster than most white people because they lived in a different region for longer periods of time adapting to cold which is actually a fact that white people generally can handle colder climates and black people can handle warmer climates which can go into a whole other reason on this debate. I believe that generally black people are faster and white people are stronger due to weight lifting records and such
I think you all need to come out more lol Whites and Asians dominate the Olympics (with exeption to running and jumping events) soccer, rugby(which is tougher than american football.) cricket,and many other sports i dont c how you can base a opinion on athletic capability’s just on 2 sports being played in the usa almost only in the usa wich inst even as physically demanding as other sports the rest of the world are playing.mmm i know blacks dominate boxing to.but im sorry i think a ufc champion would beat the shit out of a boxer maybe they realize its a stupid sport to stand there and wait to have ure brains knocked out just so you can have Parkinsons before you die.one thing that pisses me of about Americans is the generalize because they believe america is the only country in the world and no one else maters and they hang on the lips of the media instead of going after the facts.go where ure padding and baby helmets and play ure football with ure tiny players come face a rugby team and c whos boss you weeners
.i belvie you get just as good black athletes as whites but as far as domination goes look at the rest of the world and you’d c im right.oh another fact the worlds strongest man is a polish guy and most before him where of European decent.is track everything in the states or did people forget about strength.and dont tel me oh american football bla bla lol its ive seen your football players against our rugby players and we killed you.and sorry there are alot of tall white and asian men but most of us find basket ball boring.and in the rest of the world its dominated by women lol gues next thing ud say that women are beter athletes case they rule at “basketball”
Did you ever watch the olympics? 95% of the Olympic Athletes are not Black. These are the best of the best athletes of the World competing against The BEST.
So tell me again that blacks are better athletes. 5%? You base your athletic ability on a few sports.
I am not at all impressed by a 7 foot tall man putting a basketball in a 10 foot high hole. After he stretches his arms out he only has to jump a few inches. Basketball is a showoff game.
Look at Travis Pastrana doing a double backflip on a motorcycle. THATS IMPRESSIVE. Look at the pro surfers Laird Hamilton. He is 100000 times more of a man and an athlete than ANY! NBA superstar.
The fact is that you bought into the glamour of NBA and NFL. 2 sports out of the whole world does not constitute an effective argument.
I am going to say that Blacks are worse athletes for the reasons mentioned above. I can watch a 1 year old baby put a ball in a hoop. You have never seen a black man win a triathalon or x games or anything but basketball, football, and some sprinting.
90% of people in developed nations aren’t black. Combine that with the fact that it requires a tremendous amount of money to be an Olympic athlete and blacks have historically only excelled at track & field in the Olympics. If we had football in the Olympics, the team with the most black athletes would dominate, i.e. the USA. In summary, it’s about 10% genetics and 90% training. Train the same black athlete for an equal amount of time as the white athlete(years in most cases), and the black athlete would pull ahead due to the small difference in genetics.
You are an incredibly stupid, brainwashed race of people. What you base your opinions on? During the last decade I observe that after your “great athletes” leave the US soil, their superhuman strength suddenly disappears and turns out to be an advertisement bubble. Where are your black boxers now? Where is the invincibility of your basketball Dream Team? You can be glad that basketball is not a widely popular sport and is played by the smallest nations in Europe, otherwise your superathletes would be quickly cured from their illusions. Fools.
The white people with their pride hurt denying your claims are hilarious! Like F8, I must say though everyone has always expected me to do sports because I was black tall and strong but I don’t. In fact I’m more of an intellectual. Now that I have read this I understand how sensitive white people are when their superiority in any subject is questioned but I must admit it is pathetic.
Regardless I read a comment saying breading genetics and making a difference can’t be done in 200 years it takes a millennium, okay well to that I have this; A few decades ago they said phones equivalent to the razer were light years ahead of the old rotisserie style phones.
And to the Asian kid, I believe it is genetics because years ago Asian people were the most advanced race in existence in fact so advanced that they didn’t even need to journey out of their land because they had everything they wanted.
So yes it is nature and nurture and don’t ever say anything is impossible because everything is possible.
What is this with Asians being more intelligent. Pick up a history book on science and you will notice that whites pretty much dominate science and math. Asians have stricter cultures and even if they achieve better scores in classrooms, its obvious that this has never translated into much. From scientific discoveries to inventions white people cant be pushed aside to make everyone else feel better. Its racism to say whites are crap both sportingly and academically. The USA is a joke. You guys isolate youselves and think your athletes are the best and only black guys can be called athletes. Well in the Olympics whites and asians dominate. Currently, the STRONGEST man in the world is a white dude, the heavy weight champion boxer is a white dude, the smartest guy in the world is a white dude and the dude with the biggest dick you guessed it a white dude.
In any sports played the fastest, strongest, and biggest player always comes out on top. You can train yourself by running lifting and various other ways just as you can with learning. If you don’t pick up a book and read you will be illiterate, if you don’t pick up a weight or run you will be unatheletic. But on the contrary genetic also have something to do with your abilities. If a great sprinter has children with another great sprinter more than likely the offspring are going to be fast. They could probley train less than an offspring of slow parents and still beat them in a race but if the slow kid trains harder and puts more time into running he will eventually catch up with the faster kid and possibly beat him in a race. Don’t you see that a person’s genetics can put them ahead at something when they are born. For instance two athletic parents will probaly have an athletic kid and two intelligent parents will probaly have an intelligent kid. But a person with unathletic parents can train hard an can eventually become a better athelete and a person with illeterate parents can study harder and eventually become a better student.
Well put
Amazing on the ignorant[probably stormfront and aryan nation trolls] and mostly EURO based thinking to this! Most “white” males, have very opinionated and warped thoughts and theories i have EVER seen and heard…here and in real life!;-)
In time past you can look to many MANY afro/african/black americans and others in the other countrys and nations, to being great and even olympic athletes no matter what country! As for asian and caucasians dominating, it is is at some sports and at the olympics, it is also due participations and the ways that coachs and even families steer them to some sports that they think they have the greatest chances in! Many factors come into play, besides european/caucasian interference[s] in the world as well! As far athletics are involved…it helps to work toward them despite racial designations. If you check in past there have been world’s strongest men were black in the olympics and they are documented[I.E=john davis, bradford, gamble, big john williams, oliver from nigeria, africa mark henry, ect..] and in other sports like Rugby, and Soccor[which is joke to rest of America and some of the world] as football and basketball will get most talented as those pay alot professionally! Amateur sports,just do not get credit as if most people of color that play them, come from less then advantageous environs. Most sports that asians and even caucasians go into are very much the lowest key ones,[hockey and badminton, and ping pong] and do not make any money per se,[ since only in leisure can you pursue such sports!] that afro/hispanics are not interested in and do. But check even cricket and others that big in India and abouts and you will find throughout the history of those sports that many afro/african/black did excell. Genetics and theories be darned!;-)
as far as Asians being the most intelligent that is in some testing given but their langauge versions the WISC,but western language is very dauntiing to them!] and if the were smarter, they would not have stopped technological developments in some weapons[I.E=China and Japan and Thailand per se] and would have kept pushing wars and imperlistic like agendas and colonizations like the Europeans/Euro-Americans always seem to have done to try and “reshape” the world to ways they have wanted!
