Sunday, November 28, 2010

Superiority just Black or White?

In the past couple of decades the analysis of black and white athletes in competitive sports has flourished.  Several theories from “Great Speed But Little Stamina:” The Historical Debate Over Black Athletic Superiority” mention that black athletes’ dominance in sprinting events is due to “longer heel bone or stronger achilles tendon.”  Another hypothesis states that black athletes have more primitive DNA than white athletes which makes them superior in particular sports.  A further speculation is that black athletes are better at certain sports because they have grown up with fewer opportunities to excel in other sports that require additional financial support.  Another assumption is that the black race went through a genetic selection during the slavery movement, where only the fittest survived. Yet, another hypothesis states that black athletes work harder than their white counterpart and that is why they thrive at certain sports.  All of these theories are very hard to prove due to scientific restriction and immeasurable factors like which athlete is the hardest worker.  I do not comprehend why we as a society have to define and separate different races.  We are always assuming that if someone wins it is because he or she has an advantage therefore the fingers are now pointed towards race.  The flaw that I see in these theories is that there has been a lot of research to see the superiority in black athletes but not very many theories for white athletes.  If black athletes have anatomical and physiological traits that provide them with an advantage then there should be more research on what white athletes have that black athletes do not have.  I find it interesting that when there is an argument about race it usually just involves the black and white race, not any others.  I understand that there has to be a dividing line for scientific and sociological purposes, but I think it further segregates white and black societal views.  We have critics questioning why and how an athlete has an advantage that it rarely occurs to us that athletes may be better at certain sports because they worked harder than their counterparts to get there. 

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