In the recent wake of Marion Jone’s “shocking” (yeah right) admission to use of performance-enhancing drugs I have had numerous conversations with co-workers and friends on athletes and drugs and race. One such conversation took an interesting turn when I asked my co-workers why 2/3rds of the NFL was black yet less than 1/3rd of the quarterbacks in the NFL were still white. They had no legitimate answer for this.

This lead to a conversation with myself (don’t worry… I have conversations with myself all the time):

“Why is it that blacks dominate certain sports?”

Hey! Don’t start on that “black athletic superiority” bull… do whites have greater mental capacities?

“Well no… but c’mon… what does one have to do with the other? Is athleticism and intelligence mutually exclusive?”

No. But to insist that a particular race is better suited for certain activities is bordering on racism no?

“Hmmmm. I don’t think so. Not if we are discussing this in the vacuum of genetics and biology where the concept of race doesn’t exist. Instead we need to look at this as people adapting genetically to best survive their environment and passing these genes down to their descendants.”

Ok. I guess I can work with that. But you don’t think societal and economic dynamics have a lot to do with this as well? Maybe blacks are better at certain sports because they see it as their only way out of a bad situation.

“I suppose those factor into the equation in some cases. But in a controlled environment, all things being equal, they aren’t the controlling factors. Why haven’t any white sprinters from racially homogeneous, low income populations or countries run under 10 seconds in the 100 meter sprint?”

Oh no. Not this “white men can’t jump” crap!

“Oh white men CAN jump. Just not as high as the black… No. Lets not revert back to race… just not as high as people from the West African region and their diasporic descendants.”

So…

“Nor can they run as long as the people from the East African diaspora.”

Fine. You might have a point there. The numbers do kind of back you up. I mean I can’t tell when last I have seen a white or asian person win a sprint at the Olympic games. The NBA is 80% black. The NFL 70%. Blacks dominate boxing, the long jump, the high jump. Even soccer, which is still a majority white sport, is dominated by the country with the largest number of people of African descent outside of Africa – Brazil. But hold on a minute… if what you say is true then why aren’t the Nigerians and Ghanaians dominating sports?

“I was waiting for you to ask that. I think its for an interesting combination of reasons…”

Like?

“Like the Slave Trade for one. The exodus of West African blacks from the African continent resulted in a weeding out of the genetic weak. Only the strongest of the strong could survive the journey across the Atlantic and then they quickly learned that their value depended on their physical abilities in the New World. “

Ohhh. So genetically African Americans, Latinos of African descent, and West Indians are descended from the cream of the crop. That does make some sense. Genetics do play a part in sports.

“Yup. Then when you add the better resources available to them in the Americas you get a diaspora that will outperform its origins.”

I suppose. But you have gone away from the vacuum of science you spoke of earlier. Does science back you up?

“I think so. I am no expert but its been scientifically proven that genetically people from the West African diasporic have a higher proportion of ‘fast-twitch’ fibres, more testosterone, and a more favourable muscle-to-fat ratio than their white counterparts. Fast-twitch fibres are responsible for the explosiveness necessary to jump high or run fast.”

So in essence this is not really a ”black” thing. Its more attributable to ethnic origin then?

“Exactly! Kenyans from the Kalenjin tribe of the Great Rift Valley show distinct genetic characteristics that help them store oxygen in the body and reduce fatigue. As a result its not uncommon to see them win the long distance races. The Ethiopians also have a high proportion of slow-twitch fibres necessary for endurance.”

Wow. You actually made a load of sense today. From now on I am only talking to you on Mondays.

Is it me or is it noose season?! Whats with all the nooses?! After the nooses hung under the “white tree” in Jena, Louisianna, a noose was found hanging from a tree outside the University of Maryland’s Black Cultural Center, and another set of nooses found at Andrews High School in High Point, NC. Meanwhile, just 40 miles south of Jena, police arrested two persons driving around with nooses tied to the back of a truck and taunting protesters on their way back from the Jena 6 rally.

~ As taken from the Coo Yah! section.