It is insulting to assume that top athletes ( that are black ) don’t require as much brain power to accomplish a pro athlete status. “RUN FORREST RUN!”…. NO…. I don’t think so. All you folks who think it is all about physical training should do a “side-by-side” day with a pro football player and learn the enormous sized play book…. I do agree that your environment plays a factor.. perhaps more time should be spent reading and doing flash cards .. less on the court… Tell Jr. you think he is going to be Engineer … keep telling him this .. eventually Jr. will believe it and focus more on his grades and getting into enriched classes than trying to figure out a way to get to the next All Star basketball/football camp.
Good point. I personally was thinking “intelligent”, in the conventional sense, as in the areas which are covered in an IQ test. But social psychologists and researchers have already determined that those tests are racially skewed, and that they do not even close to address all the different types of intelligence. In the heat of the moment, I forgot to even consider the points that you just made, but you are definitely correct. And I think it was something that was overlooked in this article. So thank you for making this point
Ignoring test bias and only focusing on race within the same culture, there are clear differences in IQ, which is a strong predictor of health, success, crime rates, and job performance. The most important predictor of these is socio-economic status though. IQ tests are the best predictor of intelligence in the conventional sense of the word. I’m not sure where you learned that IQ is not a good predictor of intelligence. You may be confusing cross-cultural comparisons where IQ tests have been shown to fail in correctly measuring intelligence.
Your completely wrong. The reason there is more black athletes is not due to there genetics. I am a assistant coach in a very small but prominent college program. Time and time again I have seen very athletic and talented white,hispanic and even asian players.
So why don’t we seen more of them sports. They get harassed so much by african american players that they just get fed up and quit.
That’s hilarious. So white and asian athletes get harassed by black athletes (which I have never witnessed) and they decide to quit. I hvae to say that that is a pretty weak minded thing to do. After all black people did have to deal with slavery and insults which they could do nothing about, and then they got their so called freedom and weren’t even able to drink out of the same water fountain. We were called niggers and are still called niggers but yet we’ve won all of our rights because we never got fed up and quit. We even have a black president and your sittin here complaining about why white people quit. I will never ever give a damn about a white man’s pity fest until he serves 400 god damned years of slaver. You’re a disgrace for even posting this crap, complaining because a black athlete gets in a white athletes ear about some sports, this has been happening to my race for the longest. Get over it
Over 90% of the white southern population at the time could not afford to own slaves. They were dirt poor. Black people enslaved black people. Africa enjoyed what they got off of the slave trade, there were blacks that owned blacks and sold them to whites. Whites have also enslaved whites before. All that being said, slavery is terrible, but… true shit, can be looked up and verified ^^
“That’s hilarious. So white and asian athletes get harassed by black athletes (which I have never witnessed) and they decide to quit.”
Yes. That’s hilarious. There are just hundreds of US whites competing in athletic events dominated by US blacks – e.g. the 100/200 m sprints, the long, jump, triple jump. When have I seen a white guy representing USA in the long jump for the last time? Yesterday? And US white women excel in the long jump, too. Maybe even more than East European women.
I hate to say this to all of you black people if it was not for the white people you would not be the better athletes we still can hang with your best vs ours and I bet in the long run whites will come out on top like we have in all the years we have been here. That shows how dump blacks are to really think their better in sports then whites. In trueth the whites have the edge over all in everything we do so that shows you stuipded all these sounds like some of us like watching black athletes because the whites have taking the back seat for the last 50 decades to see if you are better then the whites which it is not true. Like other sports like swimming, larcross, soccer , diving, hockey, and some other sports we are better then blacks so I wish some of the people you know who you are to really think what you want about whites athletes we still can play all sports so are these stuff about black athletes are better then whites is a much of cramp. So there I have said what I had to say so bye that really shows you how dump people are to tell the trueth there was white slaves also so all the blacks thinking that they where the lonely slaves sorry to blust your bubble whites were to slaves
“dump”, “dumper”, “trueth”, “their”? I hate to say this but you should have used spell check. I am now dumber for reading your reply.
you’re a complete jackass.. I dont think it has to do with genetics it simply has to do with a persons drive to succeed at what they want to do.. And how do you know white people are better at swimming, lacrosse, diving, and hockey.. You cant say that because how much black people do you know competing in those sports?? little to none is the answer. and every person is born differently some people are athletic and some people just are not,it may be true black people tend to be more athletic but as you get older athletic ability begins to give less of an advantage. For instance in pro football being just athletic inst going to take you to the pro bowl you have to bring a lot more to the table..
Our president is not black. Pres. Obama is bi-racial. His mom was white and he was raised by whites.
This is a very interesting topic and what most people question but don’t talk about for fear of being labeled racist. I would agree that genetics whether from african roots or slavery that blacks are more athletic. Their african roots making them taller and faster. Their slavery giving them muscle. On the reverse their average IQ of 84 hinders them in a more specialized career. When a sport requires more strategy and thinking this is where whites tend to be more dominant. notice how blacks dominated in boxing. Once MMA took stage whites were better able to compete. Suddenly strategy was added to the fight. Did you ever notice how the jewish race is the smartest race on earth. Their trials to survive have breeded intelligence
Um… Jews aren’t white, if that’s were you’re going with this. Originally, Jews came from, hmm, let’s see here.. Jerusalem? I’m just guessing. You know, possibly. So they probably looked somewhat similar to how Israelis today look. (Only darker, because the ones who endured trials, as you mentioned, were slaves… so they were probably in the sun a lot. I mean, this is all speculation here, but that’s what I’m guessing they probably looked like). Modern-day Israelis just so happen to range in color. So I’m not sure where this is relevant to your earlier statements about the two separate racial groups of white and black people. Lol and is it a proven fact that Jews are the smartest race? LOL! If you’re going to use historic stereotypes, Jews are considered manipulative, greedy and conniving, and Asians are currently stereotyped as the most intelligent. But what is most troubling is that you completely missed the part of the article that addressed the topic of social construction. I’m not sure you understood the point of the article… maybe re-read it again? In it’s entirety? That might help.
I think he’s quoting IQs from “The Bell Curve,” and should refer specifically to Ashkenazi Jews, whose populations were decimated during WWII. The authors of “The Bell Curve” never concluded that race directly affects intelligence, only that there is a correlation that cannot be explained by genetics and socio-economic status alone.
