The athletic dominance of African Americans—Is there a genetic basis? 1996 Harpalani
"...1939, Eleanor Metheny...study of physical and athletic performance differences between races... concluded that African Americans surpassed European Americans in...weight, shoulder breadth, chest depth and width, neck and limb girths, and length of arm, forearm, hand, leg, and lower leg. European Americans were higher in sitting height, total fat, and hip width...went on to postulate athletic consequences of her study...physical features of African Americans yielded advantages in various sports. Greater body weight due to heavier bones and more musculature, coupled with lower body fat..."
"African Americans have faster reaction times than do Europeans, on average, although it is unclear whether this effect is inherited or acquired through training (Jordan, 1969, 96). Studies have shown that African Americans dissipate heat more effectively than do European Americans, due to longer limbs and greater quantity of sweat glands."
"African Americans appear to exhibit advanced skeletal and motor development in comparison to European Americans (Malina, 1988)"
"the African American athlete has a greater power-to-weight ratio than does the European American athlete, regardless of the athlete's size. This would yield an advantage in events such as sprints and jumps (Kane 1971)"
"a study that showed Ugandan infants had
extremely precocious muscular development compared to European infants (Kane, 1971.) Kane also mentions two common hypotheses: slave selection and slave breeding."
"...Edwards offered several criticisms [of Kane.] First, he claimed that the evidence for physical differences between the races was derived from exceptional African American athletes and not from a random sample of the African American population. Second, Edwards noted that anthropologists have not been successful in deriving criteria to divide humans into discrete "races." Third, he pointed out that because of the many complex factors that determine athletics performance, it is difficult to draw any conclusions about such performance based observable variables."
The published historical evidence on the transatlantic slave trade and New World slavery (from the 16th century to the 19th century) reveals that conditions existed for "natural selection," and therefore, genetic changes were virtually inevitable in the slave populations. (Wilson and Grim, 1991)...It is also important to note that Wilson and Grim's work is controversial; other sources claim it is completely invalid."
Norde concluded that...slave breeding was a common practice (Norde, 1985). Moreover,
the major motive behind slave breeding was profit. Norde noted advertisements for the sale of thousands of female slaves on a daily basis. Many of these advertisements stated that the female slaves were "'good' or 'fine' for breeding..."
"For argument's sake...a multifactorial trait like speed or any athletic endeavor would probably be normally distributed. The slight advantage may cause a small shift in the African American normal curve, such that the top 0.1 % of individuals on the speed index (i.e., the fastest 0.1 % of the population) would consist almost exclusively of African Americans..."
"Slow-twitch (type I, oxidative) muscle fibers contract slowly and are necessary for endurance events (e.g., long-distance run- ning). Fast-twitch (type Ila and lib, oxidative and glycolytic respectively) muscle fibers contract much faster and are necessary for events requiring sudden bursts of energy...46 male subjects, 23 European Canadians and 23 Africans from Cameroon, Senegal, Zaire, Ivory Coast, and Burundi. All subjects were matched for age, weight, height, and body mass index. They were...involved only in sedentary activities at the time of the study... Africans were significantly higher in fast-twitch muscle fiber proportion and area (for both type Ila and lib). Africans also had significantly higher activity levels for glycolytic enzymes hexokinase, phosphofructokinase, lactate dehydrogenase and for the phosphagenic enzyme creatine kinase."
"Is there a genetic basis for the success of African American athletes? The evidence is unclear at this time. Several lines of data seem to point to genetic factors, but these lines do not fit together, and in some cases they even contradict each other. The issue warrants further study before any conclusions can be made..."
Vinay Harpalani
Journal of African American Men, Vol. 2, 1997, pp. 39-56
However, as a counterpoint to this, an editorial from 2018 is relevant.
"even if African-Americans were genetically [superior]... It is not possible to categorize an entire racial group as being genetically or physiologically distinct from one another because of the vast genetic heterogeneity of our populations."
"...treat African-Americans as a genetically homogenous group...we should reject the premise of genetic determinism and essential black abnormality and not think of racial groups as fundamentally distinct in terms of biology or physiology."
