September 20, 2007

Black v. white physical differences in sports

Here's a comment from reader Philly Guy on my posting about whether there's a g factor of athleticism:

I don’t think “athleticism” is just a byword for black. What is meant by athleticism (as opposed to athletic ability, which is a much broader and more nebulous concept) is the ability to move one’s body quickly (in the sense of acceleration, change of direction, and top speed) and powerfully. This is largely a function biomechanics and musculo-tendon physiology and chemistry. Differences in physique and physiology clearly give blacks an advantage over whites in this respect and the word “athleticism” is applied to them much more often because they are much more likely to possess a high degree of “athleticism.”

Re physique, blacks and whites, when matched for SES variables, are virtually identical in average height, however, their physique and body proportions are much different. Blacks have shorter torsos, broader shoulders, smaller ribcages, narrower hips, and longer limbs (with comparative elongation of the distal segments). Fit samples of blacks and whites appear to be about the same weight on average (or perhaps blacks are marginally heavier), but fit blacks have on average less body fat, particularly on their limbs. It follows that blacks have a greater fat free body mass (i.e., bone, muscle and viscera) than whites. The smaller ribcage and narrower pelvis would indicate less viscera weight and indeed, blacks have been found to have substantially more total body musculature and denser, heavier bones than whites. This greater musculature is also distributed differently. Blacks show considerably more musculature in their glutes and thighs than whites, which gives a substantial advantage in locomotion. Blacks have also been shown to have on average greater cross sectional thickness in their limb musculature than whites, with the difference much greater in the proximal than distal limb segments. Naturally higher average testosterone levels and a greater number of testosterone receptors probably contribute to the leaner more heavily muscled physique of blacks compared to whites.

The average physiological differences give blacks a substantial advantage in athleticism. Narrower hips mean that locomotive force is applied closer to the center of the body’s mass, leading to greater biomechanical efficiency by putting a greater portion of the force generated into forward locomotion and causing less to be wasted in rotational force on the body (not to mention the smaller adjustments that have to be constantly made while running or walking to move the center of gravity towards the leg in contact with the ground). Longer limbs provide greater reach, stride length (both forward and lateral), and longer acceleration paths, both for imparting velocity to thrown objects and for accelerating one’s own body for jumping. The problem with long limbs is that they move the center of mass farther from the pivot point (i.e., the joint), causing greater torque and requiring more force to accelerate the limb or change its direction. However, here again black physique provides them with the best of both worlds. The heavy musculature concentrated in the hips and in the proximal segments keeps most of the mass close to the pivot point and provides a lot of force, and the relatively long, thin distal segments don’t create that much torque while still giving the benefits of long reach, stride and acceleration paths. Blacks lower average body fat and viscera weight from comparatively short torsos with small ribcages provide a greater power to weight ratio and less top-heaviness, with a greater portion of their mass being located in the musculature of the hips and thighs, which provide locomotive power.

Muscle and tendon physiology also contribute to black “athleticism.” It is well publicized that blacks have a higher percentage of fast twitch muscle fibers and higher levels of glycotic and phosphogenic enzyme activity levels, when diet and activity levels are controlled for, which would provide an advantage in explosive, short-duration muscular exertions. Additionally, blacks have comparatively long tendons and short muscle bellies compared to total muscle-tendon length compared to whites. When doing repetitive movements like running, the muscle and tendon of the opposing muscle group to contracting muscles are stretched, which stores energy like an elastic band, which is then added to the backstroke as the opposing muscles contract back. (Try taking an appendage such as a finger and stretching it back and notice how it snaps back to its resting position when you release it to see this stored energy effect.) Tendons are more elastic than muscles and contribute more to this effect. Blacks’ comparatively longer tendons would give them comparatively greater energy storage and retransfer while running, causing them to spend less energy and be more efficient. It is also established that blacks have greater muscle elasticity as well as proportionally longer tendons (their tendon elasticity is about the same as whites).

-Philly Guy

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

103 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting and informative. However, it begs the question: why don't we all have "black physiology"?

Anonymous said...

Fortunately, thanks to Gould's Demon, which occupies the neck and prevents evolution operating any further north, no parallel differences exist between the brains of whites, blacks and other races. Bodily differences, yes, in abundance; brain differences, no, nary a one!

Anonymous said...

So blacks must be the superior race because of this superior athleticism, and because we've been taught that we all have equal mental capabilities, right? Africa must be a utopia then, right? hmmm.

Anonymous said...

I call complete BS on all of this. I would like to see documented proof of all of these claims.

Anonymous said...

"Muscle elasticity and short torsos" don't seem to help blacks in boxing, wrestling and UFC/Pride fighting. Sultan Ibragimov is a 6'1, 220 lb Russian with man boobs and a gut. But he dominated hulking black American Shannon Briggs (6'4, 268lbs) with ease.

Why did all-white Italy win soccer's world cup with their long torsos?

Why did all-white Spain beat an almost all-black U.S. "Dream Team" in basketball's FIFA world cup last year despite their lack of elasticity?

Philly Guy knows his genetics and I don't doubt that most or all of what he says is true. But outside of some sprinting events, whites usually beat black athletes in head-to-head competitions.

Steve Sailer said...

You want "documented proof"?

On the earlier posting, Philly Guy added this comment:

After my rather long exposition, I should probably provide the sources from which I drew my summary. I did this rather quickly from various lists I have, so there may be some repeats, but I hope it is helpful for people who are interested in ethnic differences in athletic ability to expand their knowledge on their own.
-Philly Guy

Sources:

Books (including studies referenced therein):
Jon Entine, Taboo.

C. Bouchard, R. Malina, and L. Perusse, Genetics of Fitness and Physical Performance.

Barry Bogin, Patterns of Human Growth, 2nd Ed.

Tanner & Eveleth, Worldwide Variation in Human Growth, 2nd Ed

C. S. Coon, Racial Adaptations. (Useful info for effect of retinal pigmentation on reaction times.)

M. Levin, Why Race Matters (In addition to the section discussing race and athletic ability, there is data in other parts of the book on various psychomotor skills.)

J. P. Rushton, Race, Evolution and Behavior. (Deals with subject peripherally).

Michael H. Hart, Understanding Human History. (Deals with subject peripherally).

Articles:

J Appl Physiol 1986 Nov;61(5):1758-61, Skeletal muscle characteristics in sedentary black and Caucasian males. Ama PF, Simoneau JA, Boulay MR, Serresse O, Theriault G, Bouchard C.

Ethn Health 1996 Dec;1(4):337-47; Ethnic differences in body composition and their relation to health and disease in women. Gasperino J.

Am J Clin Nutr 2000 Jun;71(6):1392-402, Measures of body composition in blacks and whites: a comparative review. Wagner DR, Heyward VH.

J Appl Physiol 1984 Jun;56(6):1647-9, Density of lean body mass is greater in blacks than in whites. Schutte JE, Townsend EJ, Hugg J, Shoup RF, Malina RM, Blomqvist CG.

J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1995 Aug;80(8):2291-7, Greater secretion of growth hormone in black than in white men: possible factor in greater bone mineral density--a clinical research center study. Wright NM, Renault J, Willi S, Veldhuis JD, Pandey JP, Gordon L, Key LL, Bell NH.

J Natl Cancer Inst 1986 Jan;76(1):45-8; Serum testosterone levels in healthy young black and white men. Ross R, Bernstein L, Judd H, Hanisch R, Pike M, Henderson B.

J Appl Physiol 1999 Mar;86(3):915-23. African runners exhibit greater fatigue resistance, lower lactate accumulation, and higher oxidative enzyme activity. Weston AR, Karamizrak O, Smith A, Noakes TD, Myburgh KH.

J Appl Physiol 1993 Oct;75(4):1822-7, Superior fatigue resistance of elite black South African distance runners. Coetzer P, Noakes TD, Sanders B, Lambert MI, Bosch AN, Wiggins T, Dennis SC.

Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 1990;61(1-2):68-72, Physiological differences between black and white runners during a treadmill marathon. Bosch AN, Goslin BR, Noakes TD, Dennis SC.

Scand J Med Sci Sports 1995 Aug;5(4):209-21, Aerobic exercise capacity at sea level and at altitude in Kenyan boys, junior and senior runners compared with Scandinavian runners. Saltin B, Larsen H, Terrados N, Bangsbo J, Bak T, Kim CK, Svedenhag J, Rolf CJ.

Scand J Med Sci Sports 1995 Aug;5(4):222-30, Morphology, enzyme activities and buffer capacity in leg muscles of Kenyan and Scandinavian runners. Saltin B, Kim CK, Terrados N, Larsen H, Svedenhag J, Rolf CJ.

Racial differences in the sums of skinfolds and percentage of body fat estimated from impedance in black and white girls, 9 to 19 years of age: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study. Morrison JA, Barton BA, Obarzanek E, Crawford PB, Guo SS, Schreiber GB. Division of Cardiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229, USA. morrj2@chmcc.org

Comparison of viscoelastic characteristics in triceps surae between Black
and White athletes. Fukashiro S, Abe T, Shibayama A, Brechue WF.

Total body potassium differs by sex and race across the adult age span. He Q, Heo M, Heshka S, Wang J, Pierson RN Jr, Albu J, Wang Z, Heymsfield SB, Gallagher D. Obesity Research Center, St Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, and Institute of Human Nutrition, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY 1025, USA.

