Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports And Why We're Afraid To Talk About It

425 Pages·2001·12.5 MB·English

by  Jon Entine

ISBN-13: 978-1-58648-026-4
ISBN-10: 1-58648-026-X
PRAISE FOR JON ENTINE'S TABOO
"Provocative and informed. .. A well-intentioned effort for all to come
clean on the possibility that black people might just be superior physically,
and that there is no negative connection between their physical superiority
and their lOs."
-John C. Walter, director of the Blacks in Sports Project at the Uni
versity of Washington, The Seattle Times
"Entine boldly and brilliantly documents numerous physiological differences
contributing to black athletic superiority."
-Psychology Today
"Notable and jarring. It brings intelligence to a little-understood subject."
-Business Week
"A highly readable blend of science and sports history."
-The New York Times Book Review
"A powerful history of African-Americans in sports. At long last, someone
has the guts to tell it like it is."
-St. Petersburg Times
"Compelling, bold, comprehensive, informative, enlightening."
-Gary Sailes, Associate Professor of Kinesiology, Indiana University
and editor of the Journal of the African American Male
"Taboo clearly dispenses with the notion that athleticism in Africans or
African-Americans is entirely due only to biology or only to culture. Entine
understands that as scientists continue to study the complex interactions be
tween genes and the environment, population-based genetic differences will
continue to surface. Taboo is an excellent survey of a controversial subject."
-Human Biology Association President Michael Crawford,University
of Kansas professor of Biological Anthropology and Genetics, and
former editor of Human Biology
"Carefully researched and intellectually honest."
-Jay T. Kearney, Former Senior Sports Scientist, United States Olympic
Committee
"Entine has compiled abundant evidence to support this politically incorrect
belief, and it is more than convincing."
-The Black World Today
"I believe that we need to look at the causes of differences in athletic perfor
mance between races as legitimately as we do when we study differences in
diseases between the various races. Jon Entine shows a lot of courage in
publishing Taboo. Only by confronting these enormous issues head-on, and
not by circumventing them in the guise of political correctness, do we stand
a chance to evaluate the discriminating agendas and devise appropriate in
terventions."
-Claude Bouchard, geneticist and director of the Pennington Biomedical
Research Center at Louisiana State University
Taboo helps us understand and even celebrate that while we're mostly the
same, we are also wonderfully different."
-Amby Burfoot, Runner's World editor
"The real value of the book is its willingness to address racist thought in the
context of the black athlete and seek an honest dialogue on the topic."
-Brian Gilmore, Africana.com.
"This is an important book for biological anthropologists."
-American Journal of Physical Anthropology
"You might expect that claiming to show a genetic basis for the dominance
of certain sports by people of African descent would raise a firestorm. But in
fact Entine's book gets warm reviews."
-Slate. com
WHY
BLACK ATHLETES
DOMINATE
SPORTS
AN D WHY
WE'RE AFRAID
TO TALK ABOUT IT
JON ENTINE
U Ie airs
NEW YORK
Copyright © 2000 by Jon Entine.
Published in the United States by PublicAffairsTM, a member of the Perseus Books Group.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information,
address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, Suite 1321, New York, NY 10107.
Photo Credits: Cartoon courtesy of the Sunday Nation, Nairobi, Kenya. Photo of Kenyan runners ©
Vinny DusoviclPhoto Run. Photo of Kipchoge Keino, courtesy of the author. Photo of the Oberlin
College baseball tcam courtesy of the Oberlin College Archives. Photo of Jack Johnson © Brown
Brothers. Photo of Jesse Owens courtesy of the Chicago Daily Defender. Photo of the Eastern League
basketball champions courtesy of Naismith Memonal Basketball Hall of Fame. Photo of Joe Louis
courtesy of thc New York Daily News. Photo of Stella Walsh courtesy of the Track and Field Li
brarylButler University. Photo ofWi!rna Rudolph © Deutsche Presse Agentur/Archive Photos. Photo
of the Texas Western basketball team courtesy of The University of Texas at El Paso. Photo of Tom
mie Smith and John Carlos © APlWide World Photos. Photo of Cathy Freeman © Brian MyerslPhoto
Run. Photo of John Godina © Victah SailerlPhoto Run. Photo of Kinoshiki by Chris Cole, © AllSport
Photo Gallery. Photo of the Tarahumara Indians © Natalie B. Fobes Photography. Photo of Herschel
Walker on a bobsled © NanCle Battaglia. Photos of Herschel Walker running and playing football
courtesy of the University of Georgia. Photo of Frankie Fredericks © Mark Verbaan/Rex Features.
