Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It

In getting to the essence of TABOO's thesis consider the following fact: the reading of the draft of the human genome has done nothing to disprove the reality that most genetic variation in humans is within populations rather than between groups. TABOO is primarily concerned with black athletes - a very specific population group - but the universal rule still applies. Should we not then expect to see the same pattern of greater genetic variation within this group rather than between this population and another? Further, if genes for athletic prowess exist then should they not also follow the normal pattern? If on the other hand, like Mr Entine you argue otherwise, then it's incumbent on you to provide proof of an alternative genetic pattern. How fortunate for Mr Entine's book that - coincidentally - this proof is in "the harder-to-study regulatory genes (that circumscribe our physical athletic abilities)" Bottom line - no proof is forthcoming.

The book is interesting for its discussion about the cultural background to Kenyan long distance running and for the look at the careers of sports icons. As a scientific analysis of empirical data on the superiority of black athletes - keep looking.


Excellent book that let's you come to your own conclusions   May 19, 2001
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

This is a fantastic, sweeping book that explains the history and science of world populations. Jon Entine discusses, with surprising balance, everything from Kenya's domination of distance running to the the eugenics movement. He let's you come to your own conclusions based on the facts. The bibliography is magnificently detailed, which allows the reader to explore even more data on related subjects. Highly recomended for anyone interested in any sport or human performance. I also learned a lot about sports history, especially the African American scholar-athlete tradition and the stories of many obscure but fascinating turn of the century athletes, such as the great bicyclist Major Taylor. This is actually more of a science book than a sports book and is a must read for those interested in the history of races (ethnic groups). Entine also helped me understand why it is so important to be able to discuss such a controversial and sensitive topic as human differences. With advances in human genetics research, we avoid such subjects at our peril. "Taboo" actually destroys many pseudo-scientific and potentially racist stereotypes.


Racial differences, physical and intellectual are real.   May 17, 2001
 4 out of 10 found this review helpful

This book brilliantly lays it on the table for all to see: there are differences between the races.

This book shows that differences exist in intellectual ability as well as in athletic ability....

This book suggests that simple observations of everyday activities (such as lazy lard-asses watching sporting events) will confirm the truth of the above.

This book parades unpopular ideas right into the faces of the fuzzy-minded political correctness crowd.

This book tells the truth; weather it is fashionable or unfashionable to believe that truth is a matter of indifference to the authors.

This is a good book.


A journalist addresses the subtleties of genetics and sports   May 14, 2001
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Many comments could be made about the content of this book; comments concerning, first, the author's qualifications to write it; second, his apparent predispositions regarding the subject matter; and finally his own conclusions.

The last first: he projects a reluctance to declare any of his personal conclusions, but rather to show all sides of the question. Yet, there does creep in some evidence of his predilections. For example, he mentions on page 240 that Justice Harlan appears to be favorable to eugenics--a dirty word since the Third Reich--and then immediately follows that observation with the statement that Harlan had voted "for the NAACP in Brown v. Board of Education" (in favor of Affirmative Action in higher education.) A non sequitur unless the subjective perception of "racism" is viewed as a more important consideration than the constitutional requirement of equality before the law.

He begins by giving a detailed analysis of sports history--over half the book, I think--resulting in the seemingly inescapable conclusion that black athletes dominate virtually all of the sports in which they compete, far out of proportion to their representation in the population. The author is a runner, and thus much emphasis is given to running. Again, it would be difficult to come to any other conclusion than the innate physical superiority of Africans, particularly in running and jumping.

He seems to be reluctant to the point of refusal, on the other hand, to grant that there can be any concomitant assumption that there is any racial (he prefers the term 'population') difference in intelligence. In fact, he seems reluctant to admit that there is any such quantifiable characteristic as intelligence in the human species. He does mention J. Phillipe Rushton's book which addresses that question specifically, "Race, Evolution and Behavior"--which I have reviewed for Amazon.com--with respect, although he told me privately that there is much there with which he disagrees. He mentions, as well, Hernnstein and Murray's book, "The Bell Curve," which I have also reviewed here.

He mentions the political impact of the genocide practiced during WWII and its negative impact on serious post-war research into racial genetic differences (hence, the book's title), and the UN-led political effort to peddle the notion that all races are genetically equal, and that individuals are 'Tabla Rasa' (blank slates), on which the only significant influence is environmental experience.

This book demonstrates again, to me, what I have known since I attended art school in the early 'fifties: there are average significant physical differences between the major races --"populations" if you wish--of which you must be aware if you intend to depict them in pictures; specifically, the Mongoloid, Caucasoid and Negroid. That there should be average mental and temperamental differences as well seems undeniable, particularly when coupled with my own observations around the world over more than seven decades. To me, this does not mean that one race is "superior," or another "inferior." It is just apparent (to me) that the various populations have used differing methodologies in coping with the differing environments with which they were faced, with resultant evolutionary differences. We are more alike than different, and there are greater differences within racial groups than between them, but to deny the existence of racial differences would be, and is, utter folly.