Peering Under the Hood of Africa's Runners, by Constance Holden

Current Science, Vol. 92, No. 1. 2007. ACTN3: Athlete Gene Prevalence in North India. Goel and Mittal.

Nature Genetics, Published online: 9 September 2007 | doi:10.1038/ng2122
Loss of ACTN3 gene function alters mouse muscle metabolism and shows evidence of positive selection in humans. Daniel G MacArthur1,2, Jane T Seto1,2, Joanna M Raftery1, Kate G Quinlan1,2, Gavin A Huttley3, Jeff W Hook4, Frances A Lemckert4, Anthony J Kee5, Michael R Edwards6, Yemima Berman1, Edna C Hardeman5, Peter W Gunning2,4, Simon Easteal3, Nan Yang1 & Kathryn N North1,2

Black sprinters and the anthropology of West African populations
• P.F.M. Ama, J.A. Simoneau, M.R. Boulay, O. Serresse, G. Thiériault, C. Bouchard: Skeletal muscle characteristics in sedentary Black and Caucasian males, Journal of Applied Physiology, 5/1986; p. 1758-1761
• P.F.M. Ama, P. Lagasse, C. Bouchard, J.A. Simoneau: Anaerobic performances in black and white subjects, MSSE, 4/1990
• P.F.M. Ama, S. Ambassa: Buoyancy of African black and European white males, American Journal of Human Biology, 9/1997
• L. Gerace et al.: Skeletal differences between black and white men, American Journal of Human biology, 6/1994
• Bradley C. Nindl, William J. Kraemer, Wesley H. Emmert, Scott A. Mazzetti, Lincoln A. Gotschalk, Margot Putukian, Wayne J. Sebastianelli, John F. Patton: Comparison of body composition assesment among lean black and white male collegiate athletes, MSSE, 5/1998
• Robert M. Malina: Racial and ethnic variation in the motor development and performance of American children, Canadian Journal of Sports Sciences, 1988; p. 136-143
• Takashi Abe, James B. Brown, William F. Brechue: Architectural characteristics of muscle in black and white college football players, MSSE, 10/1999
• Kenneth J. Ellis, Steven A. Abrams, William W. Wong: Body composition of a young, multiethnic female population, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1997; p. 724-31
• W.J. Duey, D.R. Bassett jr., D.J. Torok, E.T. Howley, V. Bond, P. Mancuso, R. Trudell: Skeletal muscle fibre type and capillary density in college-aged blacks and whites, Annals of Human Biology, 4/1997
• N.A. Ponthieux, D.G. Barker: Relationships between race and physical fitness, Research Quaterly, No. 4/1965
• Jose Antonio, Chris Street: Speed Demons - The domination of sport by blacks, http://www.testosterone.net/html/5speed.html
• Bruce Ettinger, Stephen Sidney, Steven R. Cummings, Cesar Libanati, Daniel D. Bikle, Irene S. Tekawa, Kimberly Tolan, Peter Steiger: Racial differences in bone density between young adult black and white subjects, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 1997; p. 429-434
Kenyans and Ethiopans
• Marco Tartaglia, Giuseppina Scano, Gian Franco de Stefano: An anthropogenetic study on the Oromo and Amhara of Central Ethiopia, American Journal of Human Biology, 8/1996
• B. Saltin, C.K. Kim, N. Terrados, H. Larssen, J. Svedenhag, C.J. Rolf: Morphology, enzyme activities and buffer capacity in leg muscles of Kenyan and Scandinavian runners, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 5/1995
• B. Saltin, C.K. Kim, N. Terrados, H. Larssen, J. Svedenhag, C.J. Rolf: Aerobic exercise capacity at sea level and at altitude in Kenyan boys, junior and senior runners compared with Scandinavian runners, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 5/1995
• Alon Eliakim, Dan Nemet, Louis Shenkman: Serum enzyme activities following long-distance running: Comparison between Ethiopian and white athletes, Israel Journal of Medical Sciences, 11/1995
Black South Africans
• Adéle R. Weston, O. Karamizrak, A. Smith, T.D. Noakes, Kathryn H. Myburgh: African runners exhibit greater fatigue resistance, lower lactate accumulation and higher oxidative enzyme activity, Journal of Applied Physiology, 3/1999; p. 915-923
• Andrew N. Bosch, Brian R. Goslin, Timothy D. Noakes, Steven C. Dennis: Physiological differences between black and white runners during a treadmill marathon, European Journal of Applied Physiology, 1990; p. 68-72
• Pieter Coetzer, Timothy D. Noakes, Barry Sanders, Michael I. Lambert, Andrew N. Bosch, Toni Wiggins, Steven C. Dennis: Superior fatigue resistance of black South African endurance runners, Journal of Applied Physiology, 4/1993; p. 1822-27
• Adéle R. Weston, Z. Mbambo, Kathryn H. Myburgh: Running economy of African and Caucasian distance runners, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 6/2000, p. 1130-4

General articles
• Tim Noakes: Why do Africans run so swiftly?, South African Journal of Science, 11-12/1998
• David R. Basset, jr. and Edward T. Howley: Limiting factors for maximum oxygen uptake and determinats of endurance performance, MSSE, 1/2000; p. 70-84
• Ward-Smith, A.J.: Aerobic and anaerobic energy conversion during high-intensity exercise, MSSE, 12/1999, p. 1855-1860
• Scientific American: Building the Elite Athlete, September 2000, especially pp. 90-97 (Gary Taubes: Deconstructing the Taboo), 98-103 (Reinout van Wagtendonk: Unlikely Domin-ation)
• Jesper L. Andersen, Peter Schjerling, Bengt Saltin: Muscle, genes and athletic performance, Scientific American, September 2000
http://www.cdc.gov/nhanes/ (see for body dimension comparisons).

Steve Sailer said...

"But outside of some sprinting events, whites usually beat black athletes in head-to-head competitions."

Well, sure, except in the biggest sport in America: football.

And in basketball, a contender for the #2 sport. And they seem to do fine in baseball, when they bother to show up for it.

Anonymous said...

Sultan Ibragimov is a 6'1, 220 lb Russian with man boobs and a gut. But he dominated hulking black American Shannon Briggs (6'4, 268lbs) with ease.

I watched that fight on PPV. Ibragimov was able to dominate Briggs so easily because Briggs was grotesquely out of shape and scarcely mobile. Inherent racial differences had little or nothing to do with it. Had Briggs paid some attention to conditioning it would've been a closer fight, though Ibragimov might still have won.

Anonymous said...

Are these physiological differences an advantage only to a handful of sports? (Basketball, football, 100 meter sprints). I still see whites dominating almost all other sports including the high jump at the Olympics.

Anonymous said...

Sultan Ibragimov is a 6'1, 220 lb Russian with man boobs and a gut. But he dominated hulking black American Shannon Briggs (6'4, 268lbs) with ease.

Um, that's one pair of guys. That's like putting Marie Curie up against George Bush and asking which gender is better at science.

Anonymous said...

"Philly Guy knows his genetics and I don't doubt that most or all of what he says is true. But outside of some sprinting events, whites usually beat black athletes in head-to-head competitions."

Perhaps because sport is largely head to head.

Anonymous said...

I agree that blacks tend to have certain athletic advantages over whites on average. However, it should be noted that the strongest people on the planet are the Scandinavians. They even outperform American blacks who were selectively bred for strength and endurance during the 250 years of slavery.

Also, of the dozens of competitive sports played around the world, I can only think of three that blacks actually dominate. Those would be American football, basketball, and the 100m and 200m sprints. However, the all black US basketball team has repeatedly been beaten by the nearly all white teams of Europe as well as the all white Argentinian team in the last two Olympics and FIBA World Championships. Also, the 400m dash which was once dominated by blacks is now dominated by a white American. In fact, he should break Micheal Johnson's world record this year.

We should also remember that there are many athletic whites who are much more swift, graceful, and coordinated than the average black, but who get stereotyped as unathletic. There is a certain amount of truth behind most stereotypes, but we should also remember that there are also usually many exceptions to such stereotypes.

Many white American men of the baby boomer generation seem to have what I call a "cuckold psychology" toward black athletes. Many jewish males also display this psychology toward black athletes. I hope Steve Sailor is not also guilty of this, but I am begining to wonder.

TabooTruth said...

Olymic sport domination is a socio-economic issue.

Anonymous said...

What is Cuckold Psychology?

I don't doubt that genetic differences exist, and account for such things as niches in the running events: sprints, middle distances, and long-distance.

But I also think that economic effects cannot be ignored, and can override almost everything else if strong enough.

Why did Blacks dominate boxing, then leave it? Probably because they became wealthy enough to find more profitable ways of living than being hit in the head, and/or the lure of bigger money in other sports (where you don't get hit in the head). And perhaps the demise of boxing coaches/trainers/boxing leagues for up and coming boxers as people got old and retired.

Russians used to be non-existent in boxing and MMA is a young sport. Now they are strong in both (boxing and MMA). Why? Perhaps a network of trainers and athletes and knowledge that needed something to do in dirt-poor post-Soviet Russia had something to do with it.

Look at swimming. By all accounts Blacks SHOULD dominate the sport. But they don't. Why? Possibly because it takes years to train, costs LOTS of money, and has very little payoff?

