Are Black People Better at Sports Than Other Races?

[licyhaittee]

I want to have a frank discussion on this. Kinda ties in with what Larry Bird says. Are black people just genetically more gifted physically? From personal evidence and from scientific studies and historical studies I've read, this seems to be the case.

Most of the black guys I have met in my life have been good athletes. A lot of them are naturally muscular. (Have you seen Tupac's biceps? I know that dude didn't work out) How about Lebron James, that man among boys? And the ones that don't work out and are skinny as hell (Michael Jordan in his youth) seem to be able to fill out very well once they do work out (Michael Jordan as a 220 pounder).

I don't want to incite any violence or discord. I am just curious as to what people think. I've heard varying opinions regarding this issue. Some say its historical. Sub-Saharan Africa is not someplace you can have agriculture. So, for most of its pre-modern history (which would be pre-colonial) the societies of that region were hunter-gatherers. Thus societies moved around a lot in small numbers, and had to physically work hard to get their food (thus developing, over time, athletic abilities). Also, in a society like this, natural selection would dictate only the strong survive over time. Compare this to more sedentary societies that were built on feudalism/ agriculture earlier on, like most of East Asia (Japan, Korea, China).

Also, I don't buy this, but it kind of furthers the argument. I've heard some people say that because Africans were brought to this country in such harsh conditions (I've heard half of the people enslaved never made it to this country), only the strong and fittest even made it over here. So this further enhanced the "strong and fit" stereotype, I guess.

I don't know, those are some of the arguments I've heard, but the bottom line is, are blacks (african-americans and blacks from other countries) genetically more gifted athletically?

[FagBoatohaw]

I'd have to agree, that in general black people are better athletes. The proof is in the puddin'. If you look at professional sports today, they are dominated by black athletes. This is not to say that whites or asians or hispanics or any other ethnicity cannot excell in sports. There are many non-black athletes that can dominate a particular sport. But I think, that just by shear numbers, the argument can be made that black people are generally more athletic than other races. This of course does not mean that all blacks are athletic or that every sport is dominated by black athletes.

[Incachesern]

Sports are racist, just like the LSAT, but in the other direction. Have you seen the Olympic finals in the 100 m dash? Ridiculous. I think an AA program is in order. When was the last time a Japanese man won a medal in the 100 meters? It’s not fair and the playing field needs to be leveled. We can’t possibly rely only on numbers to conclude that black people are better athletes, because a parody argument could be applied regarding black people and LSAT scores and we’d have to accept that black people, on average, aren’t as smart as Asians, Caucasians, or Hispanics. After all, the numbers support it. And, if we relied on personal experience, I know I’d have to conclude that Asians are frickin smart, smarter than black people, and that would be racist.

[houssyskync]

i think on a general level they are better athletes...i remember in hs we had this debate in a history class about slavery and segregation and there were some "scientific studies" that said black people have a an extra muscle in their calves...and also to be borderline "racist" there was a lot of survival of the fittest for african americans when they were brought here as property...i think asian people have flat asses because they burned all of it off when they squatted in the rice fields - and in front of their cars

[Mencepexcor]

You really need to go down the line of all of our universally respected sports and you will find that the top players are all black.

Boxing: Ali, Tyson, Foreman
Basketball: Jordan, Magic, Wilt

In my opinion, these are the 2 most physically demanding sports that are universally supported. I'm hard pressed to keep football out of the mix. The guys take a beating BUT they rest often between downs and do not play both sides of the ball, excluding Sapp and Deion Sanders.

[cheapipodnana]

I'm relatively new here and I try, really, really hard to stay away from these discussions but this one....

I kinda believe in the whole natural selection/survival of the fittest angle. But I think one of the biggest factors behind all of this is economics. As someone who has lived in a low-income neighborhood I can tell you that there are a whole lotta kids who see the NBA or NFL as their only way out of poverty. So, while overprivileged kids are getting violin and French lessons in preschool to bulk up their resumes for the Ivy League, these other kids are playing street ball and that's where a lot of them "get good." Who wants to put their body through that kinda hell for years and years? Someone who doesn't see many other outlets for success that are not fraught with discrimination and an uneven playing field (think higher education.) A lot of the teachers in poor city schools even encourage this by not pushing the kids to focus more on academics and instead they dangle a future of stardom in professional sports. I'm a tall BF and I can't tell you how many people ask me if I played basketball in high school or in college. I didn't and I never wanted to and I don't know if I'd be any good at it cuz I'm awfully uncoordinated. I think if more poor black kids saw the equal opportunities for success in the traditional path of education/job/middle class lifestyle, then I'm willing to bet the demographics in professional sports would be quite different. If more white men were faced with the prospect of facing racism day in and day out for the rest of their lives in a $40,000 a year crappy corporate job they'd try harder to get in the NBA too; if they couldn't play basketball they'd LEARN and they'd teach their kids and their grandkids and sooner or later all white males would be pretty good at basketball.

How many middle-class blacks do you know of who play professional sports besides Grant Hill and a few others? Not many... I don't think it's that blacks are better athletes I think it's a matter of a group of people finding an area where they can be successful (and that offers a pseudo escape from that pesky hardship, racism) and then dominating the heck out of it. Sorta like how upper-class whites are really good at running corporate America and protecting it from others who wanna get in. Smiley How did they do that? Dunno. They found their niche and got really good at protecting it. If others had equal opportunity at every level to compete with them, there'd be more Asians, Blacks, Hispanics at the upper echelons in corporate America. And why are Asians supposedly so good at engineering and math? Is that natural ability too? Really, I'd like to know the answer.

All of this is JMHO

Interesting discussion. Hope it doesn't turn nasty.