What is the most likely reason for the disproportionate number of blacks in pro sports?

[evenflow1969]

Blacks, on average, have more fast twitch muscle fibers and greater amounts of testosterone than whites.

Some of it is physical. Some of it is the beleif that sports is the only route to success for them leading to a greater commitment to the sport. As more avenues open up to them the focus will be split from sports and into other things and those percentages will change. I think the key thing was commitment to the sport. Commitemt eventualy out shines natural skill. I knew several people that seemed to have what it takes to get to the major leage that decided to go a more likely route and use thier degrees insteed of taking thier draft opportunity.

 

[WinterBorn]

Tell you what, you go read a biology book and find out the difference between fast twitch and slow twitch muscles. Then come back and we will talk.

You've picked an argument with the wrong person on this one.

You are saying that black people have a muscle that other races don't. Right ?

Well ok.

What's the name of this supposed muscle? What studies verified that blacks possess it more frequently?

This rumor is just "sour grapes" thing started by un-athletic white guys...you know..."we can't run as well as they can because they have an extra muscle" or some nonsense

Most muscles come in pairs, sort of opposing each other (one muscle to move your foot forward, another one to pull it backward)?

The idea of a "one muscle in each leg" is crazy and you know it. What happens to it after this "extra" muscle contracts? Makes this sound even more like some kind of a racist urban legend.

Most black athletes who grew up in poverty thrive in sports that feature modest equipment investment, high social/cultural approval, and fame and wealth in professional ranks.

That's why young urban black athletes who are strong in sports keep gravitatating to the same five: basketball, football, baseball, track & field and increasingly tennis.

The fundamentals of these sports can be learned at a very young age

Thousands of hours can be logged playing and practicing with your peers in the streets, and the rewards for top talent can be scouted and developed from middle school on. You just don't get the same community support or interest if you're black and happen to be good at ice hockey.

If there was big money and cultural approval in professional bowling, blacks would dominate that, too. Even within sports with the same basic athletic needs you see this difference. Many Olympic sprinters are black, but very few Olympic speed skaters are black. Blacks make up 85% of the NBA, but volleyball, which also requires tall, strong people who can jump really high, is not dominated by blacks.

But tell me if black people are naturally good at basketball then why don't African nations dominate international basketball comps ?

Apart from black Americans black people are pretty poor at b-ball.

Black (as a group) are not good at basketball.

Ice Hockey records are dominated by white Canadians and Americans from the northern Great Plains area. No doubt people from there have extra muscles in their feet that make the ice skates turn faster.

No, I never said black people have an extra muscle. This is why I told you to go read a biology text.

You're saying that black people have a muscle that others don't. That means extra.

What I actually said was "Blacks, on average, have more fast twitch muscle fibers and greater amounts of testosterone than whites.".

from: Fast-Twitch vs. Slow-Twitch Muscles
"People have two general types of skeletal muscle fibers: slow-twitch (type I) and fast-twitch (type II). Slow-twitch muscles help enable long-endurance feats such as distance running, while fast-twitch muscles fatigue faster but are used in powerful bursts of movements like sprinting."

Having more fast twitch muscles is an advantage in sports which require explosive movement and strength. Many major sports would be included in a list of places fast twitch mucles would provide an advantage.


No where did I say anything about extra muscles.

 

[Paul Essien]

Tell you what, you go read a biology book and find out the difference between fast twitch and slow twitch muscles. Then come back and we will talk.

You've picked an argument with the wrong person on this one.

You are saying that black people have a muscle that other races don't. Right ?

Well ok.

What's the name of this supposed muscle? What studies verified that blacks possess it more frequently?

This rumor is just "sour grapes" thing started by un-athletic white guys...you know..."we can't run as well as they can because they have an extra muscle" or some nonsense

Most muscles come in pairs, sort of opposing each other (one muscle to move your foot forward, another one to pull it backward)?

The idea of a "one muscle in each leg" is crazy and you know it. What happens to it after this "extra" muscle contracts? Makes this sound even more like some kind of a racist urban legend.