Certain positions in the NFL seem to be "Black only" but that might change. Polynesian men used to be thought of as big fat linemen, not hard-hitting FAST free safeties like Tatutupo. Philly has at least one white WR who's fast. If you can't block at least SOME in the NFL you can't play, so speed is not the be and end all of everything.

Does evolution act on human beings in diverse environments? Sure. But so too does economics.

I suspect that latter is probably dominant (look at the money thrown around).

[Why are very few black men professional ballet dancers? You can make good money at it. You can dance for years and make good money. The same qualities needed to be say a good WR in the NFL can make you a good ballet dancer. I suspect that the answer is economic and cultural. Grace and power is grace and power. But money today is worth more than the same amount of money tomorrow.]

Anonymous said...

"Well, sure, except in the biggest sport in America: football.

And in basketball, a contender for the #2 sport. And they seem to do fine in baseball, when they bother to show up for it."


I've never found any of those sports particularly interesting, so I'll have to take your word for it.

I have no reason to doubt the science presented by your correspondent. That said, I agree with the previous commenter who mentioned mixed martial arts. Compared to MMA, football, basketball, and especially baseball are board games. There's no comparison between MMA and the team sports you listed when it comes to overall athleticism (speed, power, coordination, as well as the intelligent use of those physical attributes).

Blacks, in general, have done quite poorly in MMA. Unlike the sports you listed, MMA is a truly international sport, with competitors from around the world competing against each other on a regular basis. Blacks---and Asians as well---have not done particularly well when compared to whites. There's only one black on Sherdog's top ten list, and black champions (including Brazilian mulattoes) in the UFC, Pride, etc. have been few and far between.

Anonymous said...

Many white American men of the baby boomer generation seem to have what I call a "cuckold psychology" toward black athletes.

No doubt about it. But there are other factors at work besides psychology when it comes to certain sports like boxing. Boxing depends on urban poverty to produce the boxers. Boxing doesn't flourish in rural environments because it requires a gambling community, and all the big money in gambling is in the city.

Whites in the West haven't been urban and poor in any great numbers for decades. Affluence prevented many great white boxers from appearing on the scene in the modern era. Not so in the East. These new Eastern boxing champs are mostly hardscrabble types from tough white urban situations that hardly exist anymore in the West - at least in large numbers.

So there is a socio-economic trend against Western whites becoming boxing pros. But the brainwashing is a big part of the dynamic also. Obviously, many white Eastern European athletes didn't get the memo(!) that they are inferior to blacks in sporting contests. But that memo is relentlessly sent out to American youth. And it is also sent to the coaches of American youth sports who put various players on certain career tracks beginning at an early age. Steve has referenced the caste football guy in the past who is justly obsessed about the issue.

Steve Sailer said...

These UFC fighters make pocket change compared to athletes in established sports. The UFC corporation is making a lot of money off pay per view at the moment, but they sure aren't paying out much to fighters. I see no evidence that UFC is paying enough yet to get world-class athletes.

Anonymous said...

The Brazilian and Eastern European teams that have beaten all black US basketball teams are composed of veterans of their national systems who have played and practiced with their teammates for years if not decades. Basketball is a team sport, and the US team probably doesn't know its own roster, much less the coach du jour's playbook. They just want to choke down enough tylenol to deal with their hangovers, meet the minimum requirements of their shoe contracts and get back to their partying. These guys don't go to a Pan American tournament to uphold their national honor.

The real test of ability comes when the million dollar paychecks are issued.

Anonymous said...

"... However, it begs the question: why don't we all have "black physiology"?"

Because for the rest of us our ancestors moved "out of Africa." Long, thin heat shedding limbs and a genetic predisposition for low body fat didn't cut it hunting mammoth and wooly rhino along the European, Asian and North American glaciers.

Anonymous said...

Boxing - the economic analysis, with urban poverty as the main factor, seems to be a strong one. Globally there is the rise of east-European boxers, Russian especially. Here in the UK we see the rise of Pakistani/South Asian boxers like Prince Naseem and Nasraan Khan.

Genetically south Asians are basically Caucasian, like white Europeans, and don't appear to have any genetic advantages, but British Muslims do now have the western urban poverty environment necessary for boxing.

Re swimming and the lack of black swimmers though, that's a very strong case for genetic factors. All non-Africans are descended primarily from a small group of coastal shellfish-scavengers who left Africa 50-80,000 years ago and travelled east along the south coast of Eurasia, you would expect them to be better swimming-adapted than descendants of the populations who remained in Africa.

See eg:
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/

A non-sporting point - I've long wondered about the different etho of the British and US militaries, especially the infantry. British training and doctrine emphasises endurance and stoicism, the ability to eg march across the freezing bogs of east Falkland island unsupported and attack and defeat entrenched enemy at the end of it. Endurance is something that north European physiology is well adapted for.

US army training seems to emphasise the offense, speed and aggression. "Remaining on the offensive" is an American military obsession. Relatively little attention is given to endurance, and it's assumed that mechanised support will always be available. This seems to suit African-American physiology, with its superior fast-twitch muscle mass and lower body fat.

Anonymous said...

In all of the recent studies I have seen regarding testosterone, it seems Mexicans have a higher level than both blacks and whites, who measure about the same.

However, a recent report suggests that black men have higher levels of estrogen:

Blacks have high estrogen levels

Another study, this one saying there's no difference in testosterone:

Testosterone levels the same

Maybe testosterone levels, like body weight, vary quite a bit according to environmental conditions. Mexicans are largely new arrivals to America and still culturally distinct. This may mean that they have not been exposed to some possible feminizing chemical or social influence (educational institutions?) that could be afflicting both black and white American men.

Steve Sailer said...

Testosterone levels in the blood differ hour by hour depending on mood. Testosterone receptors, however, are more stable, and we have a pretty good idea which genes control them.

Anonymous said...

Testosterone is probably only one of many genetic factors that affect musculature and athletic ability. It's given too much credit.

Anonymous said...

Steve,

Why do all-white schools usually beat all-black schools in high school football championships in states like Texas and Pennsylvania?

Why do all-black "Dream Teams" from the U.S. almost always end up playing for third after getting drubbed by all-white squads from Italy or Lithuania?

The NFL and NBA are roughly 66% and 75% black respectively. But what if the selection process was color blind? Wouldn't it be more like 40-50% in each league?

Air Force starts an all white offense and defense this year and they are 3-0. And these kids are fighter pilots first and athletes second.

Last year's Super Bowl champs -- the Indy Colts -- were about 45% white. The dominant team of the 2000s -- the New England Patriots -- is also about 45% white every year. But teams like the Arizona Cardinals are about 20% white and they are cellar-dwellers year after year.

It's a good thing no other nation plays American football. Because if it was made an Olympic sport the U.S. team would eventually play Italy for the bronze medal every four years while Russia and Poland battled for the gold.

One final thing. Next year we will see incredible hype for the all-black U.S. basketball "Dream Team." And they will end up beating Argentina or Croatia (in overtime) for the bronze medal.

Anonymous said...

Russians used to be non-existant in boxing because they could not compete due to communism. They often did quite well against the U.S. in the Olympics.

That being said, do we need an asterisk next to the names of Muhammad Ali, Ray Robinson and Joe Louis (and, to be fair, Rocky Marciano)? After all, they did not have to compete against the Russians and other Eastern Europeans who dominate boxing today.

Anonymous said...

"These UFC fighters make pocket change compared to athletes in established sports. The UFC corporation is making a lot of money off pay per view at the moment, but they sure aren't paying out much to fighters. I see no evidence that UFC is paying enough yet to get world-class athletes."

That's irrelevant. Your original post was about blacks and whites in general. Now you're changing the subject to overpaid American athletes in a very narrow range of sports. Basketball is hardly the best test of overall athleticism, no matter how overpaid players are. The height requirements alone are enough to exclude most of the world's athletes, which would make it even more irrelevant as a test of white vs. black athleticism. MMA does not have this bias because of weight classes, which allow men of all sizes to compete against each other, one on one, not as a team. And white athletes have clearly dominated in all weight classes.

There have been a host of Olympic wrestlers who have competed in MMA. These are medalists, not guys who just showed up. I'd hardly call them athletic hacks. In a test of overall athleticism, I'd put money on ANY of the current MMA champions versus the overpaid prima donnas who play football, basketball, or baseball.

Turn off the NFL and watch some UFC. It's much more interesting, and a much more valid test of white vs. black athleticism. I don't claim to know why blacks do so poorly in MMA, but they do. This evidence runs counter to your hypothesis about black athletic superiority, which means that the data you presented do not fully explain the differences.

Anonymous said...

... it is also sent to the coaches of American youth sports who put various players on certain career tracks beginning at an early age. Steve has referenced the caste football guy in the past who is justly obsessed about the issue.

After seeing the Jeff Lurie owned Eagles play the Dan Snyder owned Redskins this past weekend, I did some research on the NFL website regarding race, the quarterback position, and team ownership.

NFL has 32 teams and about a dozen are Jewish owned. Statistically, a Jewish owned team is twice as likely to have a black quarterback in 2007. Are Jewish owners are less bigoted and making business decisions based purely on talent and performance? Or are Jewish owners are more interested than non-Jewish owners in removing the archetype white authority figure for America's youth and much of America's adults -- the white quarterback -- from the stage?