He brings up an interesting point that Jewish trials to survive have selectively bred for intelligence. While we can never prove that only the smartest humans survive during genocide, famine, war, etc., the subject should warrant further study, specifically if the average IQ of a population pre-decline is lower than the average IQ post-decline.
Of course the statement that other races get harrassed by blacks has merit. Blacks are seldom held accountable for their hate. Racism in our society is only based on how whites treat blacks.
Your right.SO in other words slave owners brought this on their selves, by pairing up stronger individuals-(SLAVES) with the opposite gender to make somewhat of a stronger and athletic generation of those slave children.
I think genetics plays a role into a persons athletic ability but only goes so far. Im from New Zealand and most sports are dominated by white people the same goes for australia and europe. Black people do dominate running, basketball,boxing and american football but seriously their are so many other sports that white people excel in and to say that black people are better athletes is just stupid. an example- swimming, rowing, hockey, rugby, cricket, tennis, golf, squash, weightlifting, all extreme sports-snowboarding, skiing, netball, sailing, shot-put the list goes on and on. those are just some random ones i came up with, and sure there are some black who do well in these sports too but thats not the point. white people do well in boxing, american football and basketball aswell-the Klitschko brothers heavy weight champions . just because its not an american sport doesn’t make it an irrelevant one.
It matters on the individual. Some people will be better at some things than others, it’s as simple as that.
Well if Black people are truly better at physical hard ships and hard labor than maybe they would have actually have a work ethic but i guess only white people know what work is.
Yes, you sure know that stereotypical BS, nonsense. Let me perpetuate the myth even more. That’s why your ancestors and mine, the white slave driver and master had slaves doing all of their work, while they sat around on their privileged butt. It even filtered into today where black people basically do all of the work and the white people, who feel entitled or superior take all of the credit. Not all white people, just the racist, narrow-minded ones. And you wonder why some black people are more inclined to be athletic? No need to hate. Just ignorant.
So as i read all these i can’t help but see that a lot of people look at these black athletes like they are all from the hood or something like that. Some of the best black athletes very smart . Kobe bryant is fluid in italian most football players stay all four years meaning they have a college education just as his fellow white players do. And all this black players dont make critical decisions as opposed to a white qb.there are so many things going on a football field and as a safety you have to decide if you are going to play the run and help in run support or play the pass the it becomes a whole new scenario do you help over the top or stop the underneath short pass or the check down or screen or a middle lb who decides what the offense is doing and communicate ti hus felll
I happen to be white and i know that black people are far supieror athletes just like everyone knows. Im one of the few who is willing to admit it. To Dyl I have never heard of rowing, netball, sailing, shotput or squash (sounds like a vegatable, do you need a pumpkin to play?) and the other ones aside from tennis require little athleticism. Who plays golf? Old rich people and one really succesful BLACK GUY!!! Tiger Woods has dominated golf for 15 years. In basketball there is Steve Nash and the rest of the white guys are all tall European guys who can shoot and nobody needs/nor likes them. In football they play on the offensive and defensive line and QB. And the Qb is going to change soon with a lot of upcoming black qbs (Cam Newton, Terrel Prior, etc.) to go with Mike Vick and Donavon Mcnab. The point is that the sports that white people excell at are followed by so few that blacks choose not to do them. WTF IS NETBALL OR SQUASH?!?!
You made the point that I was trying to get across but with much fewer words. hahaha and way funnier
lol I have no idea what netball is, either! 
But thank you, this is exactly what I was trying to say.
You are wrong.You are the typical–”it appears–so it must be true thinker” You talk about popular sports not all sports.
Lets use logic facts and reason this time to answer this question.
First, what makes up an athlete–strength, speed and endurance.
Tere is burst strength (bench, squat and deadlift), endurance strength (biking, swimming, hard heavy labor), burst speed (100, 400 sprint), endurance speed (10k marathon).
Blacks dominate speed and speed endurance sports–no question–basketball, sprinting, distance running, football (except the offensive line which relies on power)
Whites dominate strength and strength endurance sports–weightlifting–bench, squat and deadlift–always white. Strongest man competition–lucky if a black makes top 10 once every 20 years.
Biking and swimming are strength endurance domiated by whites.
Fighting sports follow the same logic–blacks dominate heavyweight boxing–fastest hands (big pillow gloves)
Whites dominate wrestling–strength and strength endurance.
Ultimate fighting at heavyweights are dominated by whites–strength and strength endurance is key.
Lets stop these nonsensical arguments–if your going to make them–make them fair and honest–dont base them on appearance and popularity.
Mark, while whites may excel in the sports that you listed, I do not think that it is due to a lack of comparative athletic ability on behalf of black people. Rather, I think it has a great deal more to do with a lack of accessibility. Basketball, running, and boxing can be found in any black neighborhood; boxing gyms in these neighborhoods charge very very little (my boyfriend boxes, so I know this for a fact) and basketball and running are free. Do black people excel at swimming? Lol, let me ask you a simple question: Do little black kids who are taught that the only way they can excel is through sports, have access to Olympic-sized swimming pools to practice in? Not sure? Well, of all of my friends who are black, only one of them enjoys swimming. She was raised in an upper-middle class family and her family actually had their own swimming pool, giving her greater accessibility to the sport than your average black American. Do you get where I’m going with this? Your average black kid living in the ghetto has access to one area of water to swim in (if he or she’s lucky). Yep, your local, lovely, germ-encrusted public swimming pool. I’m sure among the other two hundred or so kids crammed into the pool, that one child would have excessive opportunity to learn how to swim, and moreover, to learn how to swim professionally. Forgive the sarcasm, but I hope you get my point. As for your example of wrestling, my cousin was raised in a family of similar social status as the aforementioned friend, and he wrestled for like twenty years, winning many state and national championships. All of his brothers were great wrestlers too, so his ability in this area wasn’t simply a fluke. They all excelled in the sport, but in order to excel in it, they first had to have access to the sport. Not only would most black kids have limited accessibility to wrestling, but many black people think wrestling is “gay”, to use colloquial phrasing, so nurture comes into play in yet another way. On the one hand, the kids don’t have much access to certain sports; on the other hand, even if a kid was interested in learning to swim, for example, it would most likely be seen as random or maybe even pointless by those around him. Its just not something that kids in the ghetto are expected to do normally, never mind professionally. I hate to break it to you, but what Jimmy the Greek said was true; we were bred to be athletic champions. I’m not saying this because I believe blacks are better than whites or anything crazy like that, so don’t get your boxers in a bunch. But the facts are still the facts. I am half-white and half-black, and just so happen to be the darkest and most “black-looking” of all my siblings. Does it come as any surprise that I also have the most athletic frame and build, as well? No! Lol a thousand times no. I had a four-pack before I was nine years old- AND I’m a FEMALE, and didn’t even think about working out until I was at least eleven. If blacks had equal accessibility to all sports, they would equally dominate in all sports. Say what you want, and call me what you want, but it won’t change what is. Slaves were bred to be physically superior… Why would it come as any surprise that black Americans, as their descendants, would inherit this trait? It makes perfect sense.
