I love sports. I like to play them, I love to watch them. I like discussing them, arguing about stats, watching shows that debate topics concerning sports. They are amazing. This is what I wish I could say without looking deeper into the picture. Sports are great, but they only do so much. While I do enjoy watching a good basketball game (college or pro), or a good football game (most likely pro), I do see a vast disconnect in how people view sports and how sports should be viewed. And now, for the moment you’ve been waiting for, I will give my outlook on sports.
First and foremost is a problem plaguing youth in this country. Disadvantaged and advantaged youth both look towards sport as a mean of escaping/avoiding poverty, increasing social status and social mobilization into “the good life”. Instead of picking up a book, or reading further ahead in their math and science classes, they are outside playing in little leagues that are run and organized by their unathletic parents who are trying to vicariously live through their children (that is when those kids aren’t getting fat from junk food and Nintendo Wii…that’s right, Wiis are still videogames, fat kids can still eat and play the Wii. The Wii takes less effort than beating off…anyway.) These young children learn that athletics are vital to their survival and place too much emphasis on them. Yes, it’s important that kids don’t get fat and they exercise, but really, exercise takes like one hour a day, which is plenty if you don’t let kids eat whatever they want. Athletics should not compose more time than your child’s schooling. If it does, then something is wrong. If kids keep getting these messages, then they’ll end up working at a car dealership struggling to get by on commission because they were the star quarterback of their crappy high school football team (that went 0-11 every year) but couldn’t form a proper sentence or do simple algebra.
Last time I talked about how A-Rod got busted juicing. I won’t talk about it again, because he’s rich, and will probably make more money with his current contract than I will make in my lifetime…which pisses me off. But steroid use is very prevalent, and many people point to race as the reason. Lots of people have noticed the rise in performance enhancing drugs came when color lines were being smashed in different fields of sports. No, Mr. Criminalblkman didn’t show up in the locker room with a jar of Adrenosterone in one arm and a White woman on the other. People (Black and White) say that the influx of Black and ethnic players into sports leagues increased the bar for levels of athleticism. That’s right! Ty’L'Ron Jenkins used his negro legs, ran and jumped straight from the projects of NY into Miami, FL to play for the Dolphins. Apparently, since Black people were so gifted genetically, the only way that White players could keep up with the super Negro (descended from the greatest, biggest buck on the plantation) were to become super themselves. They obviously couldn’t afford to go through three generations of killing off the smartest and brightest white people while breeding the biggest, fastest, strongest white people and training their children in the fields for 150 years, so they turned to steroids. Well, if you believe that, my poor, Liberian-American behind has ocean front property in Colorado to sell you.
FIGURE 60.1: Proof that White people don’t have to juice…
For one, I hate it when people use the argument that Black people are naturally more athletic than White people. I hate it even more when Black people use the argument. People think that it is a compliment, but they’re dumb. If people take it as a fact that Black people are genetically predisposed to excel in sports, then people can say they White people are genetically predisposed to excel in the classroom. It leaves the entire realm of racist, eugenic thought to creep from under its bed sheet to bite us in the butt. The reason that Black people excel in sports is ENTIRELY social. If you go look at countries across the world that farm into our NBA teams, they are poor or war torn countries for the most part (similar to most of our urban/inner-city neighborhoods.) If people grow up in an environment that doesn’t have access to the best schools, books and other academic resources, then they’re going to spend their time trying to attain something that they know about, and try to achieve goals that they feasibly have the resources to obtain. Let’s see…read a book that has Ronald Reagan as the last president (when you know it’s Obama), or go learn to dunk in hopes to get broads, a fancy car, and some money for your family? Tough choice…
For two, White people don’t need to juice just to stay competitive with athletes of other races. It’s just another way to blame Black people for White insecurity. Can you imagine what would happen if Andy Petite was like “I only did HGH so that I could pitch against Black people!” He’d look rucking fidiculous…
FIGURE 60.2: Didn’t do steroids to keep up with Cochran…
Tags: A-Rod, athletics, Black people, MLB, NBA, NFL, Performance Enhancing Drugs, Sports, steroids, White people
February 19, 2009 at 12:34 pm
well you probably lost a few fans with this one. but i like it. it is more social, but you do have a really big portion of blacks that are genetically “enhanced” through the types of “work” they did. i use those words cause some no american black people have similar athleticism… still you wouldnt tap into it if it werent social. oh well
February 19, 2009 at 6:56 pm
So are Blacks genetically predisposed to test lower on standardized tests, and have higher drop out rates, and low retention rates in colleges?
Because following that logic, all the slaves who were suspected of high intellectual capability were killed.
I don’t know. I’m a fan of genetics and things, but it isn’t as major as people think it is. In fact, it’s almost negligible.
Look at Michael Jordan’s son. His father is (to me) the second (soon to be third) greatest player of all time. Yet he is a splinter specialist at a mediocre program. So…yeah.
February 19, 2009 at 6:57 pm
That last comment was horribly worded, but you get the idea…
February 21, 2009 at 6:02 am
no no no no. genetics because of environment make things the way they are. if your people came from africa in a desert or tropical climate and you lived walked and did everything manually and your european counterparts who rode in carriages and lived in cities and were larger bulkier people. genetic predisposition would have an effect and then you factor in a large subset of our population that comes from people of that type of environment and then forced in to being big strong slaves.
as far as the test scores and what not. thats a byproduct of the system and its not genetic. a lot of our kids never/rarely have their minds challenged so they never/rarely achieve on the same level. its not that we are lesser in mental capacity but there is a huge inequality in education and sadly it affects us and rural whites worse than anyone. i dont think anything i have said suggests we are genetically inferior mentally that has the athleticism on the same level.
