Monday, April 2, 2012
Evidence - An athletes genes
It is a common stereotype that african males are better at sports than their white counterparts. Jon Entine wrote in his book Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Whit We're Afraid to Talk About It that black athletes are propelled by high performance genes inherited from their west and east African ancestors. He later goes on to describe West African males. He writes "[black athletes] are endowed with shorter trunks and smaller lungs, longer arms and legs, narrower hips, heavier bones, more muscle all around..."(298) which leads to greater success at certain athletic events. Claude Bouchard counters this argument by saying "...these biological characteristics are not unique to either west or east african blacks. These characteristics are seen in all populations..." (102). However he would later say that based on the limited number of studies available "there seem to be more African Blacks with such characteristics than there are in other populations" (299). If there were to be a specific gene that led to these characteristics, are certain groups of people evolving toward being genetically superior at athletics than other groups? If it turned out that there was no genetic reason behind the trend of Black success in athletics, describe some possible environmental causes that would result in superior athletes within a population.
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ReplyDeleteMany play basketball since they are toddlers for the love of the game, and to ultimately get a ticket into the NBA as seen in the documentary Hoop Dreams. Because they play basketball so often, they are training and trying to get better without realizing it, similar to the Kalenjin tribe citizens. Many Black children’s idols are sports players, so they start to develop a favoring for a sport subconsciously very early on in life and as they grow up, they practice harder and harder and start to focus solely on basketball. This coupled with the constant exposure to media and advertisements start to shape their determination of making it into the NBA. Ads run by sports companies such as Nike, Jordan, Adidas, etc constantly have sports stars advertising their products; sports stars themselves are also seen enjoying their high salaries and living the American Dream. As the children start to grow up, they realize that they have to make it to the NBA since they have invested so much into it, which is an example of the environment demanding a change and the body adapting to it. Another example of the environment influencing athletic ability would be the Kalenjin tribe again. As previously mentioned, they live in a great altitude and climate for running conditions. However as noted before, practicing by itself is not enough; motivation and determination to always be better is key. As it turns out, psychologists determined that many from the Kalenjin tribe have a strong “achievement oriented” culture and strive to outdo others (Shenk 105). There was also an incentive for running: to reproduce. As journalist John Manners states, “The better a young man was at raiding cattle-in large part a function of his speed and endurance-the more cattle he accumulated” (Shenk 103). And as a man got more cattle, he could afford more wives, which would mean more reproduction. People from the Kalenjin tribe were not born with a special talent for running, but their environment forced them to develop the body to run.
ReplyDeleteYiran Xu, yxu135@gmail.com
As David Shenk states, “[Entine] acknowledges that we haven’t in fact found the [high performance genes] he’s alluding to” (102). There are, however, certain genes that have changed over time to help the organism survive and reproduce such as more developed lungs for citizens of the Kalenjin tribe. Hypothetically if there was a genetically superior high performance gene that coded for proteins that led to greater athletic abilities, then certain groups of people could potentially by evolving towards being genetically superior at athletics than other groups. But the idea is that they are not evolving for athletics, but to survive and reproduce based on the environment. One example would be the famous runners of the Kalenjin tribe. They may not be born with genes different than ours, but they grew up in an environment that conditions them to run. Thus, they will be athletically superior to someone that does not train to run; that does not mean that someone born elsewhere and trains strenuously cannot surpass a Kalenjin runner. The reason people of the Kalenjin tribe are better at running is because they grew up in an environment that was high in altitude, which developed their lungs and heart to pump blood and oxygen more efficiently by decreasing heart rate and increasing stroke volume, and great climates for running which let the body use less energy for body temperature regulation while letting the muscles perform at optimal conditions. The partial pressure of oxygen at a high altitude is lower, so the body adapts by increasing the amount of red blood cells and hemoglobin to hold more oxygen molecules. Specifically, runners of the Kalenjin tribe have well developed fast-twitch muscles which utilize muscle glycogen and have the ability to continue generating energy from ATP with minimal oxygen consumption, thereby making their internal and external respiratory system very efficient (http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant475/Papers/Beardsley.pdf). Another advantage to high altitude training is since very little oxygen is stored in the body when running at a high altitude, oxygen transport becomes more efficient and the capillaries and mitochondria of the skeletal muscles will become denser. The human kidney will also excrete base to keep the acid-base balance due to the lactic acid buildup in the muscles (http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/altitude.html). Research studies show that lactate builds up more slowly in the blood of Kalenjin runners than normal people due to an enzyme in their skeletal muscle that stimulates high lactate turnover with low production. This allows them to run for 10% longer distance than a normal European (http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant475/Papers/Beardsley.pdf). Kalenjin runners are genetically superior to someone else at running only because they have been training and conditioning since birth due to the environment. One key misconception is that just because someone is born with small advantages such as more developed lung or leg muscles will always be superior to someone who doesn’t have those genes. That is proved wrong by the fixed vs. growth mindset. There are many Olympic winners that were not born in high altitude areas or required to run several miles a day. They trained and conditioned hard and were determined to always be better. They have beaten people with small genetic advantages such as people from the Kalenjin tribe which disproves the theory that someone with a genetic advantage will always be superior in athletics. There are no trends of genetic reasons behind the Black success at sports, but there are social and economic trends. Many Blacks are attracted to the economic gains and fame that comes with being a professional athlete like a basketball player.
ReplyDeleteYiran Xu, yxu135@gmail.com