Anyways, I appreciate that this article takes into account that nurture also pushes blacks to believe that their only venue towards success is in sports, and explains that this is also partially responsible for blacks’ athletic excellence. This is a fact that is often little-noticed, but which I definitely believe has at least an equal bearing on blacks’ dominating athleticism as do our genetics. Either way, if any of you commentators are going to be angry about the selective breeding and social conditioning that led to the athletic prowess of black people today, the only people you have a right to be angry at is slave owners. And… those unique individual who still possess the beliefs and ideas that were passed down by said slave owners. And by that I mean racist individuals, of course. That’s what’s keeping this cycle of racial inferiority (the idea that blacks are overall inferior), and therefore physical superiority (the need for blacks to prove they aren’t inferior- at least physically), going. That’s where it all began, and that’s the only reason why these discussions are still taking place today. Anyways, great work JP! Your article covered all the relevant points, and, whether you are black, white, red, or yellow, you seem to be an enlightened dude. Cudos for that
p.s. i wasn’t trying to rival the length of the actual article in posting this comment. but at least you can tell i’m passionate about the topic, and not just bsing ;p
There atre millionsd of blacks in every gym in the country–yet whites dominate–yes dominate blacks in the bench, squat and deadlift–powerlifting–not even close.
To pretend that blacks dont have access is highly emotional but not true.
Blacks have access to ultimate fighting–they have had many try–yet all get beat down by whites–not even close.
You make the argument that blacks dont like wrestling–its gay–first you cant speak for all black males–there are alot of blacks in college wrestling–they just dont match up.
Why is it that blacks dominate football, yet almost every offensive line is white?-Answer–offensive line needs the strongest players.–Again, blacks dont measure up in strength and strength endurance.
If you can–I defy you to name one aspect of any sport that is strength oriented that blacks excell over whites in–just one.–good luck.
Also whites dominate the worlds strongest man.
DOMINATE. There are blacks in prison and in gyms lifting weights all the time–in college–in highschool–plenty of access–yet white males DOMINATE blacks in the weightroom.
Whites are stronger–blacks are faster.
Probably because white people faced adversity and overcame it and became stronger–whereas blacks always ran away.
Why are you using fake names in all your posts? How many professional athletes do you know who served a significant time in prison(>2 years)? Weight training is primarily used as a tool to improve an athlete’s performance in their main sport, which isn’t power lifting. Why would a black athlete take up power lifting when he can make 100 times that amount as a starting receiver in the NFL or forward in the NBA? The best answer is blacks consistently choose sports with wealth, glamor, and fame. Talk to any black football player and ask him why he never took up power lifting, even the biggest guy you see who can bench over 400 lbs. All of them will laugh at you because they don’t even know power lifting is a sport. Talk to a white power lifter and ask him why he never took up football. He’ll tell you he couldn’t compete.
Your opinion that whites have been selectively bred for strength or adapted to climates that encouraged strength has no merit. Humans were using animal power since the time they were first domesticated thousands of years ago. If anything, African societies were more dispersed, fueling a more active lifestyle where high bone density and muscle development was favored over light bones and fat versus the sedentary lifestyles in colder European climates.
Honestly, you sound like an idiot. First of all, the Chicago Bears Offensive line has only ONE white,the rookie they just drafted. Secondly, the ONLY reason whites “dominate” in the bench,deadlift, squat,powerlift is because young black athletes DONT WANT TO DO IT. They simply choose football,basketball,boxing, and track; over lifting,wrestling,and MMA(Btw, im not that familiar with Ultimate Fighting, but isnt Andersen Silva black?).Lets face it. The sports that are dominated by blacks are much more popular in this country. Like seriously, do more people watch the Super Bowl or the Worlds Strongest Man competition?
LMFAO –you name one team moron.
An excuse why blacks cannot compete with whites in strength–not even close–is just that–an excuse.
Also what about fighting idiot?
Whites dominate–kimbo king of the hood got his azz kicked by a second rate middle aged middle class white guy in 30 seconds–I lmfao
when I saw that.
Typical black dude pretending hes tough until someone makes him prove it.
You make excuses for blacks–well good for you–statistics dont lie–if you want to be considered anywhere near whites in strength–then prove it or shut up.
Andersen Silva–185 lbs???LMFAO–Lets talk about real fighters–heavyweights.
185 is good for entertainment only.
Your all show and no go–when I see blacks do well in any strength sport over whites–then we will talk–excuses got to end–reality is what it is.
y do u idiots keep bringing up the UFC? Ok first off boxing is and has been dominated by blacks and mexicans. Now in a country that is more then 60% black the UFCs HW champ- Cain velasquez mexican LHW champ- Jon jones black MW champ- anderson silva black WW- GSP white LW champ- frankie edgar white FW- jose aldo brown from brazil (not white) and dominac cruz- white. So in a country thats over 60% white there is only 3 white champs 2 black champs and 2 mexican. You also have to remember ufc is a upcoming sport that is still really new. More and more fighters are black and mexican. Look at the p4p list right now. Maybe do some research before u speak?
only heavyweights count moron–plus half blacks dont count as blacks or whites.
Boxing is a joke–big pillows–fastest hands and longest arms win–big deal–
Over the course of ultimate fighting whites==heavy weights are far superior to blacks–spanish might be the best.
I agree with you about black kids not having the accessibility to other sports. However, you forgot to think that there aren’t just poor black people, there are poor white people also. I’ve grown up living from apartment to apartment and moving school to school, but I’ve never made the excuse to myself that I have no chance to be what I want to be. I never made an excuse for myself and said, “I can only do this”. I’m an honor student and a varsity football player, but I never had anyone telling me I could do this. So why can’t the kids in the ghetto tell themselves they can be smart too? Why do they tell themselves sports is the only way? Furthermore, if white people weren’t downed by the stereotypical “blacks are bigger, faster, stronger” then I dare say sports throghout America would be a lot more balanced.
I’m not trying to insight an argument, I’m just asking you to look at it through a poverty-stricken white person’s eyes. A lot of my friends are black and they never make excuses for themselves. Also, I don’t doubt that the ghetto you may be referring to is much worse than the ones in the south, but I know that it doesn’t matter what color you are; because we all want the same thing, a good life.
P.S. wrestling is not gay, nor is it unavalaible to blacks. My wrestling team has three blacks in our most important weight classes(out of 12 people in all), and I’ve wrestled many black kids throughout my 8 years as a wreslter, and I’ve won more than I have lost. I’m not saying they were bad, but I had more training than they did; just as a lot of the black kids I play football with today started playing when they were six. Unlike me, who started at thirteen. Its just the person and their love for the sport, in my opinion.