It seems the black quarterback who does a lot of running [as opposed to the great Warren Moon] is not such a great investment in the short term or over the long haul. McNabb is only 30 years old but he is beaten up like a running back instead of entering the prime of his career [running backs have the shortest NFL careers due to the physical beating they take]. In fact, in an objective performance-based analysis, the modern "athletic" quarterback with a great running abilities is not panning out very well in the NFL. There is now a large body of data that shows the enduring value of the accurate pocket passer versus the mediocre passer running style quarterback. Yet the various NFL organizations persist in re-engineering the quarterback position.

The amount of PC social engineering going on in the NFL is significant. If, in the future, Jews own a majority of NFL teams then it seems these owners will be able to institutionally convert the position of quarterback to a running position which is more favorable to black players, no matter the results on the field.

Anonymous said...

"Blacks, in general, have done quite poorly in MMA."
Actually, the current undisputed 205-lb world MMA champion is Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, who is a Black guy. Also, the current 185-lb champion is Black Brazilian Anderson Silva. In their championship fights, both were considerably faster and more coordinated than their white opponents, and both scored devastating knockouts. MMA is a young sport and most of the current athletes wouldn't have even anticipated fighting in the UFC when they took up wrestling or kickboxing as teenagers. If UFC salaries continue to improve, expect to see more young Black athletes seriously take up wrestling, jiu-jitsu or muy thai, and more black athletes in MMA in the future.

Anonymous said...

Economic barriers may mask the fact that swimming is a naturally a White sport. White muscular endurance and body fat buoyancy is better suited for swimming than most athletic Africans body types.

Surprisingly, I was told the ideal body type is taller with a long torso and short limbs which again give the advantage to whites over blacks. Apparently a lot of the forward locomotion is most efficiently powered by the torso rather than long lanky limbs pulling through the water.

Swimming is not as naturally broadly appealing as running is. It is a very different mental game that seems better suited to a European cultural and individual mindset – e.g. it can be extremely tedious, boring and demanding and has few material rewards of other sports like money, women, fame, etc.

Most top MMA fights are long strategic affairs that seem to slightly favor White shorter limbs, endurance, strength, technique over Black lean muscular speed and agility.

I’m not sure Steve’s comment that the UFC doesn’t pay enough to attract world class athletes affects Black success in the sport. Supposedly, if Blacks were better suited for the sport they would dominate it even if only 2nd or 3rd tier athletes of all races were competing. More important are relatively higher economic barriers to training and accessibility which mean far fewer competitors are drawn from the Black population relative to Whites.

- JAN

Unknown said...

But I also think that economic effects cannot be ignored, and can override almost everything else if strong enough.

That's true of both nature and nurture, and isn't really saying much.

Look at swimming. By all accounts Blacks SHOULD dominate the sport. But they don't. Why? Possibly because it takes years to train, costs LOTS of money, and has very little payoff?

LOL! Can you mail me some of what you're smoking? Heavier bones, less subcutaneous fat, buoyancy, and lung capacity - this is your recipe for a great swimmer?

These UFC fighters make pocket change compared to athletes in established sports. The UFC corporation is making a lot of money off pay per view at the moment, but they sure aren't paying out much to fighters. I see no evidence that UFC is paying enough yet to get world-class athletes.

Yeah, but sight unseen I'm willing to bet whatever they get is a fortune to some large non-white population, somewhere. I agree with your point though (that blacks haven't really gotten "wind" of UFC yet (remember your own point about how blacks want to dominate an athletic endeavor collectively, or not participate at all?)), and suspect blacks will do well in UFC if they start paying big bucks. I don't think it'll play out like boxing has until recently though; MMA takes more brains and technique than boxing.

Really, I think whites are screwed in professional sports because they lack the necessary attributes. Whites are long on strength (still don't think you - or most "race-realists," for that matter - have absorbed this yet) and stamina, which aren't as fun to watch as explosive muscle power/speed, or rythmicity.

Ultrarunning is the ultimate test of stamina, totally dominated by whites, and totally uninteresting as a spectator sport.

The Brazilian and Eastern European teams that have beaten all black US basketball teams are composed of veterans of their national systems who have played and practiced with their teammates for years if not decades. Basketball is a team sport, and the US team probably doesn't know its own roster, much less the coach du jour's playbook. They just want to choke down enough tylenol to deal with their hangovers, meet the minimum requirements of their shoe contracts and get back to their partying. These guys don't go to a Pan American tournament to uphold their national honor.

The real test of ability comes when the million dollar paychecks are issued.


The teams you refer to are drawn from much smaller population pools, in much smaller markets. And if you think a bunch of blacks from America don't mind getting their asses handed to them by a bunch of whites from the hills of Europe, I want some of what you're smoking, too.

This seems to suit African-American physiology, with its superior fast-twitch muscle mass and lower body fat.

Great, except the vast majority of the heavy-lifting (i.e., close-combat) in the U.S. military is done by whites.

In all of the recent studies I have seen regarding testosterone, it seems Mexicans have a higher level than both blacks and whites, who measure about the same.

Google "androgen receptors."

Anonymous said...

Fortunately, thanks to Gould's Demon, which occupies the neck and prevents evolution operating any further north, no parallel differences exist between the brains of whites, blacks and other races. Bodily differences, yes, in abundance; brain differences, no, nary a one!

Exactly, from the Gouldian perspective the brain is an organ truly unlike any other. Its evolution may have been what made us all human but any evolution beyond that, however slight, must be deemed impossible. Descartes may have given us the mind-body divide but it was the incomparable genius Gould who brought us the brain-body divide.

Anonymous said...

"Actually, the current undisputed 205-lb world MMA champion is Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, who is a Black guy."

Jackson's obviously a talented fighter, but he's hardly the "undisputed" light heavyweight champion---MMA Weekly, to take but one example, lists him as #2. Besides, I'm talking about aggregates. The success of a single athlete is not particularly relevant.

There are 6 whites and 3 blacks on the UFC's light heavyweight top 10 list. There's also Dan Henderson, who is mostly white with a smattering of American Indian.

When we look at the top 10 heavyweights in the UFC, we find:
--7 whites (including #1 and #2)
--1 "Amerasian" (Filipino-white---he's #3)
--1 black (#7)
--1 Brazilian mestizo (#6)

In Pride, there are 7 whites (who occupy ranks #1 through 6) and 3 Japanese on the top 10 heavyweight list. No blacks at all. Jackson did well in Pride before the unification, but he still lost 5 out of 16 bouts. Other blacks have not done particularly well. Slavs on the other hand....

So out of the 30 top heavyweight and light heavyweight fighters in the two top MMA organizations, there are:
--20 whites
--4 blacks
--3 Asians
--3 mixed race (white + Asian or American Indian)

(all rankings from here)

I’m not sure Steve’s comment that the UFC doesn’t pay enough to attract world class athletes affects Black success in the sport. Supposedly, if Blacks were better suited for the sport they would dominate it even if only 2nd or 3rd tier athletes of all races were competing.

Bingo. That was my point exactly, though you expressed much more clearly than I did.

Anonymous said...

Relatively little attention is given to endurance, and it's assumed that mechanised support will always be available.

Horseshit. You don't know anything about the US mil., either past or present.

As for the lucky little Falkland Islands war, haven't you armchair Field Marshalls of HM Empire taken enough victory laps over that? How about Albion's mighty triumphs over the wogs of Basra, or in the littoral waters of the Schatt-an-Arab?

Anonymous said...

I'm curious where this "whites are stronger, blacks faster" meme comes from. Blacks have more muscle than whites, particularly in their hips and thighs and have a higher proportion of fast twitch fibers. Hence, they should have more contraction power than whites, particularly in their hips and thighs, which are the most important groups in most sports.

While short limbs and a large torso and ribcage may provide an advantage in bench pressing, squatting, etc. (and whites dominate weightlifting and powerlifting), that is hardly the same as what we would call "athletic strength" or the ability to manhandle someone on, say, an NFL football field. Athletic strength is usually about accelerating a limb and applying a lot of force/imparting velocity to either one's own body or another object at the end of the lever and blacks' physiques would give them an advantage on average in this respect. While a shorter-limbed, stubbier physique may provide some advantages in very specific activities like weightlifting or pushing in the front row of a rugby scrum, in most sports where one competes against other people (as opposed to simply controlling one's own body such as gymnastics) it is a disadvantage. The stubby, rotund men who make up the ranks of top powerlifters could certainly outlift NFL O- and D-linemen, but does anyone really think they would do well playing line in an NFL game?

As for track and field throwing events, does white domination really result from biological advantages whites have in these events, or is it simply that not very many blacks take part in these events or choose not to pursue them? After all, don't throws require long acceleration paths and explosiveness? And doesn't most of the power come out of the hips and thighs? This would seem to favor blacks. A lot of blacks that would make excellent throwers are probably playing in the NFL. Imagine what someone like Reggie White could have done. And isn't former SF 49ers DT Michael Carter still the US (and world) highschool record holder in the shotput? He won an olympic silver medal before going on to play in the NFL. Since shotputters usually don't peak until their late 20s or 30s, what could Carter have done if he pursued shotput instead of pro-football. Maybe he'd have the WR. Maybe not. But what is for sure is that he made a hell of a lot more money playing football than he would have if he had stuck with shot put.
-Philly Guy

Unknown said...

I'm curious where this "whites are stronger, blacks faster" meme comes from.