Most black athletes who grew up in poverty thrive in sports that feature modest equipment investment, high social/cultural approval, and fame and wealth in professional ranks.

That's why young urban black athletes who are strong in sports keep gravitatating to the same five: basketball, football, baseball, track & field and increasingly tennis.

The fundamentals of these sports can be learned at a very young age

Thousands of hours can be logged playing and practicing with your peers in the streets, and the rewards for top talent can be scouted and developed from middle school on. You just don't get the same community support or interest if you're black and happen to be good at ice hockey.

If there was big money and cultural approval in professional bowling, blacks would dominate that, too. Even within sports with the same basic athletic needs you see this difference. Many Olympic sprinters are black, but very few Olympic speed skaters are black. Blacks make up 85% of the NBA, but volleyball, which also requires tall, strong people who can jump really high, is not dominated by blacks.

But tell me if black people are naturally good at basketball then why don't African nations dominate international basketball comps ?

Apart from black Americans black people are pretty poor at b-ball.

Black (as a group) are not good at basketball.

Ice Hockey records are dominated by white Canadians and Americans from the northern Great Plains area. No doubt people from there have extra muscles in their feet that make the ice skates turn faster.

No, I never said black people have an extra muscle. This is why I told you to go read a biology text.

You're saying that black people have a muscle that others don't. That means extra.

Once again, I did not say blacks have more muscles. Go back and reread what I actually said.

So your saying that black people have the same muscles but they twitch faster

So what is this muscle ?

Remember the original story was that whites were superior in body and brains.

In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler

was confident that his Aryan athletes would dominate the Black American sprinters. But Jesse Owens and other black athletes made sure it did not quite work out that way.

So the white Supremacists pretended that they had never believed that White people were physically superior to Black people and that their ideas had not been embarrassingly refuted.

They just figured that brains were more important, so if Black people were to be sold to the world as inferior, it would have to be based on them being genetically stupid.

 

[WinterBorn]

Tell you what, you go read a biology book and find out the difference between fast twitch and slow twitch muscles. Then come back and we will talk.

You've picked an argument with the wrong person on this one.

You are saying that black people have a muscle that other races don't. Right ?

Well ok.

What's the name of this supposed muscle? What studies verified that blacks possess it more frequently?

This rumor is just "sour grapes" thing started by un-athletic white guys...you know..."we can't run as well as they can because they have an extra muscle" or some nonsense

Most muscles come in pairs, sort of opposing each other (one muscle to move your foot forward, another one to pull it backward)?

The idea of a "one muscle in each leg" is crazy and you know it. What happens to it after this "extra" muscle contracts? Makes this sound even more like some kind of a racist urban legend.

Most black athletes who grew up in poverty thrive in sports that feature modest equipment investment, high social/cultural approval, and fame and wealth in professional ranks.

That's why young urban black athletes who are strong in sports keep gravitatating to the same five: basketball, football, baseball, track & field and increasingly tennis.

The fundamentals of these sports can be learned at a very young age

Thousands of hours can be logged playing and practicing with your peers in the streets, and the rewards for top talent can be scouted and developed from middle school on. You just don't get the same community support or interest if you're black and happen to be good at ice hockey.

If there was big money and cultural approval in professional bowling, blacks would dominate that, too. Even within sports with the same basic athletic needs you see this difference. Many Olympic sprinters are black, but very few Olympic speed skaters are black. Blacks make up 85% of the NBA, but volleyball, which also requires tall, strong people who can jump really high, is not dominated by blacks.

But tell me if black people are naturally good at basketball then why don't African nations dominate international basketball comps ?

Apart from black Americans black people are pretty poor at b-ball.

Black (as a group) are not good at basketball.

Ice Hockey records are dominated by white Canadians and Americans from the northern Great Plains area. No doubt people from there have extra muscles in their feet that make the ice skates turn faster.

No, I never said black people have an extra muscle. This is why I told you to go read a biology text.

