| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Mosiah |
Posted - Aug 11 2003 : 11:27:37 AM
DO BLACK PEOPLE REALLY EXCEL OVER WHITE PEOPLE IN OLYMPIC TRACK AND FIELD COMPETITIONS?
By Masey Casebeer
August 28th, 2000
To address the question of excellence among black and white athletes in their track-and-field performances does not allow arguments steeped in biased nor prejudicial unscientific presumptions. Rather, only factors relating to scientific analyses of observed athletic behaviors, along with each individual's biophysical makeup, are acceptable. This limitation requires investigators to use a scientific investigative method only, and it tends to assure that all observers and investigators will, in the final analysis, arrive at more or less similar conclusions.
If you, my dear reader, cannot accept limitations established by scientific research cited above, then you will probably benefit little from reading further. In any case, you are invited to obtain from AMAZON BOOKS Jon Entime's recent book titled TABOOS: WHY BLACK ATHLETES DOMINATE SPORTS AND WHY WE ARE AFRAID TO TALK ABOUT IT. Entime's writing is, in essence, the quintessential writing clarifying the matter of race in relation to physical ability in track-and-field sports. It's a MUST READ which tends to include social and cultural factors along with scientific perspectives that enhance the understanding of athletic success.
Every American kid and adult can recite Thomas Jefferson's renowned statement asserting that all men are created equal, but only a few seem to remember that Jefferson's statement was targeted toward certain unalienable rights, and among them were life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The truth was and remains simply this: that every person in the United States has equal rights under the law--law which is protected by the Supreme Court and by the Constitution of the United States. At the same time, no two humans have ever been born in the world who are physically or psychologically equal. Genetic analysis have proven this beyond any reasonable doubt. The probability that any two humans are genetically precisely the same is one among billions.
It was not until 1936, when Jesse Owens won four gold medals at Olympic track-and-field events in Hitler's Germany, that intellectual U.S. citizens began to recognize that masses of Americans were wrong. They were dead wrong in believing that black people were "nearer to being beasts and animals than white people," and that "black athletes won by luck." Thanks go to black athletes like Owens for their wake-up call which demanded change in our national perception concerning the contribution of race to athletic talent. Since 1936, scientific biological concepts have overtaken sociological constructs as the leading hypothesis to explain the excellence of blacks in track-and-field competition.
Nowadays, scientific analyses can be undertaken on the athletic field, in the halls of Olympic records, in medical institutions, in universities and in research laboratories--any place where scientific methodologies can prevail. Medical research has repeatedly shown that all humans, regardless of race or nationality, are not precisely the same. In fact, in track-and-field events, as well as in basketball, football and soccer, the performance levels of all races are unbelievably similar. It is now known that the difference between excellence and failure, winning and losing, is due to minuscule physiological differences.
The last two decades have seen DNA as containing improved tools of medicine, and as containing superior analytical tools supporting law enforcement. In the arena of athletics, knowledge and truth related to why blacks are superior to whites has improved just as dramatically, especially in the matter of identifying the geographic origins of winning athletes, and the DNA differences between black winners and white losers, and much more.
Because of observable and measurable factors related to analyzing athletic performances in the field, it is no longer fashionable for the news media and "pulpeteers" to support bigots, skinheads and racists who take to the soap box on a street corner, or perform their antics with fire in someone's front yard in the dark of night while spouting unscientific and biased beliefs. There is no longer any magic or mystery involved when the performance of competitors with long, slim legs differs from the performance of athletes with shorter, fatter legs. Nor is there wonderment concerning the analyses of biological and physiological attributes of racers and jumpers who come from specific regions of the world--attributes relating to lung capacity, energy consumption rates, quickness of muscular response, body frame and muscular development, and to a host of other observable, measurable factors. Restated: scientific analyses of the observed attributes of athletes need never again be seen as being racially biased or being anchored in bigoted perceptions concerning racial or geographic origins.
When a specific winning attribute is identified with people who originate in a small geographic locale of the world, there is no longer any reason to suggest that the repeated winning scores of these individuals in competition are racially biased. Winning is based upon recorded facts, and upon biophysical aspects which contribute to excellence in the field aspects which are observable, measurable and scientifically investigated.
