Do Genetically Based Differences Explain Some (or Much) of the Pattern of Different Sports Performances by Population?
I just ran across an article in the current Daedalus, which is the magazine of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences... a very, very prestigious science journal. It discusses quite clearly (I believe) why there are biologically based differences that can (and in fact do) account of sports performance disparities and other behavior differences between population groups. It's not much different than the points I've raised. Here are two excerpts relating to sports; most of the piece is pegged to the larger issue: "To any sports observer it is obvious that among Olympic jumpers and sprinters, African Americans are far more numerous than their frequency in the population would predict. The disproportion is enormous. Yet we also know that there are many white people who are better runners and jumpers than the average black person. How can we explain this seeming inconsistency? There is actually a simple explanation that is well known to geneticists and statisticians, but not widely understood by the general public or, for that matter, by political leaders. [HE THEN EXPLAINS] "I have already mentioned the gross overrepresentation of African Americans among Olympic runners. This is closer to a true meritocracy than anything else I can think of: a stopwatch is color-blind." *** The entire essay can be downloaded on PDF format by going to the following web page and clicking either James Crow's name or the title of the article -- they're both the same link: http://www.daedalus.amacad.org/issues/winter2002/winter2002.htm It's a great complement to my article, "The Straw Man of 'Race' (World & I, September 2002) which discusses the 'politics' that drives the way this issue is discussed. That's at: http://www.jonentine.com/reviews/straw_man_of_race.htm ***** Here's the first few paragraphs: Unequal by Nature: A Geneticistıs Perspective on Human Differences James F. Crow In February of 2001, Craig Venter, president of Celera Genomics, commenting on the near-completion of the human genome project, said that ³we are all essentially identical twins.² A news headline at the time made a similar point: Are We All One Race? Modern Science Says So. In the article that followed, the author quoted geneticist Kenneth Kidd: ³Race is not biologically definable, we are far too similar.² Venter and Kidd are eminent scientists, so these statements must be reasonable. Based on an examination of our DNA, any two human beings are 99.9 percent identical. The genetic differences between different groups of human beings are similarly minute. Still, we only have to look around to see an astonishing variety of individual differences in sizes, shapes, and facial features. Equally clear are individual differences in susceptibility to diseaseand in athletic, mathematical, and musical abilities. Individual differences extend to differences between group averages. Most of these average differences are inconspicuous, but somesuch as skin colorstand out. Why this curious discrepancy between the evidence of DNA and what we can clearly see? If not DNA, what are the causes of the differences we perceive between individuals and between groups of human beings? DNA is a very long molecule, composed of two strands twisted around each other to produce the famous double helix. There are forty-six such DNA molecules in a human cell, each (along with some proteins) forming a chromosome. The DNA in a human chromosome, if stretched out, would be an inch or more in length. How this is compacted into a microscopic blob some 1/1000 inch long without getting hopelessly tangled is an engineering marvel that is still a puzzle. ...8 more pages... -- Jon Entine RuffRun 6178 Grey Rock Rd. Agoura Hills, CA 91301 (818) 991-9803 [FAX] 991-9804 http://www.jonentine.com