Photo of Roger Bannister © Mike HewittJAllSport Photo Gallery. Photo of Sebastian Coe © Victah
SailerlPhoto Run. Photo of Hicham EI Guerroj © APIWide World Photos.
Book design by Jenny Dossin.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Entine, Jon.
Taboo: why black athletes dominate sports and why we're afraid to talk about it I Jon
Entine.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-58648-026-X
1. Athletes, Black. 2. Blacks-Race identity. 1. Title.
GV706.32.E57 2000
796'.089'96073-dc21 99-41889
CIP
CONTENTS
Preface: Reflections on Sports and the Genetic Revolution vii
Foreword by Earl Smith xv
PART I
THE TABOO
1. Breaking the Taboo on Race and Sports 3
2. The Education of Sir Roger 11
PART II
THE EVIDENCE
3. By the Numbers 17
4. The Most Level Playing Field 29
5. Nature's Experiment: The "Kenyan Miracle" 43
PART III
HISTORY OF RACE SCIENCE AND SPORTS
6. "More Brains or More ... " 71
7. Evolution (of Great Athletes) 81
8. Race Without Color: The History of Human Differences 96
9. The Origins of Race Science 117
vi Contents
PART IV
THE SEGREGATION AND INTEGRATION OF SPORTS
10. The Superiority of White Athletes 137
11. Jack Johnson in the Ring Against Jim Crow 151
12. American Eugenics 161
13. Jesse Owens and the German Race 172
14. A Knockout Blow to Race Science 188
15. The "Scheming, Flashy Trickiness" of Jews 198
PART V
NATURE OR NURTURE?
16. The Integration of Sports 207
17. The Sixties 218
18. Sports and IQ 232
19. Winning the Genetic Lottery 246
20. The Environmentalist Case Against Innate Black
Superiority in Sports 272
PART VI
WHAT ABOUT WOMEN?
21. The Superiority of White Female Athletes 295
22. East Germany's Sports Machine 305
23. The Renaissance of the Black Female Athlete 317
PART VII
FINAL THOUGHTS
24. A Genteel Way to Say "Nigger"? 331
Acknowledgments 343
Notes 346
Index 375
PREFACE
REFLECTIONS ON SPORTS AND
THE GENETIC REVOLUTION
Although Taboo draws its empirical evidence from the sports
world-there is a vast trove of statistics from almost every popula
tion group in the world-its scope is far broader than athletics and
race. My intention was to answer questions and debunk myths
about human biodiversity in the context of the unfolding genetic
revolution. As Scientific American wrote in its review, "Few issues are
as provocative and as poorly understood as biological differences
among the races."
For the most part, the science community has welcomed an hon
est discussion of issues frequently addressed only in the most cir
cumspect or politicized ways. "Entine has put together a
well-researched ... and lucidly written case," the same review noted.
"[His] proposed biocultural theory offers an attractive explanation,
suggesting that cultural conditions can amplify small but meaning
ful differences in performance related to heredity."
The most deeply felt criticism came from those who believed that
the book reflects a historical "white obsession" about racial differ
ences. Ken Shropshire, a thoughtful Wharton business school pro
fessor, asked rhetorically "Why care? Why care if there are some
minor anatomical or genetic differences between blacks and
whites? ... Will acknowledging some measure of black superiority in
a handful of athletic maneuvers help us achieve social understand
ing? I don't think so."