You're saying that black people have a muscle that others don't. That means extra.

Once again, I did not say blacks have more muscles. Go back and reread what I actually said.

So your saying that black people have the same muscles but they twitch faster

So what is this muscle ?

Remember the original story was that whites were superior in body and brains.

In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler

was confident that his Aryan athletes would dominate the Black American sprinters. But Jesse Owens and other black athletes made sure it did not quite work out that way.

So the white Supremacists pretended that they had never believed that White people were physically superior to Black people and that their ideas had not been embarrassingly refuted.

They just figured that brains were more important, so if Black people were to be sold to the world as inferior, it would have to be based on them being genetically stupid.

I am not going to go into a long explanation of the different types of muscle fibers. Everyone has both fast and slow twitch muscles. But people have them in different proportions.

 

[Paul Essien]

First you say this

Blacks, on average, have more fast twitch muscle fibers

Then you say this

I am not going to go into a long explanation of the different types of muscle fibers.

You've pretty much admitted here that you don't know what your talking about

 

[WinterBorn]

First you say this

Blacks, on average, have more fast twitch muscle fibers

Then you say this

I am not going to go into a long explanation of the different types of muscle fibers.

You've pretty much admitted here that you don't know what your talking about

No, not at all. I made an observation about blacks, on average, having more fast twitch muscles. First you claimed I said that they had an extra muscle. And then you say that I am saying blacks have the same muscles, but they twitch faster. Which tells me you don’t know about the several types of muscle fibers in the human body.

Google “fast twitch muscles”. And educate yourself.

 

[WinterBorn]

First you say this

Blacks, on average, have more fast twitch muscle fibers

Then you say this

I am not going to go into a long explanation of the different types of muscle fibers.

You've pretty much admitted here that you don't know what your talking about

There are two basic types of muscle fibers in the skeletal muscles of the human body. Fast twitch and slow twitch. Everyone has both, but some have more slow twitch and some have more fast twitch. To simplify it, slow twitch muscles provide more endurance while fast twitch provide more explosive movement and strength.

It is advantageous to have more fast twitch muscles in many of the major sports. Football, baseball and basketball are such sports. Since these sports are the ones most people see, they apply to the topic in the OP.

If you have more fast twitch muscle fibers than I do, and we train exactly the same and put in the same effort, you will likely be better at the three sports I named above. If we both train the same and put in the same effort at marathon running or extreme marathons, I would likely be better.

The types of fibers are not race specific. The proportion of fast twitch to slow twitch is. At least on average.

 

[Correll]

Tell you what, you go read a biology book and find out the difference between fast twitch and slow twitch muscles. Then come back and we will talk.

You've picked an argument with the wrong person on this one.

You are saying that black people have a muscle that other races don't. Right ?

Well ok.

What's the name of this supposed muscle? What studies verified that blacks possess it more frequently?

This rumor is just "sour grapes" thing started by un-athletic white guys...you know..."we can't run as well as they can because they have an extra muscle" or some nonsense

Most muscles come in pairs, sort of opposing each other (one muscle to move your foot forward, another one to pull it backward)?

The idea of a "one muscle in each leg" is crazy and you know it. What happens to it after this "extra" muscle contracts? Makes this sound even more like some kind of a racist urban legend.

Most black athletes who grew up in poverty thrive in sports that feature modest equipment investment, high social/cultural approval, and fame and wealth in professional ranks.

That's why young urban black athletes who are strong in sports keep gravitatating to the same five: basketball, football, baseball, track & field and increasingly tennis.

The fundamentals of these sports can be learned at a very young age

Thousands of hours can be logged playing and practicing with your peers in the streets, and the rewards for top talent can be scouted and developed from middle school on. You just don't get the same community support or interest if you're black and happen to be good at ice hockey.

If there was big money and cultural approval in professional bowling, blacks would dominate that, too. Even within sports with the same basic athletic needs you see this difference. Many Olympic sprinters are black, but very few Olympic speed skaters are black. Blacks make up 85% of the NBA, but volleyball, which also requires tall, strong people who can jump really high, is not dominated by blacks.

