Race and Sports: Jay Gould

[Guest guest]

Here is another article on the Race and Performance issue, this time

involving the renowned paleontologist, Jay Gould.

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Do genes make jocks? Jay Gould joins non-contest on the question

9 April 2001

<http://news.bmn.com/news/story?day=010410 & story=3>

by Mertl,

BioMedNet News

There is no genetic connection between sports and race, argued

paleontologist Jay Gould at a public forum in New York on April 6. To

attribute a human trait such as speed to genes " is more than just a

permissible simplification. It's downright wrong, " he said.

The public disagrees with the oft-quoted scientist, to judge from a recent

poll conducted by the Gene Media Forum, the non-profit organization that

sponsored the event. Its poll showed that 43% percent of the American public

believes some races have a natural athletic advantage.

Thus, that argument would hold that genetic factors explain why Africans win

the vast majority of long-distance medals at the Olympics, and why athletes

from the Nandi Hills of Kenya, for example, excel at long-distance running.

Two-time Olympic champion Kip Keino, who was also present, argued otherwise.

The reason Kenya produces such good long distance runners, he said, is

because the Kenyans have a focused training program.

" It's keen interest and hard work, " Keino said at the symposium. The Kenyan

people and the government give runners a tremendous amount of support. " There

are no shortcuts, " he added.

" To be fair, " Gould said, " it's not ipso facto absurd to argue - if you have

a very particular group of highly inbred folks from one part of the world who

really do represent a very distinct entity - that they might on average

possess certain traits ... that predispose them to be better at certain

athletic activities. " It may be no more ridiculous than to argue that blacks

on average are better protected against sunburn, he added.

" But what's really and truly wrong ... is how it's reported, " said Gould.

Last November, an article by the Associated Press reported on research that

claimed to have found a " speed gene. "

" There may be a few discrete traits encoded by genes, but there are not very

many, " Gould said. It especially doesn't make any sense to contrast all

Africans with all Caucasians, he added. " There's incredibly very little

average difference between the so-called races.... For once, the cliché is

right: the differences are only skin deep. "

He went on to explain in detail the difficult concepts behind the

non-existence of race as a scientific concept: Eighty five percent of the

entire genetic variance of the species is contained in any one so-called

race, he said. To put it " dramatically, but not incorrectly, " he added, if

there were to be a holocaust after which only a tribe indigenous to the New

Guinea highlands was to survive, 85% of the entire human variation would

still be saved.

The reason, he said, is that the entire human race evolved in Africa about

200,000 years ago - a mere " geographic micro-second. " All non-African racial

diversity is only 100,000 years old, he added. " And that is the key point ...

There's more genetic diversity in all African people than the rest of the

people put together. "

" Finally and lastly, it's an issue of fairness, " Gould said. Attributing

personal achievement to some biological advantage degrades individual

achievement. " It's deeply offensive, " Gould said.

The discussion begs the question of " racial " differences in those traits

known as diseases, which the public hears a great deal about. The 0.4% of our

genes that distinguish individuals do make an important difference, argued

molecular biologist Lane, an adjunct professor in biology at the New

School University in Manhattan, where the symposium was held. " The sickle

cell anemia gene ... has one nucleotide - or one letter in DNA - that is

different, " she said. " And that gene tends to segregate in people of African

American or Mediterranean origin ... So you can't ignore that alleles, being

kinds of genes, do segregate into different kinds of populations, " she said.

Lane asked her students who attended the symposium what they thought of

Gould's presentation. " They thought Gould had very little facts in a pretty

disorganized talk, " Lane said today. " They're my top students, " she said.

" They're very astute. "

Wood, a postdoctoral Fellow in pharmacology at the Weill Medical

College of Cornell University, who also attended the symposium, questioned

the basic premise. " Why does the discussion have to be polarized to whether

athletic talent is or is not a genetic attribute? " asked. She believes

athletic excellence is based on both talent and training. " But what is

talent, if not genetic? "

One scientist turned policy analyst, who wished to remain anonymous, added

that the public is getting mixed messages. " On one hand we're hearing about

personalized medicine based on individual differences in genetics. " These

genetic differences are often grouped along ethnic lines; Jews of European

heritage are 100 times more likely to have the degenerative mental disease

Tay-Sachs, for example. " But on the other hand, we're hearing that there's no

such thing, genetically, as race. "

Lane says she's thinking about writing a letter to the Gene Media Forum to

complain about the lack of balance, because the forum featured two people

(Gould and Keino) who expressed the same side of the argument. " You need two

sides to have a discussion, " she said.

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Dr Mel C Siff

Denver, USA

Supertraining/