I dunno. As far as I can tell:

Blacks:
Have more fast-twitch fiber which results in faster gross body movement.

Have more power (function of speed and strength)

Have better agility (coordination of gross body movement)

Whites:
Faster reflexes
Greater endurance
Greater strength
Have better dexterity (coordination of fine body movement)

Seems like white domination of offensive line positions argues against your "usable strength" thing.

Strength is a pretty straightforward attribute. No need to complicate the situation by assuming man vs. man contests (which incorporate balance, skill, reflexes, agility, etc., and muddy the water) are the best way to judge it. Seems to me that lifting, pushing, pulling, and otherwise moving heavy objects are the best way to judge strength.

Anonymous said...

Statistically, a Jewish owned team is twice as likely to have a black quarterback in 2007.

Al Davis is Jewish but apparently he's never been very enthusiastic about black quarterbacks. But his bad boy "just win baby" philosophy has failed miserably due to the change in the NFL demographics to vast majority black.

The Raiders locker room went gangsta with selfish play, lack of discipline, collapse of the work ethic, and no respect for authority. In this environment even the incredible Randy Moss was unable to prosper. Now Moss is in one of whitest playing environments in the league where teamwork is everything and the individual hotdog mentality is banned -- and Moss is thriving.

Anonymous said...

Svigor:

You say whites dominate the offensive lineman position? Have you watched any NFL games lately? Without counting through the NFL website, I'd say that NFL o-linemen are at least half black (particularly starters). Whites do make a better showing at O-line than at most other positions, but, considering that there are 6 times as many whites in the US, I'd say that blacks are still way overrepresented. Additionally, from data on IQ by position (from Wonderlic scores) that Steve put up a while ago, the average IQ for O-line positions seems to be around 106-110, which makes sense because O-line requires learning quite a lot of complicated plays and blocking schemes and knowing how to react to different defensive fronts and blitzes. Assuming that NFL teams want an IQ of over 100 for O-line, then when you consider the ratios of eligible whites and blacks, black physical dominance in the position becomes even more apparent. Besides, what do you think is going to be better for run blocking, a big barrel chest and the ability to bench a lot, or massive thighs and butt to drive the D-lineman out of there? I think I'd say the latter. Which is better for pass blocking, massive thighs and butt from which you can derive power blows transferred through long arms which keep the D-lineman off your body, or short stubby arms and a big benchpress? If you have ever played line in football, you'll know that upper body strength is useless without explosive hip and leg strength. I have noticed that blacks seem to get more penalties and make more mistakes at O-line, but they also seem to be more physically dominating (on average) than their white counterparts. I'd say that whites do as well as they by using mental qualities to make up for physical deficits.
- Philly Guy

Anonymous said...

Svigor said "The teams you refer to are drawn from much smaller population pools, in much smaller markets. And if you think a bunch of blacks from America don't mind getting their asses handed to them by a bunch of whites from the hills of Europe, I want some of what you're smoking, too."

I don't smoke, that nasty habit has negative consequences for its practitioners. But thank you for providing supporting evidence for my argument.

Anonymous said...

The problem with Philly Guy's assessment (and any "science" that tries to explain genetic differences in race) is that you can't back it up with real world data. For example, Philly Guy states that blacks run faster due to longer limbs, shorter torsos, denser bones (I'd like to see where that data comes from since the only way to accurately measure bone density is with a sample), etc.

If that is the case, how is it that these black sprinters were the best at their sport:

Michael Johnson - 200m, 400m World Record Holder, body shape is average height with long torso and very short limbs.

Maurice Greene - 60m WR holder and former 100m WR holder, body shape is below average height with short limbs.

Andre Cason - Former 60m WR holder and ranked in the top 3 in the 100m during the early 1990's. Very short height (about 5'6" tall)and short limbs.

There are others that do not fit the mold of Philly Guy's fast black athlete, but most of them are known for using banned substances, so I won't list them here.

The point is that there is variations of body types among elite athletes even within racial groups, so generalizations are worthless.

Up until around 1984, white sprinters were competitive and even won races against black sprinters. Armin Hary, a German sprinter, ran a WR 10.00 in the early 1960's. Since that time, only one white sprinter (Marian Woronin in the early 1980's) has matched the feat. Today, there are no white sprinters that are even close to those times. Did the white race genetically change in the last 30 years to no longer run fast?

Even black sprinters broke the 10 second barrier only a handful of times prior to 1984. The times of the best white sprinter and the best black sprinter prior to 1984 is a mere 0.05 of a second!!! So what happened in 1984 to change everything? The widespread use of performance enhancing drugs and Carl Lewis' four gold medals in the Olympics. Lewis earned millions of dollars of endorsements which began race for the black community to produce the next Carl Lewis. From that point forward drugs became the way to win in the 100m. Almost every winning sprinter since that time has been caught using a banned substance at sometime in their career (many times covered up by the various track organizations).

Anonymous said...

It doesn't make "blacks" superior athletes. It only makes them on avergae better at running and jumping. In the *sport of athletics/track & field*, this is highly important, but in other sports, not so much. The vast majority of champion swimmers, divers, gymnasts, rugby players, cricketers, tennis players, golfers, wrestlers, etc.. are not black. Many, in fact most sports do not require running & jumping to such a great extent. There are other factors, such as skill, co-ordination, dedication, intelligence which manifest in other sports to a greater degree. I don't see why many white people get so upset and defensive about black people dominating a small number of sports. Maybe they do have an advantage in certain areas, but being black would probably be a disadvantage for the average skier for example -- black people aren't designed for that weather...:-)

I don't see why some people are so eager to push the agenda that goes along those lines "blacks are better at sports, so whites have to be more intelligent"... That kind of logic shows the complete lack of intelligence of those individuals who say that. Intelligence varies wildly even within races, even within families. I am very irritated by people who claim that whites are superior intellectually. It has been the brilliance of individuals which has propelled Europe ahead of the rest of the world scientifically, how can some random white person in say, Oklahoma, take credit for the discoveries of individuals such as Albert Einstein/Isaac Newton?? You had nothing to do with these scientific breakthroughs, you were given them as a gift like the rest of us, you shouldn't act as if you have contributed to them...

Anonymous said...

Yeap, white men want to keep these facts under wraps because they're very threatened by the black man's athletic prowess. Black men are just sexier than any other men out there. They have the natural advantages, but they also tend to take care of their bodies more than white men do.

-white woman who loves black men

Anonymous said...

Interesting, but what exactly is a black person? Someone with black skin? Someone from Africa? West Africa? East Africa? South Africa? There are many physiological differences between say, East & West Africans, and also between West Africans and African Americans, but yet all are considered 'black'.

And the differences listed only provide an advantage in running and jumping. Many sports require other traits at which 'blacks' have no physiological advantage, and I am sure we can think of a few where whites have the advantage. Not too many black Winter Olympians!

Anonymous said...

I don't agree with the idea of black supremacy in sports. First of all, i'd like to say that the 5 best ranked boxers in the world are from the ex-Soviet Union territory. Also, wieghtlifting and wrestling are clearly dominated by whites. In my opinion, the fact that blacks have less fat and more muscles may help them in speed, but that doesn't mean they're better at sports. In fact, as i said the strength based sports are dominated by whites. And something else, usually studies include African-Americans and white Americans. There are many other different white groups in Europe, and black grups in Africa. In general, American whites have had a relatively easy life since centuries ago, but Slavians, Scandinavians, and people living in the mountains of the Balkans, Albaninas for example, have had very hard ones. If researches included these ethnicities, i am sure that results would be very different.

Anonymous said...

Its natural selection

Asians are generally the smallest so to compensate they are generally the most intellegent as well.

Blacks are generally the largest/physically gifted and studies show the lowest natural intellegence and least developed countries.

Whites get the raw end of the stick being neither or the most intellectually gifted or physically gifted (or better if you like an equal medium)

And this doesn't cover everyone and mean all whites are smarter than blacks or all blacks are most physically gifted than whites.

Theres black people with IQ's of 150 and theirs whites with IQ's of 80

Theres also whites who can run a 4.5 forty and blacks who can't break 5.5

Its just a general distribution and is basically done through natural selection.

The strongest/smartest species dont have to be as smart to survive and the smart species don't need as much physical strength to survive they are able to use their intellegence.

Why would the human race be any different than any other animal who went through the process of natural selection??

Anonymous said...

"They have the natural advantages, but they also tend to take care of their bodies more than white men do."

I think you should have signed your post:
" - White woman who hasn't seen any data on fast food, hypertension, and obesity among American blacks"

Anonymous said...

to the "white woman" poster -- why are all the "hottest" athletes in year end polls always the white ones?

white men take much better care of their bodies -- the obesity and poor diets in the black community is rampant.

Anonymous said...

I think this is crap. You cant judge races like this. 90% of american blacks are part white, so does this make pure africans in africa better? White Russians dominate boxing, weightlifting, and wrestling in the Olympics. the world record powerlifters are white. white people dominate the strongman competition. their more muscular bodies dont help them in strength then.

You cant judge races, forensic people cant tell a black from a white in DNA testing lol. people need to get over the race issue and move on. Slavery in america ended in the 1860s. Get over it

Anonymous said...

actually, yes they can tell the difference of races in genetic testing. Studies conducted by Dr.Risch on over 3000 people could identify an inividual's race with 99.99% accuracy and even reveal that people who thought they were black actually had white and hispanic genes also. Race denial is the equivalent of denying evolution. People dont like to face the harsh realities that we ARE NOT equal and reality proves it. Race denial fails just like communism did, people have to face the fact equality is a myth to make us feel better.