Another false perception (now losing acceptance) is culturally and socially bigoted positioning which has historically derided black athletes who won major track and field events against white leapers and runners. A plethora of scientific evidence has revealed unequivocally that black athletes with origins in certain world locales entertain an innate capability to win over Caucasians, all Caucasians. The difference between black athletes who win and most white counterparts is genetic. Indeed, certain specific genetic biophysical attributes assure continuance of winning records among certain black tribes in the track and field world.
Here are a few numbers which may help recognize the superiority of black athletes in the U.S. where blacks are about 14 percent of the population. Almost 90 percent of professional basketball players are black. Seventy percent of National Football League players are black. In Great Britain where blacks are fewer than 2 percent of the population, 20 percent of professional soccer players are black. Not only that, but from a world-wide athletic perspective, blacks dominate the boxing arena. It is no surprise that athletes of African origin hold every major world running record from 100 meters to the marathon.
Suffice it to say that athletes are not created equal in a biophysical sense. Genetic comparisons show repeatedly that black sprinters and black athletes differ among themselves, and differ when compared with most whites. However, geneticists have not yet determined how to forecast which of the top best contenders in a track and field event will win a specific race.
In spite of irrevocable scientific evidence that blacks in Olympic track and field events dominate the scene, the American POLITICAL position still holds that black versus white athletic dominance should remain unspoken publicly because the difference is culturally divisive. The political claim for silence seems to support, at all political costs, avoidance of the introduction of race differentiation. However, to some observers, political avoidance is unfair to blacks, even though to other observers it is a requisite for social stability. Thus, the "race card" continues as a festering sore on the American political hill where mum remains the word.
How does this political biasing play out among white Americans in general? On the one hand, if a black loses an athletic contest, this is prima facie evidence that blacks are an inferior race. On the other hand, if a black wins against a white, this shows that blacks are nearer to being animals, and are not as far along the evolutional track as are whites. In fact, this was the dominant argument when Jesse Owens shocked the Olympic World in Hitler's Germany in 1936. Indeed, Owen's four gold medals were subtly devalued as being no more than a product of his "natural" athleticism.
Toward the end of America's slave days, and more recently during the redistribution of black people coincident with to World War II, African Americans have multiplied, studied, worked, resided and have consumed commercial goods and services all over the Nation. Indeed, the marble cake proliferation of blacks in all regions of the nation was possibly the true origin of the civil rights movement. As suggested earlier, genetic analyses are able to use DNA to trace the paths of black migrations in order to account for specific geographic origins of black athletes. In addition, studies have recently revealed that very small evolutional mutations can release chain reactions involving, (during a surprisingly small number of human generations) new characteristics in peoplecharacteristics which produce genetically-stable, highly valued transmutations. In some instances, the evolution has been accomplished in a few hundred years, rather than being a random product of evolution measured necessarily in millions of years.
For a long time now, no one has argued whether blacks are predisposed to carrying genes for sickle cell anemia, or whether they are genetically susceptible to colorectal cancer. These are researched facts that require no defense. Then, why do so many Americans find it racist to reveal scientific evidence that blacks with West African ancestry have evolved into the world's best sprinters and jumpers? Highly inherent characteristics such as skeletal frames, types of muscle fiber, reflex capabilities, lung capacity, and efficiency of energy-consumption have been scientifically shown to be unevenly distributed across racial groups. Yet, these researched facts seem to require energetic and continuous defense efforts, and are perceived by large groups of Americans to be highly arguable.
Also, biophysical differences have evolved which impact favorably among athletes of races other than blacks and whites. For instance, East Asians tend to be smaller people with relatively shorter extremities, longer torsos, and a thicker layer of fatall of which show up at Olympic events in ice skating, diving and gymnastics. This is because such body differences benefit success on the ice and on the diving board.