But tell me if black people are naturally good at basketball then why don't African nations dominate international basketball comps ?

Apart from black Americans black people are pretty poor at b-ball.

Black (as a group) are not good at basketball.

Ice Hockey records are dominated by white Canadians and Americans from the northern Great Plains area. No doubt people from there have extra muscles in their feet that make the ice skates turn faster.

No, I never said black people have an extra muscle. This is why I told you to go read a biology text.

You're saying that black people have a muscle that others don't. That means extra.

Dude. You are embarrassing yourself.

 

[JoeMoma]

Tell you what, you go read a biology book and find out the difference between fast twitch and slow twitch muscles. Then come back and we will talk.

You've picked an argument with the wrong person on this one.

You are saying that black people have a muscle that other races don't. Right ?

Well ok.

What's the name of this supposed muscle? What studies verified that blacks possess it more frequently?

This rumor is just "sour grapes" thing started by un-athletic white guys...you know..."we can't run as well as they can because they have an extra muscle" or some nonsense

Most muscles come in pairs, sort of opposing each other (one muscle to move your foot forward, another one to pull it backward)?

The idea of a "one muscle in each leg" is crazy and you know it. What happens to it after this "extra" muscle contracts? Makes this sound even more like some kind of a racist urban legend.

Most black athletes who grew up in poverty thrive in sports that feature modest equipment investment, high social/cultural approval, and fame and wealth in professional ranks.

That's why young urban black athletes who are strong in sports keep gravitatating to the same five: basketball, football, baseball, track & field and increasingly tennis.

The fundamentals of these sports can be learned at a very young age

Thousands of hours can be logged playing and practicing with your peers in the streets, and the rewards for top talent can be scouted and developed from middle school on. You just don't get the same community support or interest if you're black and happen to be good at ice hockey.

If there was big money and cultural approval in professional bowling, blacks would dominate that, too. Even within sports with the same basic athletic needs you see this difference. Many Olympic sprinters are black, but very few Olympic speed skaters are black. Blacks make up 85% of the NBA, but volleyball, which also requires tall, strong people who can jump really high, is not dominated by blacks.

But tell me if black people are naturally good at basketball then why don't African nations dominate international basketball comps ?

Apart from black Americans black people are pretty poor at b-ball.

Black (as a group) are not good at basketball.

Ice Hockey records are dominated by white Canadians and Americans from the northern Great Plains area. No doubt people from there have extra muscles in their feet that make the ice skates turn faster.

No, I never said black people have an extra muscle. This is why I told you to go read a biology text.

You're saying that black people have a muscle that others don't. That means extra.

Dude. You are embarrassing yourself.

As usual!

 

[IM2]

You've picked an argument with the wrong person on this one.

You are saying that black people have a muscle that other races don't. Right ?

Well ok.

What's the name of this supposed muscle? What studies verified that blacks possess it more frequently?

This rumor is just "sour grapes" thing started by un-athletic white guys...you know..."we can't run as well as they can because they have an extra muscle" or some nonsense

Most muscles come in pairs, sort of opposing each other (one muscle to move your foot forward, another one to pull it backward)?

The idea of a "one muscle in each leg" is crazy and you know it. What happens to it after this "extra" muscle contracts? Makes this sound even more like some kind of a racist urban legend.

Most black athletes who grew up in poverty thrive in sports that feature modest equipment investment, high social/cultural approval, and fame and wealth in professional ranks.

That's why young urban black athletes who are strong in sports keep gravitatating to the same five: basketball, football, baseball, track & field and increasingly tennis.

The fundamentals of these sports can be learned at a very young age

Thousands of hours can be logged playing and practicing with your peers in the streets, and the rewards for top talent can be scouted and developed from middle school on. You just don't get the same community support or interest if you're black and happen to be good at ice hockey.