Anonymous said...

The fastest people on earth are black, the strongest people on earth are white. Case closed. In the end it equals out.. so both sides have clear advantages and drawbacks ..

Anonymous said...

Its funny how u forget about the kenyas who dominate the distance races who are what black

Anonymous said...

There's a difference is physiology between east africans and west africans.

Anonymous said...

White people are better at weight lifting, have thicker joints and on average more upper body strength. Also we are better swimmers. Why do so many white people hate on their own race? It's obvious that blacks are faster but stronger, no.

Anonymous said...

If you consider strength a combination of speed and force from a physics standpoint, blacks should be stronger while moving in most sporting events.

Different forms of lifting are the exceptions to this already stated above.

Anonymous said...

Okay let's set this straight. Firstly I don't think anyone here is qualified enough on the history of the world to quote evolutionary theories. The most people probably know is Africa is hot, Europe is cold, and even that isn't true. Let us first take into account the variation between Europeans. Someone in Germany is vastly different from someone in Spain. You can easily tell the difference. The same applies for Africa. If the genetic variation within the relatively small continent of Europe is so large, imagine the variation in Africa! On top of this, the difference between native African and African Americans is also huge. Namely because the African Americans had 250 years of breeding from the slave trade. Because of this only the stronger and larger Africans would have been taken as slaves or indeed survived the voyage over. Therefore African Americans should be stronger and larger than white Americans on average. Despite this however the Scandanavians are the tallest population in the world. In America however blacks are indeed taller on average. I am English, and in my majority white school three of the tallest students have black genetics,, although interestingly none are full black. On top of this variation within whites or blacks is also huge. I am 5'11 and have a very high bone density, chipping my black friend Tyrone's shin in a game of (English) football or 'soccer.' We invented it so why we have to use the name soccer instead of football like we called it I don't know but that isn't the point. I'm now in college, and as you can see I am 'unusual' in bone density for a white person and have a large muscle to body mass ratio also, I am also a great deal strong than the majority of students. As you can see there is huge variation within white people. Therefore let's measure this debate by current sporting champions. From what I've seen whites dominate the fields of strength and stamina (Strength referring to dynamic strength employed in weight lifting) as well as combat sports whilst black corner sports requiring explosive strength and speed. There are draw backs for blacks and whites, but Hispanics and Latin races (Spaniards Brazilians etc) seem to dominate team sports. So there you go, there is huge variation in each race, and each has it's advantages and disadvantages, who is better overall? Unless you want to try everyone in the world at every sport and keep a tally we'll never really know, but from what evidence we have we can see who dominates which sports at the moment. Oh, and stop trying to claim white or black supremacy, the real thing that counts is intelligence. I'm an A* student and I'm white, my black friend Troy is also an A* student. Intelligence doesn't depend on race, Gourdian's demon or whatever, so there you have it. Even evolutionarily everyrace requires intelligence because that is what succeeds in the long run. I hope this helps, from a concerned English White Guy.

Anonymous said...

Most of you guys have good points but one point that wasn't mentioned was that our bodies where made for our environment. That's why we're built different. Look at American's we all loom pretty much the same as far as black n white. There's several blacks
With "so called white physique bodies" and whites with so called black physiques, I do believe that black n white's are a lil superior over other races and a mixture of the two would ultimately create the superior race.

Anonymous said...

When you look at what sports blacks dominate, years before, the "Powers that be" said they couldn't even play it. Because of racism , blacks were not allowed to do any sports, much more know anything about some of the so called" white" sports. However, ever sport that they get in they dominated. All you need is one trail blazer "black" to make it popular enough to that the young black kids want to do it and its over. Any sport that's blacks enter in the America's they dominate. If they haven't they are not interested in it. PERIOD! But you won't name one sport that "ALL" or" ALOT " of Blacks are in and they are 2nd.

Unknown said...

White people need to calm the fuck down and stop being so defensive. Different races are better at different things because of regional differences in which they evolved. Just bescause of white guilt doesnt mean we need to forget race, its part of life regardless

Anonymous said...

Lol, a bunch of retarded negro worshipers on here. You're all hype and steroids. White's just go into business. we're not IN sports. We pump negros full of drugs and let them kill themselves for our entertainment. And you go "huur huur i'm genetically superior." You guys are a joke.

Anonymous said...

Lol, a bunch of retarded negro worshipers on here. You're all hype and steroids. White's just go into business. we're not IN sports. We pump negros full of drugs and let them kill themselves for our entertainment. And you go "huur huur i'm genetically superior." You guys are a joke.

Anonymous said...

His research wasn't to publish who was dominating who but just noting the noticeable differences of black and white physique and where it comes in affect and in which sports

Anonymous said...

Its funny because nothing here in america is technically "pure"...and praise of any man of any race ends in disappointment...just so you know the possibility of you being possibly more of a negro than youd like is very very high...

Anonymous said...

I believe that the excerpt is a comparison of the two majorities... Yes there are exceptions and more than a few but living in the south, I see the prime of both contenders. I must add tht I've seen superior white basketball and football players, but as a majority the black population were superior. Also I've see unchallenged black swimmers and tennis players but within the number, the white contender majority are superior. I believe the region is prime because in mississippi the entire population are of working status and not in an office space... Bother races work in fields and perform strenuous labor not only for their lifetime but has been this way for decades and centuries... But I must add though my grandmother is 67 yrs old and can chop a 20" in diameter stump with one clean chop...no Im not saying its because she's black, but because her means of survival required hard work everyday of her life. And last I would like to say I believe region plays a large role because I've noticed the larger and more athletic examples of both races come from the South than the north because of the means if survival require more hard labor in the south...

Travis said...

Blacks do not have higher testosterone than most whites. It is estrogen which produces irrational emotional outbursts are are far more common among black Africans and those descended therefrom, Hispanics, and Mediterranean Caucasians than in others.

They share this trait, obviously, with those women who have the normative female level of estrogen.

High testosterone males do not act out in such ways and only respond violently to a state of disruption of the natural way of things.

Anonymous said...

In my opinion a very accurate article.
What it fails to deal with is intellectual capabilities.
Whites are FAR more intelligent and
have much more advanced iq's. When they do succeed in sports they often come from more advanced (more scientific)
systems ( USSR,GDR etc.). Example would be the recent (10-20 years) out break of boxers and MMA competitors from the the former republics of the USSR.

Anonymous said...

College athletics would literally die if it were not for black men. Its a known fact if a black guy started weight lifting he would have better results within 6 mos than a white person. There are differences. However, we are all people at the end of the day.

Anonymous said...

Lol at all these white people (and blacks) who think that blacks are athletically superior in any way except for maybe sprinting. Look at the new england patriots football team. The two starting recievers are white, the starting tight end (gronk is prob the best te in the league), and not to mention the offensive line and quarterback positions. So there you have it. The team that won the superbowl won it wity white players lol. Must be so embarassing for predominantly black football teams that lost. And also the whole "athletic strength isnt the same as lifting strength" argument is retarded. It should be obvious that strength is strength no matter how its applied.

Anonymous said...

I think black girls should compete with white guys in sports, but the black girls would dominate in everything against white men, because black women are physically stronger than white men.

Anonymous said...

This is so stupid.
On average the strongest men in the world are nortern and eastern european men.
On average the fastest men in the world are african american.
On average the most suited for and with most victories at long distance run is africans.
I could go on and on.
You american people must realize that whites and blacks in the US is much different than in other parts of the world.
Black men in the US is usually portrait as being bigger and stronger than most white men, because they usually are. Is this only because of genes or is it also because of lifestyle?
When I meet black men in europe they are not any bigger or stronger than whites. I'm from Denmark and we are one of the tallest populations in the world. So the whites here on average is taller than most blacks.
The world is not the US, the US is a part of the world.

Bryan Fryer said...


"We must realize that our Party's most powerful weapon is racial tension. By propounding into the consciousness of the dark races that for centuries they have been oppressed by the Whites, we can mould them to the program of the Communist Party. In America, we will aim for subtle victory. While inflaming the Negro minority against the Whites, we will instill in the Whites a guilt complex for their exploitation of the Negroes. We will aid the Negroes to rise to prominence in every walk of life, in the professions and in the world of sports and entertainment. With this prestige, the Negro will be able to intermarry with the Whites and begin a process which will deliver America to our cause."
A Racial Programme for the Twentieth Century

Anonymous said...

Certain nationalities are equal in most of the respects or great opposites that you spoke of here. The thing this guy missed which is a more accurate topic in terms of defining athleticism is broken down further than this through other comparisons. Good information applied to some black people across the world but it lacks one major point. All different skin colors have their stronger and weaker races in different regions and nationalities. Nationalities is what you should have focused on instead of studies done on probably american blacks from west and east Africa that have been bred and are naturally athletic. I think this applies to those regions more than any other part of Africa. Theirs a lot of good Asian nationality descents that have some physical superiority but since everyone wants to compare whites and blacks like sensitive Americans I'll speak more of that.

Anonymous said...

