Are black people better athletes?

[headmachine]

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 

[JLC]

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.

[JLC]

The flipside of all of this is Hockey.

Why the lack of black professionals? Socio-economic reasons? Pure disinterest??
Who knows.

[ruskiegirl]

The flipside of all of this is Hockey.

Why the lack of black professionals? Socio-economic reasons? Pure disinterest??
Who knows.

I'd say disinterest.  If you're going on pure generalizations, most black ppl don't like cold or snow. (I'm going on what I know about my friends and ex-boyfirends. ) Even though most hockey matches today take place on artificial ice and in fairly warm indoor stadiums, I think that the idea becomes less appealing because of the outdoor origins of the sport.

[scurred1]

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. 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.

[abconetwothree]

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. 

[slick]

scurred1,
I see your point and I will agree that it could be a contributing factor, but I think you are assuming that anyone who plays a sport long enough and works hard enough can become good enough to play at a professional level.  I have played sports all of my life and I know for a fact that this is not the case.  Natural ability plays a huge role.  By practicing and working hard, a person can become good at a sport.  But in order to excel, there must be a degree of natural ability and athletecism already present.  The same goes for a musician or an artist.  Many people can learn to play an instrument, but to be really great at it they must be gifted with a natural ability or instinct for the art.  For whatever reason, black people seem to be more gifted in the area of athletics and this gives them an edge compared to many people who do not possess these natural talents.

[Ladyday]

Interesting discussion. Hope it doesn't turn nasty.


Don't hold your breath.

And it's always Chosen's butt starting these threads and then he bails to leave other people to duke it out.

[teckus]

This may draw some heat but I think blacks are better athletes because of a few reasons and one of them goes backt to the days of slavery. Blacks were bred to produce big strong men to do hard manual labor. I know some will cry foul (racism) but I would be willing to bet its true. I have a friend that looks as though he spends most of his time in the gym. Wrong he is just naturally built like a brick crap house. He is black and he thinks my theory holds water.

[Burning Sands, Esq.]

Right.  I'm gonna start a post called "Are Korean people better posters?"  and then sit back and watch what happens.

why are we having this discussion again?