Hey Mark, just like to point out that blacks DO NOT dominate heavyweight boxing. All the heavyweight belt holders are WHITE. Have been for a while. Usually about 13 out of the 20 belts above middleweight are owned by WHITE MEN.
Nice excuse–but not flying. In every gym across the country blacks are ther in powerlifting–getting their a”s kicked.
Football is predominately black except for the offensive lines which are predominately white. Offensive linemen are the strongest guys on the team.
There is a ton of money in worlds strongest man competitions–blacks just dont compare.
The black argument is always we dont like it therfore your better than us in this.
Yor argument is meritless and devoid of reason.
Face it, you have to prove something for it to apply, you just cant make excuses.
I can easily argue that whites go to college, lawschool, gradschool, take up trades ect. therefore they dont put full energy into sports or they would be faster than blacks.-See–this is the excuse argument you make, which is really funny.
hmmmmm a ton of money in worlds strongest man competitions? where is this money at? LOL u must be smoking crack
Its called endorsements you uneducated want a be.
Puginowski is a millionaire many times over–
Ill tell you what –you get the 2 strongest black guys on the planet–ill put up the 1000th strongest white guy on the planet–and the white guy will still win.
If blacks are physically superior as many of the black responders to this post insist, does that mean whites are mentally superior? Is that how you explain the MASSIVE disparities between the level of development in western europe vs anywhere in africa? Who wants to have that discussion without complaining that IQ tests are racially skewed?
All of you are idiots if you believe this crap. First of all its. been proven that blacks have a faster reaction time than whites and possess a higher amount of twitch muscles increasing sprinting and jumping abilities through evolution. Doesn’t have s*** to do with slavery. This site is full of white men jealous blacks are better and using a ignorant explanation to explain it. This just proves how dumb your race really is black power. Oh yea vote Obama you son’s of biatches
I totally agree.Race does have everthing to do with sports. Its a shame whites are so sensitive when another race is being recognized for being better at anything. And for those who say blacks are not as smart as whites…. Just ask the president! Lol
Again, Pres. Obama is bi-racial, not black.
Black have a higher percentage of fast twitch muscle fibers? You say inherently more athletic.
Whites have notably larger brains… Soo, smarter?
I’m not jealous, and I don’t believe that, but just another conclusion one can draw based on genetic differences. I agree that slavery’s role in all this probably isn’t significant. You have to also consider that these sports that blacks are excelling in are within the confines of a sophisticated society developed by Whites. With influences from other cultures, of course. Without the whites, whom you seem to despise, none of this would exist for you. No nation for man with Kenyan blood to be president, no written language to document your feats of athleticism, no facilities to train (unless you count being chased by lions), and no one to boast of your victories too. Don’t get too carried away now, remember where you came from.
Niggers are better athletes because the’re mentally inferior than others. Have you ever been to a black doctor or ever flown a plane designed by a black engineer? Have you ever taken pills made by a pharmaceutical company founded by a black chemist?
I hate to say this to all of you black people if it was not for the white people you would not be the better athletes we still can hang with your best vs ours and I bet in the long run whites will come out on top like we have in all the years we have been here. That shows how dump blacks are to really think their better in sports then whites. In trueth the whites have the edge over all in everything we do so that shows you stuipded all these sounds like some of us like watching black athletes because the whites have taking the back seat for the last 50 decades to see if you are better then the whites which it is not true. Like other sports like swimming, larcross, soccer , diving, hockey, and some other sports we are better then blacks so I wish some of the people you know who you are to really think what you want about whites athletes we still can play all sports so are these stuff about black athletes are better then whites is a much of cramp. So there I have said what I had to say so bye
IM BLACK AND WOULD WHIPP YOUR ASS SO BAD YOU WOULD WISH YOU WERE BLACK AND FAST LIKE ME YOU STUPID CRACKER!!!
Well it’s true that the main american sports of football, basketball, and track is being dominated by black people, but if the theory of black people being better athletes was true, then why are black people not even in the top 5 in PowerLifting, and why is it that white men are still able to win the Mr. Olympia Title (best Muscular body), all the Mixed Martial Arts fighting sports like UFC, pride Fc, etc.? If blacks were bigger, stronger, and more skilled, then they wouldn’t be losing in all these other sports. Now these are facts that I’m stating here. Do your research if you don’t believe that it’s true.
It seems like a lot of arguments that ‘whites are better athletes’ are from a few people with various profile names… so it makes me said when I see a response where it’s clear someone feels their opinion is the common white consensus.
Back to the article… I think this is a fascinating topic and I believe genetics are involved, and find the idea of survival of the fittest and selective breeding both fascinating (and I hoper the term selective breeding isn’t offensive, many populations have examples of this, the part that makes this a touchier subject is that it wasn’t at the choice of the african american population). I consider two of my own children a product of survival of the fittest and being from a remote area with a like a population also some selective breeding. My children are from Siberia Russia (a very remote cold are of hardship) where many Volga Germans had been sent to Siberia under Stalin. Those Volga Germans were dumped on the shores of a river in horendous weather with no food or shelter. Most died, the strongest (physical health strongest) survivied and had families. My children survived starvation and living in an unheated shack in harsh weather as babies to later be brought to an orphanage and adopted to the U.S. I have a biological son also, he is wonderful, but he is not physically as healthy/strong in that I’m positive he would not have survived the early hardships my older two survived. They, however, had the genetics of past generations of survivors who could live through horrible conditions. My older can be exposed to a house full of swine flu sufferers and never get sick. In my opinion, they have superior genetics when it comes to health and wellness. They happen to be white, but I wish people would realize that doens’t mean I think ‘whites’ are superior… just like the ‘fact’ that collectively blacks are more athletic shouldn’t get some white guy who didn’t make the basketball team all worked up. It’s just fact, we all have different blessings in life. My superior in health children also happen to be very athletic. It’s defnitely not from nurture (except that I enroll them in what they’re interested in) as they’ve already surpassed my athletic ability at a very young age. Would the guy arguing that whites dominate certain sports just relax and get over himself. On the other hand, those offended by the person talking about IQ’s of the jewish population realize this was NOT an effort to say whites are more intelligent at all… just someone trying to say that they agree that a population that experienced a level of selective breeding can have a certain trait (in that example IQ) be elevated. I’m not black or jewish (which) but can appreciate the original article and the comment about IQ’s.
I believe survival of the fittest and selective breeding may have both played a part in this. It’s difficult when my athletic ‘white’ son notes that he’ll never be in the NBA because he is white and it doesn’t appear he will be tall… he has come right out and asked me why blacks are better at sports. It’s a touch conversation because you’re dancing that political correctness line. At least with him I can use the example of his own superior genetics in health. I think that’s more appropriate that just avoiding the subject and leaving him to make inaccurate assumptions.