Although professor Shropshire's sentiments are understandable, I
believe he underestimates the importance of the dramatic revolution
in genetics that is now unfolding. The challenge is not whether we
should address such issues-we have no choice short of shutting
viii Preface
down genetic research-but whether we can discuss human biodi
versity in ways that enhance human dignity.
Over the past months, I've reflected on that concern, turning over
in my mind a conversation I had with Arthur Ashe, Jr. shortly before
he succumbed to AIDs. I had asked Arthur what was his greatest
challenge, fully expecting him to cite his battle with the disease that
would ultimately claim his life. But his life-and-death struggle was
not what he voiced. "It's being black," he stated in his matter of fact
voice that spoke of an utter absence of disingenuousness. "It's wak
ing up in the morning and realizing that no matter what I've
achieved, I will still be thought of first as a black man." It was a star
tling statement to me, for I had always assumed that Ashe was of
such stature that he transcended race and the daily indignities, large
and small, which blacks face.
Shortly thereafter, I got the tiniest inkling of what millions of
African Americans experience daily when I traveled to the Nandi
Hills in western Kenya. I visited the open market in Eldoret, where
the early morning crowd bargains over the day's selection of fresh
chicken and vegetables. I was one of the few white men for miles
around and acutely aware of my skin color. People stared, though no
one was hostile.
Later that afternoon, I turned to my host Ibrahim Hussein, one of
the world's all time great marathoners. "Do you think of yourself as
a 'black man' or just as a man," I asked. I was immediately embar
rassed for fear that he would be offended, but I pressed on. "I mean,
are you aware of your blackness."
Ibrahim looked at me as if I had just landed from Mars. "No, of
course not," he said, breaking into a gentle Kenyan smile that imme
diately put me at ease. "I am just a man. Do you see yourself as
white in your country? Certainly not. But in America, I became
aware of my color. There are not many whites in this part of Kenya.
Here you are a white. It is I who is just a man." For one of the few
times in my life, I shared with American blacks the omnipresent
awareness of being judged, analyzed, dissected, and abstracted by
the dominant culture.
There exists a blurry line between a healthy fascination about hu
man differences and a white obsession. It's that concern that led
Preface ix
dozens of journalists and media outlets to refuse to even discuss
Taboo-as a matter of conscience, some asserted. It was popularly
perceived as a skunk in heat. For instance, shortly before Taboo ap
peared in bookstores, The New York TImes Magazine dropped plans
to publish an adaptation because the very idea of discussing human
differences-not the book itself, was too hot to handle. "Our reluc
tant decision to drop it is no reflection of my regard for your work,
which remains high," wrote Kyle Crichton, who had championed
the article. "In brief, the whole subject worries my editor .... " I en
countered such reactions repeatedly, most pointedly from those who
had not read the book.
Even raising the issue of racial differences is considered racist in
some circles, an odd stance considering the lip service given to cul
tural diversity. "It is perhaps the existence of these lingering atti
tudes-still prevalent throughout much of this country-which
explains some of the backlash against Taboo's central thesis," wrote
Michael Crawford, University of Kansas biological anthropologist,
president of the Human Biology Association, and former editor of
the journal Human Biology. "While the sections concerning En
tine's hypothesis will surely attract the greatest attention, they ac
tually form a relatively small portion of the book," he added. "The
majority of Entine's tome is concerned with outlining the origins
and history of the 'taboo' itself-the reasons why Americans are re
luctant to talk about human differences in general, and athletic dif
ferences in particular-and it is here that Entine is at his best."
In general, black scholars and journalists were the most enthu
siastic about the cultural history of the race concept. "I am an edi
torial columnist," wrote Bill Maxwell of the St. Petersburg Times in
a personal note to me. "I reviewed your book because I enjoyed
reading it. It cut through all of the bullshit. I am black." What are
we to make of the phenomenon in which some whites, so quick to
crow about their own racial sensitivity, inject racial divisiveness
into a debate in which many African Americans see refreshing can
dor?
It's apparent that many blacks have become irritated to the point of
anger by the patronizing censorship and condescension of some jour
nalists and academicians. "You will be accused of spouting old fash-