Taboo

Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sport and Why We’re Afraid to Talk About It

Taboo, was written by John Entine. It was published by PublicAffairs in the year 2000 in New York, New York. The version of the book that I had read was the paperback edition, which consisted of 387 pages. The author John Entine is a journalist and Emmy award-winning producer, formerly with NBS and ABC News. Entine also writes on business ethics and brand marketing for newspapers and magazines around the world. His Television Special, “Black Athletes: Fact or Fiction,” written with Tom Brokaw, was named the International Sports Film of the Year.

The purpose of Entine’s book was to answer the age-old question, “are those of African heritage naturally better athletes?” Entine wrote this book because in a society in which sport is an obsession, and in which it is obvious sport and race are linked, people have been afraid of approaching the subject of race and sport due to the suspicion they would be labeled a racist. But is there another reason why the percentage of blacks represented in sport out number that of their percentage of society? Entine explores this question as well as many others in a professional and scientific fas

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I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in sport, evolution, or genetics. West Africans, who tend to be the world’s best sprinters, are born with a higher percentage of type II or fast twitch muscle fibers. The book continues on with the genetic differences in muscle types between whites, West Africans, and East Africans.

Taboo, is tackles the subject of race and sport from many angles. In 1998 Kenyan men won the 800, 1,500, and 5,000 meter races. Just as black men have dominated their sports and are more highly represented in sport as compared with society, so are women.

The book goes on to discuss the history of race, and how evolution has played a role. Do these genetic differences make black athletes more suitable for sport? One would have to think so.

The next section entitled “The Segregation and Integration of Sports” is the portion of the book that is the least scientific.

Up until this point of the book the main focus has been upon men and sport, now the author looks at that of racial differences in women in sport. As a strength and conditioning coach at the professional level I see the differences in black and white athletes daily. Entine goes on to show that 494 of the top 500 100-meter dash times and 98 percent of the world’s best sprinting times in general are held by those athletes who can trace their ancestry back to West African heritage. Also, it is mentioned that while people of Asian decent make of 57% of the world’s population, they are virtually non-existent in the world of major sport. This book offered some explanation as to why that is.

Approximate Word count = 1278
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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