Thanks again for a really great article.
Sorry for the typos in my last comment (said for sad, touch for tough, etc.) Hopefully my points aren’t lost because of it.
If we blacks are “superior athletes” we will not dominate in powerlifting because powerlifting is inherently unathletic. Seriously. Half a powerlifter’s job is to get fat. Being fat is worse than being short when it comes to a sport like basketball.
Ok i am of the white race and have excelled in three different sports. With that being said I think i can speak on this topic because i would consider myself an athlete. What i am writing does not pertain to any other country but the U.S. because i never played any of you guys sports. I am also not prejudice i went to a 5A high school played football with a lot of black people. Real good friends with two of them and chilled with them on the regular. With that being said i can not deny without black people in the NBA it would be boring. Yes, we have a few select white people who can ball;however, most of them can just shoot the three. By all means i am not jocking all over the black guys nuts like that other white fool. Skill players in football such as recievers, DB’s, running backs are mostly black with the exception of a few white people. Quarterbacks are mostly white with a few blacks suceeding at the position. In baseball yes homerun record and stolen base go to a blackman, i am not in denial black people are faster and Bonds was a powerful black guy who was a hell of a hitter, and i am not singleing him out because whites do it to; however, he was juicing. Whites win gold gloves and are good average hitters. I do recognize that blacks are becoming more and more popular in baseball. Point i am trying to get across is whites excel at things we can practice such as hitting, pitching, fielding, shooting, golf, swimming, catching, blocking, just a few. Blacks are fast and can make quick cuts and can be very illusive. Hince boxing, ducking and then basketball are very good at breaking people down cause of their quickness and jumping i will not even touch that topic ha. How often do you see a white guy cross someone and makes them fall there is a few that can but not very many. So yes i do think that black people are born with something that makes them quicker and and better jumper and blacks are even better dancers and im not talking about that ball room shit so no white person come at me with that. I like competion and do not think people should ever back down to anyone. man up and play ball. and i am not writing a school paper so no one make an assumption that i am dumb because i did not put a comma, or something is mispelled im sure`you get my point. I may have left a few facts out of here do not get angry but i think i got my point across. P.S. for that comment about white kids basically getting bullied by these blacks. You must coach at some pussy little college where white frat guys play basketball there. thats the dumbest thing i have ever heard and you do not deserve to be a coach. peace
oh this does pertain to you weightlifting guys. it does not take any ATHLETICISM to be able to lift as much as them guys. One of my real good friends the most spastic and unathletic kid ever laughed at him trying to catch a football baseball, and probally any ball yall have over there. But he could easily bench press more than over half of our football team. It does not take athleticism it takes training and dedication.
Don’t all sports take training and dedication? I grew up with a guy who runs like a sissy and can’t throw a baseball to save his life, but he’s also an Olympic caliber freestyle and slalom skier. He busts cork 900′s with as much effort as I put into tying my shoes. Lifting isn’t just about putting up the weight. There is a ton of technique required to progress and avoid injury. The motions are precise and controlled, rather than fluid and organic. Athleticism comes in all sorts.
And for all you golf haters that say men do not play golf, i said the same thing and now that i do not play baseball anymore i golf. The hardest sport i have ever tried to pick up on.
So here’s the answer, at least as far as runners go:
The Story Behind the Amazing Success of Black Athletes, by Jon Entine
PART II:
Shattering Racist Myths: The Science Behind Why Kenyans Dominate Distance Running
Even a casual mention that meaningful genetic differences exist between populations can ignite a firestorm and threaten a career. Ask Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder. Or Roger Bannister, the first man to break the four-minute barrier in the mile, in 1954. In a speech before the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1995, Sir Roger Bannister, the distinguished neurologist and retired Oxford dean was showered with ridicule for venturing his opinion “as a scientist rather than a sociologist” that all athletes are not created equal. “I am prepared to risk political incorrectness,” he said, “by drawing attention to the seemingly obvious but under stressed fact that black sprinters and black athletes in general all seem to have certain natural anatomical advantages.”
That’s the explosive “N” word – natural. Because of the pseudo-science that has historically plagued research into human differences, assertions that biology predetermines or even significantly influences human behavior runs into a wall of political incorrectness. That’s the politics.
While everyone readily accepts that evolution has turned out blacks with a genetic proclivity to contract sickle cell and Jews of European heritage who are 100 times more likely than other populations to be afflicted with the degenerative mental disease Tay-Sachs, it is widely perceived as racist to suggest that blacks of West African ancestry have evolved into the world’s best sprinters, Asians among the best divers, East Africans the premier distance runners, and whites the top weightlifters.
Yet the science is quite clear and the empirical evidence consistent and overwhelming. A look at the ancestry (or home country) of runners holding the top 100 times in eight distances, from the 100 meters to the marathon, makes it clear that African domination is deep as well as broad:
Blacks who trace their ancestry to West Africa, including African Americans, hold more than 95 percent of the top times in sprinting;
Whites are virtually absent from the top ranks of sprinting; though whites have traditionally done well in the longer endurance races, particularly the marathon, their ranks have thinned in recent years;
Athletes from one country, Kenya, make up more than one-third of top times in middle and long distance races; including top performances by other East Africans (most from Ethiopia), that domination swells to almost 50 percent.
North Africans do well at middle distances;
Mexicans (Native Americans), are strongest at the longest races, 10,000 meters and the marathon;
East Asians are competitive only at the event requiring the most endurance, the marathon, and at ultra-marathons.
Why do athletes of African ancestry dominate running? Whereas the West African population evolved in the lowlands, East Africans (who are relatively slow sprinters but the world’s best distance runners) trace their ancestry to mountainous terrain. Kenya, with 28 million people, is the powerhouse. It is a genetic stew, with studies indicating a mixture of genes from invading Arabs and Middle Easterners. One tiny district, the Nandi, with only 500,000 people, sweeps an unfathomable 20 percent of major international distance events, marking it as the greatest concentration of raw athletic talent in the history of sports.
At the Seoul Olympics in 1988, Kenya shocked the running world when it’s top male runners won the 800m, 1500m and 5,000 meters, plus the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Based on population percentages alone, the likelihood of such a performance is one in 1.6 billion. The Kalenjins of the Great Rift Valley adjacent to Lake Victoria, a tribe of half a million people, win 40 percent of top international distance running honors – and three times as many distance medals as athletes from any other nation in the world.
This East African domination (and by some Moroccans and Algerians who are much closer, genetically, to East than West Africans) has been slow to emerge. Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila shocked the world at the 1960 Rome Olympics when, running barefoot, he won the marathon. But most East Africans did not have the money or means to compete. By the1980s Africans began trickling into long distance running, although soccer, at which Kenyans (and East Africans generally) fair poorly, was and is the national sport.