In terms of an average deviation from the norm the northern europeans, especially scandinavians would be fairly equal in most respects to pivotal advantaged blacks by other means of genetic advantage. The longer torso makes a stronger back and better for more full contact sports such as wrestling, mma and more full on contact sports. (basketball is a half assed contact so I'm not speaking of it.) Respectively a lot of scandinavians and whites that grew up in colder northern climates have thicker tendons and shorter stronger limbs for lifting. Watch a strong man competition and see Finns, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes and such excel over most American mixtures of superiority and a black or two nationality usually follows a few places behind them. Every now and then you'll see an exceptionally well genetic family line black that comes around 10th or less in these competitions but rarely more than one or two. Other than that the only other physical superiority of similiar region whites I can think of are pain tolerance and skin cell structure.

Anonymous said...

Probably your sources failed to be 100% or even close to true on a GLOBAL scale due to control groups in statistics only using a handful to a couple or even hundreds to a few thousand of people. The problem with statistics is you cant test everyone and if any of the sources up there are from America they are most likely in a small group within certain cities or states and only prove true to a certain area of which it came from. That being said I'm unsure of this last fact between blacks and whites where whites may have a superiority gain. This is the whites circular cell structure opposed to the diamond cell structure of blacks. Typically things supported on an arch or circular pattern tend to have more resistance and resilience such as bridges and tubings of steel, conduit or anything of the like is designed for that reason. Irish people have the highest pain tolerance in the world and a lot of red haired people which are mainly white have an overlay on their MC1R gene that I believe tricks their bodies into releasing more endorphin levels and resulting in more pleasure blocking pain tolerance. Now on to what I believe a lot of black superior nationalities have an edge on other races and most average white nationalities. You can go in a direction where you talked about the hip and pelvic region which give certain blacks a gain in pivotal momentum, torque and forward acceleration. This no doubt is true in a lot of races not limited to blacks but definately in a lot more of the nationalities that are black.

Anonymous said...

Jamaicans are one of the best examples of these good genetics represented by the bone structure of that area. Kenyans have a sort of different advantage acquired genetically throughout the years of the race doing what they do best. This would be more long distance stamina slow twitch fiber building (once again opposite example but still an advantage in athletic events, but pardon me for you specifying on the definition of athleticism but I want to acknowledge people on other facts). They are usually shorter people of an average height of the basic Irish or German immigrants to America which make up the largest majority of Americans statistically and on a common knowledge basis. Although their torsos may be longer by a bit then the kenyans and appendages and limbs may vary a bit they are fairly similiar in size and weight if you take a 5'6-5'8 of any of these races on an average. The Kenyans however will outperform any long distance then those two white races due to genetic advantage over the years of how they survived daily.

Anonymous said...

Intelligence is a completely other story and I will digress to only saying that the people no matter the race get the cards they get played being raised and develop in a different culture of peoples or area of development. Pretty much underdeveloped areas are more likely going to have less intelligent people and same with poor parented or no parent children and badly influenced areas such as ghettos are backwoods bigotry. Ignorance is bliss and they will for generations to come be happy with their false beliefs and close mindedness like most people here that don't look at both sides of the double edged sword of genetics.

Anonymous said...

Now I think I've said enough claims to "statistics" and "common knowledge" to finish this up shortly with one more area of black to white comparison. This comparison has nothing to do with physical or non physical superiorities or any ailments. This last area I'm covering has to do with common deviations found with the difference in genetic diversity. Europeans seemed to have slimmed down their gene pool more than most Africans by breeding throughout Europe and Immigrating to new better areas for a new life than Africans by far. This genetic difference gives an advantage to both sides of the sword once again. The advantage in blacks is with greater diversity is more random chances for different genetics. White advantage here would be the more predictable breeding of better genes with good family lines for good result outcomes if controlled with good genetic white people be it what genetics you are looking for. The human genome is so complicated and is a huge pandoras box to say anything 100% but in my own opinion I believe if you bred a good genetic black with a good genetic white theres a good chance the slim diversity in the white will prove well with the black diversity. Its been shown through many great athletes and beautiful people before in non statistically true areas. More commonly seen in melting pots (for obvious reasons) and I don't think interracial is a crime to humanity by any means.

Anonymous said...

Signed random coldly spoken ass of a white man(I hope you think is relatively irrelevant to genetics as a whole comparison to nationality traits) that believes in equalism. Have a good day and if you'd like to get a hold of me or learn about a decent some of other fields I'm inclined in such as mechanics, computers, cultural differences/issues and construction fields. Let me know and I will be more than glad to help bring knowledge to you the best I can or am experienced with specifically. Play video games with me or bullshit with me I don't give a shit I'm not your enemy and only here to help. Facebook url is https://www.facebook.com/zachary.noe.353 and my snapchat is Friendly Fuehrer. I would give an email but alas I don't check it often unless confirming orders or receipts for various items. Look forward to listening to some reaction comments and unintelligent assholes will simply be ignored easily without any skin off my back for your anger. P.S. that kind of thing gives me a laugh and I might even be a dick to put you in your place with what you said if its ignorant enough to deserve that. Sorry for rambling, grammar, run ons and have a good morning beautiful diverse humans. Intelligence is key to progression but ignorance is bliss. I was limited to 4000 some characters sorry once more if I were to post the whole reaction somewhere more suitable.

Anonymous said...

By the way well said Concerned English White Guy. Fair and to the point of equalism but in less depth and maybe differs in opinion after reading my replies but fairly similar in the majority of ways by far.

Travis said...

Black males have higher levels of estradiol than white males. They DO NOT have higher levels of testosterone.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17456570

Anonymous said...

Gonna throw this one out there. Most of these comments are just specific, anecdotal examples. Like we see in Basketball this, we see in UFC that. Blacks have dominated this, but whites have dominated that. The original article was a study of genetics and physiology supporting the claim that people of African decent are inherently more athletic than their white counterparts, which logically proves true. It doesn't really matter at all who would specifically win in a fight or a head to head athletic competition, because there are a million other factors besides raw genetics that go into one's skill in a fight or one's ability in a sport. Now if you accept that humans originated in Africa and migrated across the world from there (Which is the current accepted theory in the scientific community) then its not unfair to say that white ancestry had a much smaller gene pool than the African ancestors who decided to stay in the land of human origin. Therefore, Darwinism would agree that the more diverse African bloodline would produce a more genetically fit species simply because of genetic variation. Life isn't a pie that can be evenly divided into portions, Blacks got the biggest slice of pie, they are genetically superior human specimen. Why do you think White people have been trying for so many years to prove the opposite? Black people have nothing to prove.

Anonymous said...

Ur a dumbass for thinking this , why do black mostly have way lower iqs across the board? Utopia of poop huts , right? Lol

Anonymous said...

I believe what the original author wrote has some good scientific support. However, I find it very odd that he focused on only a few physical athletic traits. I do agree that there are reasons blacks tend to be the best runners for example and I do not see how anyone can argue with that given the body of evidence.

However, one can show that they are inferior in raw power where whites dominate. There is no arguing that either. Have a look at this. Tell me what you notice. http://www.theworldsstrongestman.com/history/ I see it every day in the gym...the black lifters LOOK strong but when it comes to moving weight they do not have the same ability pound for pound that the white lifters do. Perhaps it is a leverage thing...that I do not know.

It seems that each race has its strong (forgive the pun) points. Where as blacks tend to be exceptional on the track, whites dominate in the gym. Neither is "better" than the other. Just different.

John said...

Wow so much ignorance here its hilarious. Whites have proven to be better at certain sports. Check out Jon Entine's book on subject. He talks about whites are better pool to pull from for any swimming event to weightlifting than blacks or asians. Also I like how most of you ignore other races like indians, arabs, etc. Asians are smarter? That is purely ENVIRONMENTAL. Also, China has been caught in mass cheating scandals. If asians are smarter why are more white men geniuses recorded than any other people? Also, ashweitz jewish whites have the highest iq recorded and most nobel prizes. It's also been argued whites have higher endurance than blacks do. Blacks have strong fiber bursts which is why they do good in quick paced sports like basketball and football.

John said...

Lol @ black women better than white guys. Black people are this deluded. Must be the fact your race has a much LOWER IQ score compared to all other races combined. Anywho, even asian guys would beat black women in sports. There is too much of an advantage in men thanks to testosterone. Point in case white women in mma are destroying black women.

Symcretic Takeout said...

They didn't leave boxing. What happened was that former communist states and satellites were allowed to enter the professional ranks and began dominating, and still do. They are primarily white. Blacks do compete in boxing, swimming, strength competitions, martial arts, mma, etc but usually lose or are dominated.

Anonymous said...

White sprinters have several sub 10 second runners, all apparently unassisted by drugs.

Not sure why everyone is talking about basketball and football, when you have soccer, a sport on the world stage to draw from.

Also not sure about the whole agility thing. Black people tend to be clumsier in soccer. Also, played soccer with white guys who are football players: I think football training programs just pump out white guys who are not agile. I have to say, it was hilarious how slow they were able to change direction and accelerate laterally.

If I were black running around them, I too would think myself superior. My best guess is that the entrenched techniques for footwork and agility they have for football just favor black athletes: coaches probably designed them to get their black players to perform, and had the white guys go along with it.

and...something to consider:

Agility:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bVOTjO78BxE

Speed:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mZPLCsi40vs

Spatial awareness:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=117&v=pS1lw066Oho&ebc=ANyPxKpjgma80gw7yzPTle6GF8PthpO0y1BybpnlwXZTBqvyIFZy3g78kppaKAIC4iprdw2KWIHi4RFR_LIoBjN-ZJNzRJj5Eg

And, of course, stocky strength (you won't see these kindof weights no matter how many roids you cycle if you aren't built for it):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gsd5Dasiibs

(This guy actually looks like my uncle...)