February 22, 2009 at 5:00 am
I said so much on the last post thast I wanna keep this brief. But I agree with everything you said.
One thing to note, though (and you may not like me for this): slavers and slave traders, when selecting captive Africans to wrench from their continent and use as slaves in the New World, used selection criteria such as the strongest, the healthiest, and the most beautiful. Really. That’s how the motherfathers chose. Now, science buff and Darwinist (not Social Darwinist or any other of that racist eugenics bullcrap) that I am, I know that strength, health and beauty are markers of genetic fitness. If you get a WHOLE bunch of people like that, chances are their offspring are gonna be genetically-fit, too. Never mind selective breeding of Big Slave A with Big Slave B to produce the super Negro. I’m sick of that idea being whipped out, because what was FAR MORE PREVALENT was the rape of slave women by White men, and that was how most of us in the diaspora actually came to be. (I wonder why people just accept that whole super Negro selective slavery breeding idea. When in this nation’s history have White men ever been comfortable, in any context, with Black male sexuality…even when they are dictacting its action? I mean, if they weren’t threatened, lynching would not have been so common for all those centuries! Come on, people. I digress.)
February 23, 2009 at 6:25 am
i dont disagree with you two about this. but you have to think about how rare athletes are and how small of a percentage of a population is on that elite level. carmelo anthony ran 5 miles a day practiced shot around and then would play nba basketball… this is before the olympics and he lost all that weight and got into real great shape. lebron james at an alleged 270 is the most athletic player in the game just about. sure you have players with a lot of athleticism of all races and ethnicities, but generally speaking, the absolute freakish athletes are black. im not saying all the better athletes are like this because of slavery and super negroes, but look at the elite level athletes in the major sports, with the exception of hockey, the ones with the most natural ability come from people either black and latino heritage, because think of the people that do the “manual hard labor”. europe has spent its time colonizing everything and having everyone else work for them. and who has been doing the work? and who in their “inferior” societies were hunter gatherers that lived completely different lives than their city dwelling european counterparts. i dont buy any of the mental/cognitive stereotypes but the physical/athletic attributes are extremely valid. if one believes that skin is darker because of adaptation to environment, how much of a leap is it to believe that genetically there is more predisposition to certain physical traits like jumping out of the gym or running really fast because it is a more recent trait of your people than to the other group
February 24, 2009 at 4:20 pm
@wrob4343: Uh-oh. You know Gabriel’s setting up the virtual smackdown, right? P.S. — There were cities/centers of learning in regions of the world that were later colonized, homes. Look up Timbuktu, Tenochtitlan, and other places that boasted extraordinary human accomplishments and incredibly developed cultures. This was never city-dwellers vs. hunter-gatherers. Take a hard look at the notion of “primitive” societies vs. “modern” ones. There’s a lot of subtextual racism there.
February 26, 2009 at 8:40 pm
never have i said anything about people being primitive and inferior. but you look at the societies you mention they went from an anthropological definition from clan, to tribe, civilized state (i may be missing some steps in between but you get the idea). so they weren’t always the great civilizations. the other thing is in a few cases they broke down the civilizations, not because of white man coming in and destroying society, but because they big modern civilization did not fit the people. never have i and will i equate primitive and hunter gatherer. egalitarian societies are generally better off as far as fairness to “modern” ones i apparently hold at such a high value. again its about how people live. most non european societies are stewards of the land, they don’t take more out of it than they can put. so you have people working to support themselves for sustenance, eating healthier diets and not engaging in glutony, naturally they will have better health than people who inhabit cities to make life “easier”. i actually could make this a really interesting point, but i just realized clearly you are not going to understand where i am coming from nor i you. furthermore you are you are making assertions and assumptions based on inability to understand that “inferior” in quotations is sarcastic, and in general your presumptions that have nothing to do with anything i have said. i am tired, weak and broken. and not to mention i mostly agreed with what you were saying. my only caveat to that was that there are undeniable genetic variances between people, and black people are extremely diverse, and social/psychological reasons affect the way certain individuals take to particular sports, I am merely stating that when you look at what we measure as athleticism, NOT the ability to play a game. Yeah youre gonna have more black people playing sports because the aforementioned, and many other outside influences, but if it werent for the way we eat, again look at some anthropological studies, we would be a hell of a lot better of with much more genetic fitness. this was so pointless
February 27, 2009 at 9:54 am
@wrob4343: Okay, the idea was to continue a dialogue, not have a fight and go mucking up one of my favorite blogs. Once someone goes on the defensive, the rational discussion is basically over. I have no desire to derail this comment thread.
Gabriel, apologies for all the back and forth. Your posts are great. Keep ‘em coming!
March 3, 2009 at 8:57 am
the thing is no one is on the defensive… you are putting words in my mouth and not even reading completely what i am saying and attacking what you have interpreted. thats not debate, banter or even point-counterpoint its just you climbing on a soapbox and denouncing something for which the other person doesnt even advocate
April 14, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Steve Nash is my 2nd favorite white in the NBA, only behind Kyle Korver.