THE MYSTERY OF MUSCLES
Over the years there have been more than two hundred studies comparing the body composition of athletes, with the work of British physician James M. Tanner the most famous. His The Physique of the Olympic Athlete, published in 1960 after the Rome Olympics, found an ideal body for each sport, although the study noted considerable overlap in types – a classic bell curve. Sprinters were the most muscular. Beginning at 400 meters on up to the marathon, athletes competing in these events were progressively less muscular in the upper body. Long-distance runners were generally small, short-legged, narrow-shouldered, and ectomorphic, or lacking in muscle.
“Amongst competitors in both track and field events there are large significant racial differences,” Tanner wrote. As nature would have it, different populations are better suited to excel at anaerobic activities such as sprinting, jumping, and lifting, than at aerobic sports such as distance running, cycling, and swimming.
We see these differences on the playing field, but they are apparent at the micro level as well. In the mitochondria of cells, the body’s powerhouse, oxygen combines with the glucose released by carbohydrates and, eventually, fats to produce sustained energy. When the body demands quick bursts, it breaks down carbohydrates quickly, if incompletely. At roughly 400 meters, about 40-50 seconds of running for a top athlete, or 100 meters in swimming, the body has depleted much of its anaerobic capacity. That is the point at which anaerobic athletes experience an accumulation of lactic acid, the waste product of the muscles. If physical activity continues past this bio-physiological divide, the body begins to process energy more deliberately. Scientists are definitive in their findings that athletes of West African ancestry are the most anaerobically efficient athletes, East African are the fittest aerobically, and whites fall in the middle.
For years it was axiomatic that muscles have two types of fibers – white, or fast-twitch, which were thought to be adapted for power movements, such as leaping or sprinting; and red, or slow-twitch, which were adapted for endurance. Now we know the model is more complicated. There are in fact two different types of fast-twitch fibers, one more metabolically efficient. Whites on average have a higher percentage of slow-twitch fibers than West African blacks who generally have more of both types of fast-twitch fibers.
Geneticist and exercise physiologist Claude Bouchard at Laval University in Quebec City, has run numerous experiments comparing two populations, French-Canadian and West African students. Using long needles inserted into the thighs of test subjects, Bouchard’s team extracted tiny sections of fibers, which look to the naked eye like pieces of raw meat. They were chemically treated to reveal metabolic differences, put on a glass slide, and slipped under a high-power microscope, where they appeared as a collage of tiny red and white crocodile scales. The West Africans, by a ratio of approximately two to one, had more of the larger fast-twitch fibers. The researchers concluded that the force generating capacity of type-II muscle fibers at high velocity, the speed and tempo of movements, and the capacity of an individual to adapt to exercise training are all genetically influenced.
Although physical activity can improve fitness, it generally cannot alter a person’s biological endowment by converting fast-twitch fibers to slow-twitch ones, or vice versa (although people do gradually and permanently lose fast-twitch muscles as a result of aging). It’s estimated that 40 percent is due to environmental influences such as exercise, whereas 45 percent is associated with genetic factors (the remaining 15 percent is due to sampling error). At the far end of the performance bell curve in sprinting, where small differences can be crucial, genetics clearly circumscribes possibility.
THE SCIENCE OF ENDURANCE
Although fiber composition can significantly affect performance, it is not sufficient by itself to ensure high performance. Since endurance is only about 25 percent inherited, training plays an integral role-but more so in blacks than whites. Experiments show that with only a modest amount of training, blacks can experience an explosive rise in exercise capacity, while even with far more effort whites don’t improve nearly as much. In contrast, it appears that no amount of training can break through genetically-imposed, inherited limits on anaerobic capacity-the ability to sprint and jump. Thus, although fiber type alone does not itself guarantee a champion, if an athlete does not have a certain proportion of fast-twitch muscles, he or she can’t hope to be a champion sprinter or jumper. In practical terms, this detail suggests that sprinters are born, not made.
If genetics and race really do matter in athletic performance, then we might expect to find noticeable differences in the ways different population groups sustain anaerobic and aerobic functioning. Sure enough, by applying population genetics to athletic performance and examining the aerobic/anaerobic energy cycle, scientists are beginning to understand the racial pattern in sports.
Timothy Noakes, long-time director of the Sport Science Center at the University of Cape Town Medical School, and author of many scholarly books, including Lore of Running, has observed that black South Africans, who share much of their genetic ancestry with East Africans, sweep more than 90 percent of the top places in endurance races held in his country, despite the fact that blacks represent no more than one-quarter of the active running population. Noakes has attempted to figure out why in his laboratory. In a treadmill study, black marathoners consistently bested whites. Although white runners matched or exceeded the black runners at distances up to 5,000 meters, blacks were “clearly superior at distances greater than 5km.” The fine print in the data was particularly revealing. There was a dramatic difference in the ability of the blacks to run at a higher maximum oxygen capacity. In the case of the marathoners, blacks performed at 89 percent of the maximum oxygen capacity, while whites lagged by nearly 10 percent. The muscles of the black athletes also showed far fewer signs of fatigue as measured by lactic acid.
Noakes noted a link between his findings and the training habits of well-known Kenyan runners who report favoring low-mileage, high-intensity workouts. This presented a nurture/nature conundrum: Does hard training lead to a change in oxidative capacity and fatigue resistance, or does it merely reflect a genetically well-endowed athletic machine?
The answer can be found in the wild card in performance: muscle efficiency. David Costill, former head of the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana, has shown that the adaptability of the muscle fiber for aerobic metabolism – its oxidative potential – is more important than the basic composition of the muscle. More aerobically efficient fibers produce fewer fatigue-producing lactate toxins, resulting in better performance. And although fiber composition is genetically fixed, which effectively limits the pool of possible successful athletes in each event, exercise can help muscles better utilize oxygen.
A team from South Africa and Australia, including Noakes, has found an apparent link between oxidative capacity, resistance to fatigue, and race. The researchers measured “running economy”-the amount of metabolic work (and therefore oxygen consumption) that is required to run at a given speed, much like the fuel economy of a car. Running economy can be affected by a variety of factors both environmental, such as running technique, and physiological, such as body-mass distribution and muscle elasticity. “We’ve shown that the oxidative enzyme capacity of the [black] athletes we looked at was one and a half times higher on average than the white runners,” reported Kathy Myburgh, a co-author of the report and senior lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. Comparing black and white athletes with nearly identical race times, the researchers found that blacks were both more efficient runners and able to utilize a considerably higher percentage of their maximum oxygen potential – a decided advantage if two athletes otherwise have the same capacity.
