Hello chodeupinya-ga,
What you have likely heard is a variation on the (controversial)
statement that blacks with Western African ancestry have a faster
patellar tendon reflex. (The patellar tendon, as you probably know,
is located at the knee.) This statement is made in Jon Entine's book
"Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to
Talk About It". The book has received some positive reviews, though
Scientific American (the most scientific of the reviewers mentioned in
Amazon.com's list of reviews) criticizes its examination and analysis
of the evidence. There's much more out there on this book than I can
summarize or cite here; the following pages are a start:
"Relationship Between Race and Athletic Achievement", interview of Jon
Entine by Juan Williams, Talk of the Nation, NPR (May 8, 2000) [among
other things, quoting passage on "faster patellar tendon reflex"]
Jon Entine
http://www.jonentine.com/reviews/NPR_TOTN_5_2000.htm
"Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to
Talk About It, by Jon Entine, Earl Smith" [Editorial Reviews]
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/158648026X/reviews/qid=1046441504/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-2005558-6980962
"Tackling Race and Sports" (May 2000) [better formatted version of
Scientific American article]
Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000BD235-1F76-1C75-9B81809EC588EF21
The only suggestions of an "extra tendon" on the Web or in newsgroups
come in posts of dubious scientific trustworthiness. Presumably, if
persons of African ancestry had an extra tendon, Jon Entine or one of
the reviewers of his book would have mentioned it. The belief that
blacks have an "extra tendon" is persistent, though unsupported.
"Baffled and Bewildered by Race", by Kendra Hamilton [see fourth
paragraph from bottom of page]
Black Issues in Higher Education
http://www.blackissues.com/031402/faclng1.cfm
I hope that this information is helpful.
- justaskscott-ga
I used various combinations of the following search terms on Google,
Google Groups, and other search engines:
black
blacks
african
africans
tendon
tendons
"extra tendon"
"additional tendon"
"jon entine"
"scientific american" |
