Re: Ryan - Foot in Mouth

[GuyClinch@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 3/26/2004 5:06:46 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
rickdhome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

Look at the racial composition.  Let's just assume for the sake of discussion 
that everybody is putting in the same sort of effort.  It should speak 
volumes that blacks absolutely, irrefutably dominate these events... AS A GENERAL 
RULE, black athletes run faster and jump higher.  Look at the finals of those 
events.  There will frequently be 7 black guys, 1 white, and nary an Asian to be 
found.  There'll be the occasional white phenom that will do well, like that 
Russian guy from several olympiads ago.  I don't know how anyone with 
reasonable perception could dispute any of that.
I can dispute it.
Not to say this entirely incorrect its just far too simplistic an 
explanation. 


Some brief backaround - Africa is the birthplace of humanity. Accordingly it 
affords the RICHEST genetic diversity of any "race." There are numerous tribes 
and such that were geographically seperated. Accordingly because of these 
geographical seperation different sets of genetic traits. 

Its a bit like an extended family. Some family might have "tall people" in 
them. Likewise in Africa depending on the enviroment over the course of many 
years various genetic traits have developed. In flatter eastern part of Africa 
"the gold coast" from which the slaves were taken it seems that it was 
beneficial to be "fast". That is to have a great deal of fast twitch muscle rather then 
being a average mix people from this region tended to have an "extreme" fast 
twitch muscle profile.

However in other parts of Africa like say Kenya the western part of africa 
have extreme amounts of slow twitch muscle fiber - which is more suited to the 
hilly enviroment. Note that all these individuals are "black" Likewise we see 
that the Bushmen and Pygmies - are also "black". Manute Bol might have an 
interesting set of genes but despite his height he was not ideally suited for 
basketball - he lacked the muscularity and quickness one might see in someone with 
more fast twitch muscle fiber.

In short its more correct to see people of East African desecent tend to 
dominate sporting events which rely upon explosive speed. People of dark skin 
color however enjoy no such advantage. The blacks that are in the U.S. are not a 
representative sample of the diverse African population.

Other "races" are more or "average" in their genetic profile which probably 
signals that they were seperated later on from one particular sub group in 
africa and haven't been isolated enough to develop similiar kinds of racial 
diversity that is present in Africa. Nonetheless its not a coincidence that say 
Northern European men DOMINATE the strong man competitions and Olympic 
weightlifting events. They have the right genetic backarounds.

Now from a genetic perspective this idea of "race" doesn't really exist - at 
least 'races" based on something like skin color. Skin color isn't a very good 
indicator of underlying genetic traits.

But genetics DO play a huge role and its quite clear that the East African 
genetic profile is well suited to a number of popular sports namely Basketball 
and Football. Its not so hot for say bike riding or swimming - but who really 
cares about those sports. 

Pete