“Whilst the current study does not elucidate the origins of these differences,” the report concluded, “the findings may partially explain the success of African runners at the elite level.” A subsequent study determined that the superior fatigue resistance during high-intensity endurance exercise is partially related to the higher skeletal-muscle oxidative capacity and lower plasma lactate accumulation found more commonly in blacks.
COMPARING KENYANS AND SCANDINAVIANS
Noakes’s colleague, Bengt Saltin, head of the Muscle Research Institute in Denmark, has come to the conclusion that certain population groups, including Northern Europeans, who are notable endurance runners and cross-country skiers, may have superior fatigue resistance encoded in their genes. He has found that Scandinavian distance runners, Kenyans, and South African blacks all have consistently lower blood-lactate levels and perform more efficiently than athletes from other regions, the likely result of their having evolved in mountainous regions. Population genetics – ancestry – is the key determinant.
Saltin brought a half-dozen established Swedish national class runners to St. Patrick’s High in Iten, Kenya, in 1990 to see how they might match up against up-and-coming East African schoolboys. It was a demoralizing experience for the Swedes. National champion after national champion was soundly trounced in races from 800 meters to 10 kilometers. Stunned, Saltin estimated that in this one tiny area of the Rift Valley there were at least five hundred school boys who could best his national champions at 2,000 meters.
In a subsequent study Saltin brought several groups of Kenyans to the Karolinska labs in Sweden, where he was then working. Muscle-fiber distribution was similar for the Kenyans and Swedes. But biopsies of the quadricep muscles in the thighs indicated that the Kenyans had more blood-carrying capillaries surrounding the muscle fibers and more mitochondria within the fibers. That’s important because mitochondria act a little like power stations, processing the glucose with oxygen brought in by breathing into energy. The Kenyans also were found to have relatively smaller muscle fibers than the Swedes, which Saltin speculated might serve to bring the mitochondria closer to the surrounding capillaries. This process aids in oxidation, bringing more “fuel” to the mitochondria, the engine of the muscles.
The Kenyans also showed little ammonia accumulation in their muscles from protein combustion, and less lactic-acid buildup. They have more of the muscle enzymes that burn fat, and their glycogen reserves are not burned as quickly, which improves endurance. Most impressively, they are able to take months off from regular training and then regain their old form quickly. When they do train, more than half of their total mileage occurs at heart rates of 90 percent of maximum, far higher than the rate for Europeans or Americans. In general, Saltin reported a 5 to 15 percent greater running economy at far less mileage, but at a higher intensity. Saltin has privately suggested that Kenyans appear to be innately efficient, durable, and fast – with the most perfect aerobic potential measured so far on earth.
Although there is no one genetically consistent African population, the environment appears to have resulted in some characteristics shared across populations. Bouchard is persuaded that a large fraction of both West and East African blacks enjoy biological advantages for power or sprint events and endurance activities, respectively. “West Africans have more of the key anaerobic enzymes in their skeletal muscle, those enzymes being responsible for regenerating the energy in the muscle cell through anaerobic pathways,” wrote Bouchard. We are talking here about a two-fold difference between a significant fraction of blacks from West Africa and whites from North America. East Africans, on the other hand, seem to have more ability to mobilize the energy stored in adipose tissue in other body depots and to use that energy for prolonged periods of exercise. The key point is that these biological characteristics are not unique to either West or East African blacks. These characteristics are seen in all populations, including whites. However, based on the limited number of studies available, there seems to be more African Blacks with such characteristics than there are in other populations.
Considering the hotter-than-hot nature of the debate, it is not surprising that the most balanced views originate with those outside the United States. “There is an environment in the US which prevents individuals from even talking about this topic,” said Bouchard. “I do not feel this pressure at all here in Canada. We talk openly about this issue and treat it as a scientific matter. I believe that we need to look at the causes of differences in performance between races as legitimately as we do when we study or discuss differences in diseases between the various races. I have always worked with the hypothesis that ignorance fosters prejudice. [Critical inquiry] is the greatest safeguard against prejudice.”
Measured by fractions of a second, or wins and losses, sport comes as close as we can get to an objective, racially neutral scoring system. “I’ve been asked many times how an academic can waste time studying the differences between black and white people,” said exercise physiologist Kathy Myburgh. “I said, ‘Well, if you’re a scientist and you’re studying obesity, who do you compare obese people with? You compare them with thin people. But if you are a physiologist and you want to compare your best runners with those not quite as good, you compare the black ones with the white ones, because the blacks clearly are performing better.’”
Arthur Ashe, Jr., the first black man to win the US Open, Australian Open, and Wimbledon singles tennis titles, wrestled with this controversy while writing his groundbreaking A Hard Road to Glory, which catalogues the history of black accomplishment in sports. He accumulated thousands of anecdotes of how cultural and environmental forces had shaped black success in sports. Still, Ashe could not put the genetic issue to rest. When asked about what he had come to believe after years of research, whether blacks had a physical advantage, Ashe responded deliberately: “The results are outstanding, nothing short of stellar.
“Damn it,” he sighed, frustrated at the political incorrectness of his own beliefs. “My heart says ‘no,’ but my head says ‘yes.’ Sociology can’t explain it. I want to hear from the scientists. Until I see some numbers [to the contrary], I have to believe that we blacks have something that gives us an edge.”
Ashe of course is only recognizing what we all intuitively know unequivocally: Population genetics and ancestry matter, a lot. Yet it should never be forgotten that genes are not the ultimate factors in elite performance. While genetics will determine if you have a chance to be an elite athlete, intelligence, dedication, and serendipity are the final arbiters of who wins and loses.
“It’s the brain, not the heart or lungs, that is the critical organ,” Roger Bannister told me. “But one would have to be blind not so see a pattern here. I hope we are not at a time and place where we are afraid to talk about remarkable events. I hope not.”
It is ridiculous to say that either race is better. Each race has its pros and cons. I’m a runningback and fullback for my local 6A division high school, and I share snaps with a black athlete (I’m white). It’s true that he is more elusive and has more breakaway speed then me, but I break more tackles and read the hole much faster.
Therefore, I believe that each individual race has its differences, but the only thing that makes us worse or better is our mind-set. I also wrestle for my high school and I’m a two year varsity letter since freshman year, and I can honestly say I’ve only wrestled one black guy. I think each race has a sport they percieve themselves doing better in. However, a black man and a white man can be as good as one another in anything they set their mind too.
Its about ones heart and his dedication to the sport, not decades of “breeding”. If you want to see an example of two very similar athletes in an American sport, look at Andrew Luck(white) and Cam Newton(black). Each of them ran their 40 yard dashes in a 4.6 range.
So when it comes down to the stereotype, I believe it is all a mental game. Race is just a factor people like to throw into the mix to get a rise out of someone, or to make themselves feel better for being their color. When in fact, it doesn’t matter, and all a person needs is dedication to be the athlete they want to be.