If there was big money and cultural approval in professional bowling, blacks would dominate that, too. Even within sports with the same basic athletic needs you see this difference. Many Olympic sprinters are black, but very few Olympic speed skaters are black. Blacks make up 85% of the NBA, but volleyball, which also requires tall, strong people who can jump really high, is not dominated by blacks.

But tell me if black people are naturally good at basketball then why don't African nations dominate international basketball comps ?

Apart from black Americans black people are pretty poor at b-ball.

Black (as a group) are not good at basketball.

Ice Hockey records are dominated by white Canadians and Americans from the northern Great Plains area. No doubt people from there have extra muscles in their feet that make the ice skates turn faster.

No, I never said black people have an extra muscle. This is why I told you to go read a biology text.

You're saying that black people have a muscle that others don't. That means extra.

Once again, I did not say blacks have more muscles. Go back and reread what I actually said.

So your saying that black people have the same muscles but they twitch faster

So what is this muscle ?

Remember the original story was that whites were superior in body and brains.

In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler

was confident that his Aryan athletes would dominate the Black American sprinters. But Jesse Owens and other black athletes made sure it did not quite work out that way.

So the white Supremacists pretended that they had never believed that White people were physically superior to Black people and that their ideas had not been embarrassingly refuted.

They just figured that brains were more important, so if Black people were to be sold to the world as inferior, it would have to be based on them being genetically stupid.

I am not going to go into a long explanation of the different types of muscle fibers. Everyone has both fast and slow twitch muscles. But people have them in different proportions.

I think we all have the same number of muscle in the same proportion . I knew a few very fast athletic white dudes who quit playing football and pursued other sports like tennis, golf and swimming. And looking back on it, how much more fun could it get than spending days and weekends surrounded by women in bathing suits?

But to be good at those sports takes money a lot of black folks don't have.

 

[katsteve2012]

No, I never said black people have an extra muscle. This is why I told you to go read a biology text.

You're saying that black people have a muscle that others don't. That means extra.

Once again, I did not say blacks have more muscles. Go back and reread what I actually said.

So your saying that black people have the same muscles but they twitch faster

So what is this muscle ?

Remember the original story was that whites were superior in body and brains.

In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler

was confident that his Aryan athletes would dominate the Black American sprinters. But Jesse Owens and other black athletes made sure it did not quite work out that way.

So the white Supremacists pretended that they had never believed that White people were physically superior to Black people and that their ideas had not been embarrassingly refuted.

They just figured that brains were more important, so if Black people were to be sold to the world as inferior, it would have to be based on them being genetically stupid.

I am not going to go into a long explanation of the different types of muscle fibers. Everyone has both fast and slow twitch muscles. But people have them in different proportions.

I think we all have the same number of muscle in the same proportion . I knew a few very fast athletic white dudes who quit playing football and pursued other sports like tennis, golf and swimming. And looking back on it, how much more fun could it get than spending days and weekends surrounded by women in bathing suits?

But to be good at those sports takes money a lot of black folks don't have.

Good point . I also believe that there are socio economic factors as well. There are more economically disadvantaged black people in America (per capita), and typically at the high school and college level, football and basketball are the most attention getting sports in the school athletic program.

Scouts always look at high school players for colleges and at college players for the professional ranks. Case in point, By the time that I got to high school, I was lucky enough to have two parents who were professionals and did well, but I attended a high school that was small, but over time the school has produced 25 football players who went to the NFL, i attended the school because I wanted to be on the team and the teaching staff was good as
well, and kids dreamed of going there to wear the uniform and be in the program. But coaches also strictly enforced study habits and maintaining your GPA.

Sometimes it is a way out of poverty and a path to college and if one is good enough, to a professional career.

 

[IM2]

You're saying that black people have a muscle that others don't. That means extra.

Once again, I did not say blacks have more muscles. Go back and reread what I actually said.

So your saying that black people have the same muscles but they twitch faster

So what is this muscle ?

Remember the original story was that whites were superior in body and brains.

