Generally, people of West African origin have more fast twitch muscles which allow intense bursts of power. This is why running backs, defensive linemen, and receivers are almost all black.

We don't need any expensive test. All you have to do is look at the physique. Blacks in basketball are lean and musularly hard. Whites have softer muscles, which is why white basketball players have to rely more on skill than blacks who have the advantage of skill + great speed/strength.

So, let me get this straight: EVERY West African has fast "twitch muscles" (whatever those are), and EVERY White person has "soft muscles (whatever THOSE are).

Looks to me like you're trying to revive the old, very tired "blacks were bred for physical superiority" crap that, oh so "cleverly" also valorizes White sports achievement. You know, like how "white basketball players have to rely more on skill than blacks..."

I wouldn't wait around for the Nobel Prize if I were you.

Based on this logic, the sports world should be dominated by Nigeria, right? African Americans, who are almost all of mixed African and European ancestry, should be a few notches down the ladder, with soft and squishy Europeans at the bottom. I watched the last Olympics, and I don't recall it working out that way. The fact is that there is more genetic diversity in a single tribe of monkeys on a hillside than there is in the entire human species.

wombat123:

Based on this logic, the sports world should be dominated by Nigeria, right?

Wrong. Genetics is only one factor that determines what kind of an athlete (person) you become as an adult, not the only factor. What about environment, nutrition, health care, income, etc...? The other factors can compensate, that doesn't mean that the genetic element is unimportant.

The distinctions between muscle fiber types is legitimate and biologically accurate. <link> And it is generally accepted that people with West African ancestry have a greater proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers (type II) than the general population.

Race is a very inexact and unreliable proxy for genetics.

Differences in genetic factors between racial groups are dwarfed by differences within groups. I guarantee you there is a much greater difference in fast twitch muscle fibers between me and John Stockton than there is between the average Norwegian and the average Nigerian.

Yes, welcome to the world of overlapping distributions. That is, the entire world.

Fair enough distinction, though. My error is about on the same level as the PC faux pas Larry Summers made when he suggested that one reason more males become tenured professors in the "hard sciences" is because the distribution of intelligence / ability / IQ / whatever-you-want-to-call-it has fatter tails ($10 word - lower kurtosis) for men than for women, i.e.: more geniuses, as well as more morons (he never suggested the distribution was anything but symmetric).

I was reading a science journal and the jist of it was that RR is related to "fast-twitch" muscles and XX precludes one form being as fast as an RR or RX. The only advantage XX does is prevent one form engaging in RR type activities. An XX would be better at running long distance. The distribution for black americans in the study for RR, RX, and XX was 55%, 40%, and ~5%. The distribution for white americans was 32%, 48%, and 20%.

What I don't understand is that 32% of the white population is still > 55% of blacks. Same with RX the 48% population of whites with this gene is obviously numerically greater than the 40% of black americans.

If this gene is so important, there should be much much more whites in these black dominated sports.

Which tells you that the genetic differences are not, in fact, very important. What is important is culture, and in particular for sports the activities that a child takes part in at a very young age. Ever notice that the majority of caucasian NCAA and NBA basketball players come from either Europe or rural America? That's because in those places white kids still play basketball. In American cities they largely don't. I swam in college with a kid who was 6'6", went 19.5 for the 50 free, and could dunk a basketball from the foul line. He was definitely an RR, but he was a disaster on our intramural team. Couldn't dribble, couldn't shoot, had basically never played in his life. He was from DC, and in DC white kids just don't play ball.

anybody else notice that after the bombthrowing OP takes her verbal dump she leaves the scene of the crime for everybody else to clean up?

How come she's no longer around to defend her spurious claims?

Also noticed her first post was on Saturday. n00b!!

finkyboy:

Also noticed her first post was on Saturday. n00b!!

1st post? You mean there was a subsequent post? Dork!!

I meant click on her user name to see all her posts. The first time she posted on Slate EVER was Saturday.