Is there a genetic reason that African-Americans dominate professional sports? Even raising the question seems tantamount to heresy. Jon Entine not only raises the question, he strives to answer it in Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It. Entine is no stranger to controversy, having worked with Tom Brokaw on the award-winning NBC News documentary Black Athletes: Fact and Fiction in 1989. He's also willing to ask tough questions--and come up with answers that anger people on all sides of the issue. Entine starts off with some statistics indicating that African-American athletes are disproportionately represented in professional sports: for example, 13 percent of the U.S. population is black, but the NFL is 65 percent black, the NBA is nearly 80 percent black, and the WNBA is 70 percent black. He also examines cultural issues, laying to rest the long-held idea that blacks excel in sports because it is the only avenue open for advancement.
Some scholars cry foul at the idea that blacks are physically gifted, seeing this as a subtle way of saying that they are therefore intellectually stunted. Entine carefully argues that historically athletic ability and intellectual prowess were linked--with a positive bias. The "dumb jock" stereotype is a relatively recent construct--perhaps a defensive mechanism that arose when blacks began to participate on a level playing field and gain prominence in the sporting world. There's no reason to suppose athleticism and intelligence are inversely related; Entine quotes respected sports reporter Frank Deford: "[W]hen Jack Nicklaus sinks a 30-foot putt, nobody thinks his IQ goes down." The issue of physical superiority is further complicated by fears that a genetic explanation results in a belief that blacks don't succeed because of hard work, dedication, and drive, but rather (in the words of Brooks Johnson, who doesn't believe Entine's claims) "because God just gave 'em the right gene."
Is the fear of sounding racist hindering legitimate scientific inquiry? Entine believes so, noting that, "Anyone who attempts to breach this taboo to study or even discuss what might be behind the growing performance gap between black and white athletes must be prepared to run a gauntlet of public scorn, survival not guaranteed." Taboo is destined to make most of its readers uncomfortable. Hopefully this discomfort will serve as a wedge to open up discussion of an issue too long avoided. --Sunny Delaney
From Kirkus Reviews
A brave sprint in the marathon of genetic racial equality. Journalist and award-winning TV producer Entine writes lucidly about a forbidden topic. After O.J., it takes courage to discuss race science, nature vs. nurture, and brains vs. brawn. Sure, African-Americans dominate major American sports, but even black scholars here ask why every Olympic 100-meter finalist is black. The middle chapters explore the checkered history of blacks in America sports. Two centuries before the NBA, whites marveled at the slaves' superior athleticism. ``Our sports and dances was big sport for the white folks,'' said one ex-slave. Readers discover that Paul Robeson, the actor-singer-communist, was an all-American and ``the finest wide receiver of his era''a Phi Beta Kappa valedictorian who went on to Columbia Law. Entine compares the defiant boxing champ Jack Johnson to Dennis Rodman. When he beat the Great White Hope'' in 1910, some whites consoled themselves with notions of their mental superiority. Jesse Owens's and Joe Louis's victories mocked theories of eugenics and white supremacy. The more recently fashionable environmental approach to the question is weakened by Michael Jordan's middle class background. After noting that Dodger executive Al Campanis and sportscaster Jimmy the Greek (who felt former slaves were bred to be athletic) lost their careers suggesting blacks were better athletes, Entine presents the evidence that makes his argument unusually ambitious and controversial: graphs of fast twitch muscles, comparisons of Scandinavian and African runners, and studies of the jumping ability of various races. (Its true: White men really cant jump.) The heavier bone density of whites may help them dominate swimming, though this is also one of the expensive, country club sports that Entine uses to present the sociological view. Courageous enough to ask tough questions about the uneven playing field, forthright enough to present hard evidence. (8 pages b&w photos) -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"Entine takes several gratifying swings at postmodern academic fog machines, who in their scholastic zeal to make sure everything comes out racially rosy simply throw science overboard." -- Salon.com - Gary Kamiya, 1/28