I had been thinking that my last few blogs were on pretty heavy topics and had kind of promised myself that I would lighten the mood in here a little with something more whimsical. But with the recent rumblings in the south on the whole Jena 6 thing in Atlanta and now the Megan Williams abduction horror story in West Virginia I can’t help but throw some of my thoughts out there:

1. JDid did a piece on why the Michael Vick dog-fighting hullabaloo was overkill in the media. At the time I disagreed thinking that if anything the dog-fighting issue needed to be addressed and other more serious issues needed to be given even more attention. Now I am beginning to see it his way. Why is the Jena 6 and Megan Williams atrocities given so little media attention? In my mind, these problems are indicative of a deep-running, racial tension that still exists particularly in the southern United States.

2. It seems to me that blacks have put too much trust into our justice system. Either that or its apathy. Both prosecutions in both the Jena 6 and the Megan Williams cases are acting a little suspiciously to me. In the Jena 6 case the prosecutor threatened to black-list black students who staged a “sit-down” under a whites-only-tree in protest. Then the same prosecutor had one of the Jena 6 kids, Michael Bell, tried for attempted murder in the beating of a white student. Now state prosecutors in the Megan Williams case are not charging Williams’ assailants with a hate crime when race would seem to be an obvious motive. Somehow they seem convinced that going with traditional kidnapping, assault and sexual offense charges would be the best way to go… as if they can’t also be thrown in with hate crime charges? Is this a conspiracy to keep hate crime statistics in the southern states at a minimum? Hmmmm.

Anyways… back to being light hearted: In other news Oprah has supposedly written her pets into her will leaving them a $30 million dollar inheritance. Damn! $30 million?! If those dogs get that money any time soon Michael Vick will be in a world of trouble!

Intel’s new ad campaign met with some resistance: A clever analogy, comparing their new Core2 Duo processor with blacks’ superiority in the world of track and field, or a disguised portrayal of blacks bowing at the feet of their white masters? You tell me…

~ As taken from the Coo Yah! section

During the whole Katrina ordeal I remember reading this story about Danny Brumfield, a black man, shot and killed near the New Orleans Convention Center. The story, according to the police was that Brumfield ran in front of their squad car wielding a shiny object that later turned out to be a pair of shears or scissors. The officers involved claimed that they fired at Brumsfield from the passenger seat of the squad car when they thought their lives were endangered as Brumsfield made a stabbing motion at one of the officers. His family had a very different account of the incident and accused the police of murder.

The Danny Brumfield story recently resurfaced on CNN.com. I read the story and apparently autopsy reports show that Brumfield was shot in the back. The family has since filed a civil lawsuit against the New Orleans Police Department in regards to the shooting. Prior to all this, several autopsy reports were barred from the media in reference to other fatalities due to either suspected police brutality of hate crimes, including the shooting of Ronald Madison, an unarmed, mentally retarded man with no criminal record.

I am not usually prone to knee jerk reactions or incessant use of the race card… but where there is smoke there is often fire. The smoke: the reluctance to make available autopsy reports… the conflicting stories from the victims’ families and the officers involved… the subconscious racism in labeling blacks “looters” in media photographs… the officers involved shortly being dismissed or resigning from the force for various reasons. The possible fire: the subconscious vein of racism that lurks deep within American society.

Its very possible that on the surface the Brumfield incident had nothing to do with race. But as a black man living in America I can’t help but feel that replacing Brumfield with a similarly aged white man, all other things being equal, would yield very different results. The officers may have really felt their lives were in danger especially given the stressful and trying nature of the Katrina situation. But what triggered them to feel “endangered”? Could it have been something as basic as skin colour coupled with a few other factors? Who knows.

Moving to Colorado, and being as removed from the cultural bubble that was Howard University (a Historically Black College and University in Washington DC) as one can possibly be, has opened my eyes up to a more dangerous grade of racism than I had ever previously been privy too. People here often do not view me as “black” as much as they view me as “Jamaican”. As a result they say things that they might not have otherwise said around a “black” man.

Statements like…

“Why didn’t they just leave? If they were that stupid enough to stay for a category 5 hurricane then they deserve what they get!”

… stink of classism at first till you realize that they don’t understand what it means to be so poor that even a category five, killer hurricane can’t force you to sacrifice the only thing you have to your name, and that this is partially connected to race. Yes, I know there are poor white people too. But race and class are so intertwined that you are far less likely to fall below the poverty line just by virtue of being born into a white family.

Wealth and poverty are often inherited. And blacks have inherited an exorbitant amount of poverty.