Newsgroups: sci.bio
Path: utzoo!rising
From: rising@utzoo.uucp (Jim Rising)
Subject: Race & Athletic Ability
Message-ID: <1989Aug17.154940.20583@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 89 15:49:40 GMT

The relatively large number of Blacks in professional
sports is doubtless a combination of both average physical
differences among "races" and social influences.  Disregarding
direct morpholgical evidence (which I don't have at hand), this
is indicated both by the differences in proportions of Blacks
among sports, and in the positions that they play.  The vast
majority of professional basketball players are Black, but Blacks
are rare in the PGA, etc.  In pro football, Black quarterbacks are
rare (in US; not so much so in Canada)--generally thought to be a
reflection of racism (fans and coach want a Caucasoid running the
team).  In a recent USA Today (10 Aug) there is a breakdown by
race of players in ML baseball.  Overall, about 20% are Black
(another 10% or so are Hispanic--many racially Black).  48% of
the outfielders are Black, and about 18% of the middle infielders
are Black, but only 5.1% of the pitchers, 4.4% of the catchers, 
etc. are Black.  In short, the Blacks and Hispanics dominate in
the "speed" positions; the Whites in the slow, "power" positions.
That is probably largely a reflection of average physical differences
among "races."  Incidentally, the average Black ML baseball player
makes $566,708/year, the average White $470,887, and the average
Hispanic $459,381.  This suggests that a disproportionate number
of superstars are Black, and a disproportionate number of marginal
players are either White or Hispanic.  Perhaps there is a tendency
to keep a marginal White player over a marginal Black player on a
team.

As someone else has already noted, not all Black Africans are the
same.  There is probably more geographic variation in physical
features among African groups than among all the rest of humankind--
although I don't know if that has been quantified.  Most of the
N.A. Blacks are descended from slaves caught in West Africa (and 
thus may be very different from the Kenyan runners).  Also US
Blacks are introgressed with White genes--and the extent of this
also varies from place to place.  On average about 30% of the genes
in a "Black" from Oakland are of White origin, but only about 16% of
the genes in a "Black" from Claxton, Georgia.

--Jim Rising
-- 
Name:     Jim Rising
Mail:     Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada    M5S 1A1
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