Before I start, i want to say that this thread is not racist at all. Just curious. But i sometimes watch american sports. It strikes me that in both football and basketball, there are alot of african americans. But then i watch Nhl, and there are no african americans. Why is this??
I once saw a black dude solve a rubix cube in 35 seconds. His name was Barrack- and he chokes hos, I mean hookers, I mean prostitutes, I mean working girls.
I think in America it helps that during slavery the biggest strongest slaves were bred together to make "super" slaves. I'm not sure how wide spread this was though or how much affect it had though it may be a contributing factor.
I don't think the forced breeding was widespread enough or occurred long enough to affect black Americans quite that much. But I'm inclined to believe that Africans in general have a genetic tendency toward athleticism, due to the environment in which they have lived for millenia.
No one is born with the ability to be awesome at sports. They work hard and gain experience which makes them better over time. Like I said before color doesn't matter at all.
Not true, sir. We are all born with natural talents. We also have the ability to learn certain skills. For example:
I don't have a talent for baseball like my younger brother. He throws better, runs faster, and has a quicker swing than I do. But I did work harder at learning baseball skills than he did, which made up for my lack of talent in many ways.
I knew where to stand to catch a pop fly on the run, which added momentum as I threw the ball to the infield. Because he could just stand there and heave the ball (even faster than I could with proper form), he never learned to crow-hop, which would have taken his game up a notch.
I had skills, but he had talent. Had he ever put in the effort I did, he could have played at least semi-pro ball, if not made it to The Show.
And you're right, it's not about color, it's about genetics. But Americans of African descent share what seems to be an athletically gifted gene pool.
I think some of the people in this thread have it totally backwards. Black people are generally much better at sports. If you look at almost any sport, you will see it's almost all black people. It is about genetics (meaning some black people will be terrible athletes, and some white people might be the best athletes ever), but in general, Black people just do tend to have more natural atheltic ability than White people do, although that doesn't always apply to skill, just speed, stamina, and power.
Africans were raised on soccer, fast paced, agile passing game soccer, with blistering moves. This was suited to the land they lived on, dry land, as it encouraged speedy play. English men, for example, are also raised on soccer. Now, wet, damp, and foggy England is no place for fast-paced moves and agility, no. They play by force, they clobber the ball up the field. This applies to hockey. Along with England, many European countries play soccer like that. Therefore, it translates to hockey. In hockey, brute force wins. It's that simple. Ovechkin? He can pound the crud out of you. Crosby? Not really, and it shows, as he needs teammates to protect him. Africans, raised on fast paced game style, are not as well suited as people from say, Europe, who are used to that playing style. Does that answer your question? Or mine?
Hm, not really since it makes a fallacious claim to phenotypic traits as a manifestation of culture, whereas it's more likely to be the other way around. The observations, as to the types of game and the environment, though, seem true.
Also I get the feeling it's much more complicated than this since there is no longer ethnic segregation by geography.
Africans were raised on soccer, fast paced, agile passing game soccer, with blistering moves. This was suited to the land they lived on, dry land, as it encouraged speedy play.
Africans aren't raised on soccer. In terms of human history the sport is a relatively new one. It simply hasn't been around long enough to affect the physical or genetic traits of Africans or Europeans.
Here are some different links from woody's old thread about race, that seem to explain an awful lot about the subject.
Despite the fact that these articles pertain to all different human races, not specifically Africans, their information is still applicable here, as it goes some way to answering the question, of why do different races have different characteristics?
I don't mean to offend anyone, but does it seem that in the United States the African Americans seem much more built... (I'm not sure if this is just because Americans in general are very pro-working out) but I was wondering if American Enslavement of Africans had an effect on this. They basically grabbed as many strong Africans from Africa as they could get (so to begin only strong ones were brought over). And then they worked them so hard that the weaker ones died off. Essentially creating a forced Natural Selection... I wonder if that is why the Blacks in the United States seem larger and more athletic. What do you guys think, do you think it's just America in general that enjoys a good workout more so than other countries?
(I'm not sure if this is just because Americans in general are very pro-working out)
Really? I thought America had the highest obesity rates etc.
They basically grabbed as many strong Africans from Africa as they could get (so to begin only strong ones were brought over).
As far as I can remember from my school days, the slavers generally stayed to the East coast of Africa, and so took from the countires going South from Guinea down to Namibia. Many of the tribes in this region, especially in The Ivory Coast and Nigeria, were extremely warlike, and generally had very physically large inhabitants, East Africans being the physically largest of all African peoples. This would definitely be a factor in the size of African Americans today.
. And then they worked them so hard that the weaker ones died off.
I'm not 100% sure on this one. I would say situational factors eg type of labour, climate of local region, would have more of an effect than on who survived, rather than simply being stronger than those that died. In addition, in terms of genetics, the period of African enslavement was probably too short for this to effect the size of African Americans in the long term.
What do you guys think, do you think it's just America in general that enjoys a good workout more so than other countries?
I guess that could be possible. Although, living in London, there is a huge African and West Indian population. The 'Windrush' after WW2 was a huge influx of West Indian and African immigrants to the UK. Africans in BVritian were mostly not slaves, as Britain had a large enough rural working population so that they were not nescessary. However the West Indians that came to the UK were mostly the descendants of slaves taken to the Carribean to work on plantations. However physically, they both seem to be of similar size and build, indicating slavery did not have much of an effect on their physical characteristics, and it is more likely that African Americans go to the gym more as you mentioned.
Africans were raised on soccer, fast paced, agile passing game soccer, with blistering moves. This was suited to the land they lived on, dry land, as it encouraged speedy play.
Two things...
1. Cultural fads do not determine genetic tendencies. For example, male-pattern baldness is just as prevalent now as it was before the "hippie" years in America, when many men wore their hair long.
2. Football (or soccer) wasn't prevalent on the African continent when the slave trade was hot and heavy. There were surely similar games, as there have been throughout human history, but the game as it is now known wouldn't be introduced to the continent for centuries.
Flipski - I believe Firefly is right in that slave traders grabbed the largest and strongest Africans to utilize as slaves, and you're probably right that the weaker ones died (though probably on the long, hard trip across the Atlantic, as those who died in the fields usually died from mistreatment, not a genetic failure), but I think the main reason black Americans are larger than the typical African is this...
Black Americans are a mixture of African slaves, other dark-skinned groups (such as Cubans, Jamaicans, et cetera), and even (gasp) whites. By mixing various ethnic tendencies, you get the modern black American (and every other flavor of American whose family has been here for more than a generation or two).
The stereotype of black American males is that they are taller and "built" better than average. Studies actually show that black Americans are shorter on average than white Americans. Weight and/or body mass are much harder to document, as they change so frequently and are much more closely linked to eating habits and cultural trends than genetics.
The seeming tendency of blacks to dominate in professional sports (80% of the NFL and 85% of the NBA are black) can't be ignored, but I doubt either their supposed natural athletic ability or their supposedly better "builds" come from the slave days in America.