In addition, Eurasian whites are the world's leading wrestlers and weight lifters. In this case, the causal link is genetic. Evolutional processes have shaped Eurasians as a people with larger muscular upper bodies, and with shorter arms and legs. Stout, strong people. Strength dominates this group, thus it includes Olympic shot-putters and hammer throwers.
When it comes to leaping, the winners are from West African ancestry, many of whom now reside in the Caribbean and in the U.S. These swift jumpers and runners almost completely dominate sprint events up to 400 meters.
To strengthen the reader's awareness of geographic locale and regional supremacy, no white or Asian or East African runners have achieved the 100 meter run in 10 seconds or less. However, history has recorded some 200 or so runners to have broken the 10 second barrierall of them from West Africa. The truth is that all of the 32 100-meter finalists during the last four Olympic 100-meter runs have been West Africans.
Where is the geographical locus of power for distance runners? Kenyans in East Africa clearly dominate distance running. For example, at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, Kenyan men won the 800, 1,500 and 5000-meter races, along with the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Furthermore, Kenyans comprise a mere 200th of the world's population. Yet, they win 40 percent of all top international distance running contests, and they accumulate three times as many distance medals as athletes from any other nation in the world. Based upon population percentages alone, the likelihood of such a performance is one in 1.6 billion. One tiny Kenyan district, the Nandi, with only 500,000 people, has during recent decades captured 20 percent of all international distance events. This center of running power remains uncontested, for indeed Nandians from Kenya are the most winning of all runners in world history.
The unhealthy fascination of whites with black physical prowess can no longer shroud scientific truth which clearly shows that blacks make better athletes than do whites in many Olympic sports. Furthermore, the revelation that blacks are superior in certain Olympic track and field contests is neither wrong nor is it racist. It is simple unequivocal truth. The superiority of black athletic prowess has been confirmed over and over again by scientific observations. Furthermore, both whites and blacks have had a century within which to adjust to the reality that blacks, with origins in Africa, have biophysical advantages over whites.
A real difference among sports contenders emerged in the World Cross-Country Championships held in Turin, Italy. Competition included some 275 runners from 60 countries who ran in an environment assumed to be closely related to that which bipedal ancestors may have faced during a period of evolutionary adaptation. For 12 consecutive years, major titles went to Kenyans. In 1997, Kenyans earned two of the three medals, and five of the first ten places. Most Kenyan runners came from the same tribethe Kalenjin who numbered three million. The Kalenjin earned a total of 18 medals, while the rest of the world took the remaining 18. Again, gene research has shown that genetic similarities are at the root of Kalenjinian success afoot.
The most dangerous and ridiculous stretch of truth is the tendency of non-scientific sources to suggest that IQ is linked inversely to sports excellence: high IQ = low sports excellence; low IQ = high sports excellence. Using intellect and muscle as precursor measurements of athletic success is ludicrous and blatantly unfounded.
Did the higher altitude in which black marathon runners evolved cause re- configuration of the lungs? Or, did centuries of mountain climbing and running cause biophysical changes over time? Or, was elementary random genetic metamorphosis behind the change? In any case, genetic factors have pinpointed important biophysical differences to exist among humans from different locales of the earth. Some black athletes dominate certain sports, while black athletes from other regions dominate other sports. Some Asians dominate yet other sports. Each of these "racial" groups entertains a combination of biological factors and cultural peculiarities which differ from the others.
All the while during the past century, an individual's athletic success has been measured against the clock and against distance, and against the performance of other contenders. Late during the century, the science of genetics enlarged the ability of sports doctors, sports team owners, sports odds makers, and others to more carefully select potential winners. Causal relationships between body parts and the ability to win Olympic sport events impacted on the ability of odds makers to predict winners. Is it any wonder that greater sums of money have changed hands in favor of wagers made by those who understand the power of genetics, the geographical origins of rivals, and the various biological-racial differences found among human bodies? Let the bettor beware.
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| 2 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Shatta_Cleve |
Posted - Aug 18 2003 : 3:05:15 PM
So a from long time dem a devalue our work with this "natural" tag uh?
respect |
| Karl |
Posted - Aug 12 2003 : 3:28:31 PM
mmmmm! |
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