"I don't know if Entine is right or if he is wrong, although I hope someday after decades of bickering we'll find out. But I do know this. The dialogue that he almost certainly will provoke is not the problem. It's the solution." -- USA Today, Keeping Score columnist Christine Brennan, 1/13
"Mr. Entine makes a careful and reasoned case for this point of view, and he argues forcefully against whatever tendency there may be out there in the world of racial politics to misinterpret it. V.Mr. Entine's conclusion that racially distinctive features are an essential element of the picture is part of a sophisticated argument that, whether entirely persuasive or not, cannot be dismissed." -- New York Times - Richard Bernstein review, 1/14
"Taboo is a good read for anyone interested in the history of Black athletes in the United States and worldwideV.Whether you agree with Entine or not, Taboo illustrates that some controversies are too complex to be solved in terms of Black and White." -- Emerge: Black America's News Magaine - Carolyn White, March
"The great value of TABOO is that it lets off another stick of dynamite under the nurturist consensus, which is already beginning to crack and split. The evidence Entine presents is overwhelming, the larger conclusions plain: we can have equal outcomes by race, or we can have meritocracy, but we can't have both." -- National Review, John Derbyshire, February
"[T]he timing has never been better for Entine's balanced, well-reasoned and-above all-calm explanation of the issueV.Entine convincingly argues for the overwhelming on-field evidence, allows for the determining X factors of environment and depoliticizes the discussion by attempting to kill the long-held cultural bedtime story about the link between athletic excellence and low intelligence." -- Sports Illustrated, S.L. Price - 2/7 -2/14 issue
"consistently interesting, readable, provocative." -- New York Times, Robert Lipsyte sports page Back Talk column, 11/28
From the Author
Shortly before his death, I had the pleasure of talking with Arthur Ashe, Jr., one of the most gentlemanly of athletes. The former Wimbledon champion was finishing A Hard Road to Glory, his sweeping history of the black athlete. Inevitably, the subject turned to the controversy of why blacks dominated running, basketball, and football. His book had provided endless anecdotes about the very American dream of bootstrapping oneself to success. Still, Ashe did not find that explanation totally convincing. "Sociology can't explain it," Ashe sighed, frustrated at the political incorrectness of his own beliefs. "My heart says 'no,' but my head says 'yes.' I have to believe that we blacks have something that gives us an edge. I want to hear from the scientists." Taboo is a response to Arthur's challenge. Sports--running in particular--is a perfect laboratory. Athletic competition offers a definitiveness that eludes most other aspects of our life. The favored explanation for black athletic success, a dearth of opportunities elsewhere and hard work--just do not suffice to explain the dimensions of this expanding monopoly. The decisive variable cannot be found in modern culture but in our genes--the inherent differences between populations shaped by thousands of years of evolution. Physical and physiological differences, infinitesimal as they may appear, are crucial in competitions in which a fraction of a second separates the gold medallist from the also-ran.
This is of course dangerous territory. Fascination about black physicality, and black anger about being caricatured as a lesser human being, have been part of the dark side of the American dialogue on race for more than a century. Taboo respects these justifiable concerns. Yet, pretending there are no slippery questions does not prevent them from being asked, if only under one's breath. The challenge is in how we conduct the inquiry so that human biodiversity might be cause for celebration of our individuality rather than suspicion about our differences. For all our differences, we are far, far more similar. In the end, that's my only real message.
About the Author
Jon Entine wrote and produced a widely-acclaimed 1989 television special with Tom Brokaw on black athletes, which was chosen as the international sports film of the year. An Emmy-winning producer for NBC and ABC News and winner of a National Press Club Award, Entine writes for newspaper and magazines around the world. He lives in Southern California.
From The Washington Post
"Entine marshals such an impressive array of evidence that we should no longer be content to explain why blacks excel at certain sports by simply resorting to the old cultural argument that athletics have been the only avenues of upward mobility that were truly open to them. He's raised the argument to new heights."