In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler

was confident that his Aryan athletes would dominate the Black American sprinters. But Jesse Owens and other black athletes made sure it did not quite work out that way.

So the white Supremacists pretended that they had never believed that White people were physically superior to Black people and that their ideas had not been embarrassingly refuted.

They just figured that brains were more important, so if Black people were to be sold to the world as inferior, it would have to be based on them being genetically stupid.

I am not going to go into a long explanation of the different types of muscle fibers. Everyone has both fast and slow twitch muscles. But people have them in different proportions.

I think we all have the same number of muscle in the same proportion . I knew a few very fast athletic white dudes who quit playing football and pursued other sports like tennis, golf and swimming. And looking back on it, how much more fun could it get than spending days and weekends surrounded by women in bathing suits?

But to be good at those sports takes money a lot of black folks don't have.

Good point . I also believe that there are socio economic factors as well. There are more economically disadvantaged black people in America (per capita), and typically at the high school and college level, football and basketball are the most attention getting sports in the school athletic program.

Scouts always look at high school players for colleges and at college players for the professional ranks. Case in point, By the time that I got to high school, I was lucky enough to have two parents who were professionals and did well, but I attended a high school that was small, but over time the school has produced 25 football players who went to the NFL, i attended the school because I wanted to be on the team and the teaching staff was good as
well, and kids dreamed of going there to wear the uniform and be in the program. But coaches also strictly enforced study habits and maintaining your GPA.

Sometimes it is a way out of poverty and a path to college and if one is good enough, to a professional career.

Exactly. And there are a whole lot of young black men and women who play sports for that college education their parents could not afford to help them with. I know because I am one of them. I wrestled in college and there is no pro wrestling.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

I guess it never occurred to any of you that if not for the racial discrimination and interference with the lives and opportunites of hundred of millions of Americans of African descent, that the racial makeup of all professional sports could very well more closely resemble what is seen in the NFL today.

And it's beyond ironic that white racists claimed that only people of African descent possessed the physical characterists to perform the grueling and backbreaking physical work in the fields of the south with it's semi-tropical climate and summer heat, that whites were allegedly too delicate to perform. If this were true and not just rationalization and justification for their heinous abuses of the rights of blacks and their own laziness, wouldn't it make sense that blacks out perform whites when it comes to some physical activities, particularly ones in which natural raw athletic talent can be undeniably demonstrated and measured?

Lastly, don't ever underestimate the exceptions that can and will be made irrespective of the distastefulness of the situation if there is money to be made, even when those whose pockets are being lined consider those actually earning the money for them as racially inferior.

 

[Correll]

No, I never said black people have an extra muscle. This is why I told you to go read a biology text.

You're saying that black people have a muscle that others don't. That means extra.

Once again, I did not say blacks have more muscles. Go back and reread what I actually said.

So your saying that black people have the same muscles but they twitch faster

So what is this muscle ?

Remember the original story was that whites were superior in body and brains.

In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler

was confident that his Aryan athletes would dominate the Black American sprinters. But Jesse Owens and other black athletes made sure it did not quite work out that way.

So the white Supremacists pretended that they had never believed that White people were physically superior to Black people and that their ideas had not been embarrassingly refuted.

They just figured that brains were more important, so if Black people were to be sold to the world as inferior, it would have to be based on them being genetically stupid.

I am not going to go into a long explanation of the different types of muscle fibers. Everyone has both fast and slow twitch muscles. But people have them in different proportions.

I think we all have the same number of muscle in the same proportion . I knew a few very fast athletic white dudes who quit playing football and pursued other sports like tennis, golf and swimming. And looking back on it, how much more fun could it get than spending days and weekends surrounded by women in bathing suits?

But to be good at those sports takes money a lot of black folks don't have.

Well, at least unlike Paul, you are able to understand what is being said.

 

[Osiris-ODS]

But the NFL doesn't make up the entire body of professional sports which is why I asked. Does this 70% hold true across the board or only specific sports? Golf & tennis are considered sports, are blacks over represented in those sports as well?