Discussion Comments

1
Discussion Comments

• Debunking the myths of racial superiority.

2

• I always thought that the reason
  African-Americans were more athletic . . .is
  because back in the days of slavery the strong
  were breed with the strong.

3
I dont believe that blacks are superior athletes
because of less opportunity. I agree that white
youths do have more paths that they can take in
life than black youths. But I think that blacks
are superior in most cases just because they are
faster, bigger and stronger. It is hard to say
that because I have no evidence to why that is,
just like the white people in the movie.
4
What the movie made me realize more than I
already did, was that these obvious differences
are superficial, in that they would not effect
who we are if society did not treat us
differently because of them.
5
Well in my opinion the video was a 50/50 video.
Half of it was interesting and half boring,
mostly because it seemed like it was so
repetitive. The information that I found to be
most astonishing and possibly false, was the
theory that societies across the world originated
from Africa. I don't know if anyone recalls the
section in the video where a map outlined in red,
showed the progress of human colonization. It
started in Africa then moved North to Europe and
Asia. From there it then transferred over to
North America, and finally to South America. None
of that made sense to me.
6
I was wondering though, they kept saying that
black people aren't better athletes because of
their skin color, but they neglected to mention
that the gene for shorter, fast twitch muscles
required for events such as sprinting are more
common in African-Americans than any other race.

7
I think that one big reason that African
Americans seem to excel at many sports is their
past. Africans before coming to the U.S. and
Europe led quite physical lives while most of our
society was working on new trinkets to make life
"easier" (look at cars for example). Then when
they came here and were forced into slavery they
were basically doing a lot of the hard work for
society. So the African race has pretty much been
bred through the years to be strong and fast. Its
just a theory but it makes sense to me.
8
How do you judge athleticism? Just because
someone can run fast or jump high doesn't always
make them athletic. For example, Michael Vick is
by far the best running Quarterback to play the
game of football, but is not considered a great
NFL quarterback. He's African-American. But
Peyton Manning is white and broke the record for
most touchdowns thrown in one season, but is not
considered a running style quarterback. They both
are obviously great football players but their
athleticism is shown in a different way.
9
Fast Twitch Muscles

• You can train your muscles, and the amount of
  fast twitch you have changes over time.
• Fast twitch may or may not make you fast --- it
  is one factor.
• To try to just explain the greatness of West
  African descended sprinters by fast twitch
  muscles involves many, many things we don't know
  - all assumptions.

10
Argument for African-American Athletic Abilities
as a function of Natural Selection of Slaves to
be correct, the following must be proven to be
true

• High mortality must have occurred during the
  capture, warehousing and transport of slaves ---
  only strong, healthy individuals survived.
• Further seasoning occurred when slaves were put
  to work on plantations where only those who
  resisted disease and had physiological stamina
  survived.

11
Slave Mortality Rates During Transport

• Evidence shows that mortality rates were highest
  for those in the years of prime reproduction ---
  opposite of what argument assumes.
• One possibility is that these individuals were
  likely to resist imprisonment.

12
Problems with the Slave Natural Selection
Argument

• Assumes Enhanced athletic ability is directly
  correlated to disease-resistance.
• If true, then we could argue that the greater
  resistance to the AIDS virus in northern European
  populations is responsible for their dominance in
  speed skating, swimming, and downhill skiing.

13
What Cant be Known

• How physiological performance relates to number
  and quality of slave offspring.
• Slaves could have left more offspring by being
  intelligent, loyal, and honest, or by being sly.

14
Natural Selection

• Properly understood involves both
• - survivor AND reproductive component
• Is NOT sufficient to explain how changes in the
  genetic composition of a given population occurs.
• Must take into account the problem of accidents
  of genetic processes.

15
Think about this

• Why do proponents of the natural selection
  argument never claim that the selective process
  yielded individuals with greater intelligence or
  mental flexibility.

16
Consider the following facts

• Boxing was dominated by Irish and Italians in the
  late 19th century.
• Jewish immigrants were the first to excel at
  basketball.
• Body forms not race is important to sports
  performance.