The Mongoloids and the Caucasoids did, in fact, generate vast diversified societies, the wheel, written language, navigation skills and other intellectual accomplishments in cold, harsh climates, while the Negroids languished with none of the above in a relatively benign, forgiving climate. That much is pretty much undeniable.

Altogether, this is a valuable book--particularly if you are interested in sports and black athletes' contributions--and to a lesser extent the impact of genetics on the above, since the author's scientific qualifications for writing such a highly technical book may be questionable. Although his writing skills are superlative, to what extent his potential bias colors his research is an unknown quantity.

Joseph H. Pierre
author, Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance


Athletic skill differences not a black and white issue   May 10, 2001
 18 out of 18 found this review helpful

"Taboo" examines the question that has remained in the back of my mind since my basketball playing days, "Why is the representation of black athletes so completely out of proportion to their population?" Is it really true that, "White men can't jump?" After a brief introduction, including the story of the PC storm that engulfed British physician (and the first four minute miler) Roger Bannister for suggesting that genetics was part of the answer, the book explains the need for research into this topic and scientifically approaches answers to this question by examining biological, social, and historical factors.

This question is so taboo because honest discussion of race and human differences remains such a touchy issue. Especially in the context of sport, human competition, the differences among humans are exemplified. "Taboo" provided insight and allowed me to explore this topic in a non-polemical, even-handed way. Because of a history of prejudice, a white person noticing that black people are better at sports can be seen as judging black people as more primitive or succumbing to "dumb jock" theory. This is not always the case, and this book objectively examines the possibilities.

As Entine makes clear, examining this issue should held eliminate racism, since scientific data demonstrates that the difference among all human beings is relatively small and that skin color is just one of millions of genetic mutations among the human population. "Taboo" examines evolution theories, the most common of which is the Eve theory that states that all human beings share common ancestry.

The depth in which this topic had been studied blows me away. Slowly revealed through pages of evidence, it appears that the cause/effect relationship of ethnicity and athletic capability cannot be explained in terms of black and white, but varying shades of gray. Entine does not claim that blacks are "superior" or "inferior" in any way, just that evolution has left a footprint on different populations. All the training in the world will not turn an Eskimo into an NBA center or a Kenyan into a sprinter.

I was particularly taken by one chapter on how blacks have come to dominate basketball, a sport that Jews dominated in the 1930s. I remember a few years ago when I watched a basketball documentary on TV. I was surprised to discover that my favorite team, the New York Knickerbockers, was at one time composed of Jewish white men. Today it is the complete converse. "Taboo" tells the story of the Philadelphia "Hebrews," the predecessor of the Philadelphia Warriors/76ers. Entine explains the cause to this social revolution and also discusses how Jews of that era were thought to be genetically "trickier," "manipulative," and "deceptive." He uses this comparison to show the danger of facile racial and ethnic stereotypes and to underscore the complex interaction of cultural and genetic factors.

As Entine persuasively shows, social and environmental factors along don't seem to be enough to explain black dominance of so many sports or white dominance of "strength" events such as weightlifting, shot-put, hammer throw etc. Different populations have different physiques and physiological characteristics.

The coverage of black domination in running, especially sprinting, examines the essence of this whole topic. Running is competition in its purest form, without equipment or guidelines. It is simply who can reach the finish line first, and it is usually runners of West African ancestry.

East Africans such as Kenyans, who dominate distance running, have a different genetic history then athletes of West African ancestry (including African Americans), and have quite distinct ectomorphic physiques and physiological characteristics. How could it be that in a radius of sixty miles around Eldoret, Kenya in the Nandi Hills, ninety percent of the top Kenyan world-class athletes (and 40 percent of the world's top distance runners) are produced? Without the training books, special diets, let alone even running shoes, Kenyan runners are still top notch.

As Entine points out time and again, race based on skin color is biologically meaningless but there are some patterned biological differences between populations and sub-populations (he offers great examples of "racial" and "ethnic" differences in disease proclivities, such as the fact that European Jews are more susceptible to Tay-Sachs, northern European whites get MS and cystic fibrosis, and blacks are more likely to get colo-rectal cancer, all the result of gene patterning.

By reading the book I expected to obtain answers, though it was soon clear that Entine was making the case that there was no clear-cut explanation to the success of black athletes. That's what I liked about the book. It didn't beat me over the head with its perspective, although not one could read this book and reamin convinced of the myth that genetics plays no role. The book made me even more curious about this controversial topic that Entine was brave enough to leap into.

"Taboo" takes pains to make clear that athletic skill differences are not a black and white issue. I LOVED this book.