Anyhow, it's just that American white people dont know their own bodies...and we don't give kids training regimes that will maximize their performance in terms of agility and speed (although we seem to have the bench press down).

In football and basketball, we train everyone like they are black, and then we point and look at the white guys under performing relative to white athletes around the world. The white guys who succeed actually have similar builds to the black guys...gee, I wonder why?


It's a shame...total PC nonsense. Plus, I wonder what the ratio of black teen running backs using roids is relative to their white counterparts... Because that 700lb bench press guy trained to run like Lionel Messi would be unstoppable.

Oh yeah, early maturation might slot black kids into performance positions like running back at a very young age. So there is that.

Just check out rugby players if you want some affirmation of your racial masculinity.


And remember: if it is puffy with high muscle tone, not as strong as it should be given its size, and no androgenergic features like body hair and thick skin, it's probably steroids.

Anonymous said...

You are nuts. Ashkenazi Jews and Eastern Europeans rule the IQ race. There isn't an ethnic group out there who even comes close.

Anonymous said...

"The fastest people on earth are black, the strongest people on earth are white. Case closed."

Then why are the fastest men in soccer white?

Maybe, you should have said:

"The fastest people cycling steroids are black..."

Ironically, even cycling steroids, you don't see the strength numbers...

Anyways, it's funny...because in soccer you can't really cheat--or it has to be much more subtle. That is because your body needs to stay light for the endurance aspect.

So the sprint speeds you see in soccer are probably the most honest speeds in the sporting world today for the mere fact that adding anabolics to the mix would put 10-15 lbs on the shoulders and around the ribcage (like usain bolt) immediately, rendering the cheater ineffective in the agility and endurance requirements...

Anonymous said...

This is due to the selection effect: coaches choose the most physically mature kids to be on their teams so they can win.

Black people tend to mature early, so they get picked for teams that perhaps should have been available for white kids...because once you hit your twenties, as a white guy, you suddenly become stronger than them and just as fast...only at that point no one cares.



If he grew up in our country, Lionel Messi, the worlds best soccer player, would never have set foot on the same field as our soccer athletes (ironically, our soccer athleticism is actually pretty good; might be the worlds best--or at least, most athletic by American standards).

Anonymous said...

The history of racism in the West, hence the racism of the white race, is, essentially, the history of white inadequacy. White men, whether they acknowledge it or not, are intimidated by the black stud. The black stud, what Eldridge Cleaver dubbed the "Supermasculine Menial" in his classic autobiography Soul on Ice, is, in some degree, a boogie man created by the imaginations of white men. It's a personification of the body-envy they feel not only toward the Black Man, but to "primitive" non-whites generally. The racism is nothing more than a reaction, an attempt to slay the boogie man and destroy the source of his mystical power. There is no wonder, really, why castrations often accompanied lynchings and why lynchings usually followed some whisper of a Black Man crossing the line with a white woman. It's all about sex, of course, as nearly everything is. The white man's inadequacy is sexual in nature. Impotence is one his biggest fears--all of the Viagra and Cialis commercials are no coincidence--and the Black Man, virility personified, is a living reminder of this fear. Knowing this, it is no surprise why the white man tries to prove his supposed supremacy in the only way he can--through his supposedly superior intellect. It doesn't matter that many of the white men who focus on this supposed intellectual supremacy usually are intellectually unremarkable themselves. They are white and the descendants of giants, as it were, therefore they're superior--at least in their own supposedly superior minds.

Unknown said...

Lool well amazing how I've always dated black women .... And after several bruised crevices I can confirm that old big Johnson myth is a myth .... As per scientific studies white and black have the same average penis size ..... And as to black men taking care of their bodies .... They have higher obesity rates and you have obviously never been to Europe 😂😂

Sincere a guy with an African wife 😉👍💪

Unknown said...

That 1 drop American attitude is hilarious .... Some "black Americans " are 80% European genetic makeup ..... Only in America ey ...

Anonymous said...

I grew up playing basket ball with mostly all black kids and they are great players on the courts. I'm Irish and was a top sprinter, the best in our city of 100+ thousand. Same year top wrestler and top weight lifter. Will, strategy and understanding concepts can go a long way apart from physical ability and I'm proof. Johnny Davis

Anonymous said...

You can analyze this to death and argue back and forth but try to argue the following: world class sprint champions (100 and 200 meters) are always black. No one disagrees blacks are faster and more agile. However, there has never been a world's strongest man that was black. Powerlifting, weightlifting, the field events in track (strength), and real world class wrestling are dominated by whites. It is PC ok to talk about blacks being faster but it is not PC ok to say whites are stronger. I don't need to hear counterpoints. I have wrestled hundreds of whites and blacks. There is no sport that requires the overall athleticism (strength, speed, stamina blend) of wrestling and or mma and I can tell you there is a difference between blacks' and whites' muscles ON AVERAGE. The average black man is faster and twists and turns quicker but is easier to bend their arms and legs against their will. The average white man is slower but stronger and harder to bend their arms and legs against their will. That long torso of whites means low hips that are slower but stronger for lifting (in weightlifting or throwing someone on their head) Most sports are set up for agility rather than strength but you could easily make sports (like strongman or rugby shoving) that is more set up for whites.

Unknown said...

Lol hahahahahahaha. You're a bitch. Blacks dominate mma too mf. There are more whites in ufc or mma in general. But we had many champs. Yhe former champ the spider & now Jones. Rip ALI Sugar Ray Robison. Funny when we say we're better in sports but it's yall who started the rhetoric, we need not to because the proof is in and always in the pudding. Get over it and Africa had many great civilization read a book other than lord of the rings and stop believing your twisted racist false history. We civilized yall

Anonymous said...

JON Jones from the UFC just busted for PED use. Him and Anderson Silva are PED cheats.

Anonymous said...

They are just jealous

OSK said...

Who is this white athlete to break Michael Johnson's 400 meter record ? It was broken by a black SA
Black Ethiopians and Kenyans have dominated the middle distances through to 5k 10k and marathons in men and women .
You need to wake up get your facts correct

Unknown said...

Problem with a any research of this kind is what classifies a person as 'Black' or 'White'. This usually done visually on loose criteria and then related to other less visible genetic traits. This not much different from relating skull shape to character traits (pseudo-science of 'craniology'). Furthermore the trait may not be the result of genetics or there may be no correlation between the 'gene' for athleticism and the gene for skin color.

Anonymous said...

We all can comment but at the end of the day, we won't be able to compare who dominates what sport until the confounding variables (socio-economic status) is no longer a factor. As for the 2016 olympics, there were a lot of blacks who won medals in sports that blacks are not present in (i.e. swimming (Simone), Gymnastics (Simone), fencing, etc.).

I personally believe that the lack of money affects your exposure to certain sport. Running doesn't require for one to be taught. We all naturally know how to run. Of course, your running mechanism can be improve with the proper resources. However, the other sports, one has to be taught. You have to be taught how to swim which requires money (paying for swimming lessons etc). You have to be taught gymnastics which require money (Simone's adoptive parents had enough money to pay her coach to train her...if she grew up with her biological mother, we would have never heard of Simone Biles). I could go on.

I don't know why anyone is bringing IQ into this. We all know IQ is contingent upon your socio-economic status. Regardless of race, if you are poor, you IQ tends to be lower than someone who is not. Why? Someone with the economic means have more resources to learn and develop their intelligence.

BChod said...

I don't think it is quite a matter to research. Black people's origin is mostly from Africa and there's hardly any doubt about their physical greater ability. Because, it's simply a matter of the nature they had to survive through for thousands of years. To African jungle terrain full of wild animals and other such difficulties, black people really needed better physical conditioning. And a very widespread trend these days which is known as the 'cuckold fantasy', could be just a stereotype spreaded through porn websites but there are people among those who likes this trend have some real basis for thinking like that.

Unknown said...

Its all bullshit..the world is obsessed with body image and race. Stop watching t.v. thats why the world is soo fucken ignorant. You all get no fucken where. Focus on your own happiness and accept who u are . you all are not labels or titles. Damn dummies. Take all these decades to become noble. The world needs help not some biological scientific comparisons. DUMMIES!!!!!

jack said...

The reason blacks have narrower hips is because they have to support a smaller brain. Blacks have less brain mass and smaller skulls (scientifically proven). This allows them to be faster. This is rational. Blacks are r-selected so are very dextrous and fast but not very strong, this is because they are r-selected which means their mating strategies are high yield,low quality and in this context a single black isn't worth a lot. Blacks are fundamentally pack animals. Because of this blacks lack sheer physical strength and are poor in fights. Whites are stronger.

Anonymous said...

@9T8L5u0c4

Thats pure BS. Blacks DO have greater androgen receptivity than most whites according to virtually ALL biological studies. High estrogen levels do not cause emotional outburst, it is actually higher testosterone levels that lead to greater emotional intensity. You, like many whites, try to redefine manhood in a way that fits your biases than accept reality. http://anepigone.blogspot.com/2009/09/black-men-out-alpha-white-guys.html