The Benefit of Slavery

Terry's Peeps · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 7:33 am

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Olympic+hero+Michael+Johnson+Slavery+benefited+descendants/6883013/story.html

Olympic hero Michael Johnson: 'Slavery has benefited descendants'

Former gold medalist discusses 'athletic gene'

By Reid Cherner, USA Today (MCT) July 4, 2012

A former Olympic hero is wading into the controversy of whether some athletes have an inherited advantage.

Michael Johnson, one of the greatest 200 and 400 meter runners ever and now an analyst for the BBC, says certain runners will be out front at the London Olympics.

"Over the last few years, athletes of Afro- Caribbean and Afro-American descent have dominated athletics finals," Johnson told Sally Beck of the Daily Mail in London. "It's a fact that hasn't been discussed openly before. It's a taboo subject in the States but it is what it is. Why shouldn't we discuss it?"

Johnson, who won five Olympic gold medals, added that "all my life I believed I became an athlete through my own determination, but it's impossible to think that being descended from slaves hasn't left an imprint through the generations. Difficult as it was to hear, slavery has benefited descendants like me - I believe there is a superior athletic gene in us."

JORR · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 7:40 am

Terry's Peeps wrote:

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Olympic+hero+Michael+Johnson+Slavery+benefited+descendants/6883013/story.html

Olympic hero Michael Johnson: 'Slavery has benefited descendants'

Former gold medalist discusses 'athletic gene'

By Reid Cherner, USA Today (MCT) July 4, 2012

A former Olympic hero is wading into the controversy of whether some athletes have an inherited advantage.

Michael Johnson, one of the greatest 200 and 400 meter runners ever and now an analyst for the BBC, says certain runners will be out front at the London Olympics.

"Over the last few years, athletes of Afro- Caribbean and Afro-American descent have dominated athletics finals," Johnson told Sally Beck of the Daily Mail in London. "It's a fact that hasn't been discussed openly before. It's a taboo subject in the States but it is what it is. Why shouldn't we discuss it?"

Johnson, who won five Olympic gold medals, added that "all my life I believed I became an athlete through my own determination, but it's impossible to think that being descended from slaves hasn't left an imprint through the generations. Difficult as it was to hear, slavery has benefited descendants like me - I believe there is a superior athletic gene in us."

I suspect the "Afro=Caribbean" athletes have a little bit more in them than a superior athletic gene. Victor Conte concurs.

denisdman · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 7:44 am

Very tough topic. I'd find the research interesting.....but who would dare test that stuff?

Brick · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 7:45 am

Do you guys see what happens when we don't teach Creationism in science class? We have people who feel comfortable talking about evolution in a public space! The answer is really that God likes certain races better so he makes them faster.

Brick · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 7:49 am

denisdman wrote:

Very tough topic. I'd find the research interesting.....but who would dare test that stuff?

In reality, the time period of slavery is not a significant enough amount of time for major genetic differences to have been formed. Any changes like this requires thousands or tens of thousands of years at a minimum. A better case could be made that the more dangerous environments of certain areas has selected certain traits as more successful.

However, I believe that most scientific evidence indicates no major genetic explanation and it's pretty much environmental effects or false perception.

JORR · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 7:51 am

Boilermaker Rick wrote:

Do you guys see what happens when we don't teach Creationism in science class? We have people who feel comfortable talking about evolution in a public space! The answer is really that God likes certain races better so he makes them faster.

If he's saying that blacks in the Americas were subjected to such brutal conditions over a long period of time that generally only the strongest survived to reproduce, I don't think that's really controversial. And possibly there's some truth in there. We get further away from that with every generation though.

JORR · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 7:52 am

Boilermaker Rick wrote:

However, I believe that most scientific evidence indicates no major genetic explanation and it's pretty much environmental effects or false perception.

I'm pretty sure that's correct.

Brick · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 7:54 am

Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:

Boilermaker Rick wrote:

Do you guys see what happens when we don't teach Creationism in science class? We have people who feel comfortable talking about evolution in a public space! The answer is really that God likes certain races better so he makes them faster.

If he's saying that blacks in the Americas were subjected to such brutal conditions over a long period of time that generally only the strongest survived to reproduce, I don't think that's really controversial. And possibly there's some truth in there. We get further away from that with every generation though.

I watch a lot of sports, and pretty much all athletes explain at the end that they couldn't have done this without the man upstairs, so that pretty much kills his theory.

denisdman · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:09 am

Boilermaker Rick wrote:

denisdman wrote:

Very tough topic. I'd find the research interesting.....but who would dare test that stuff?

In reality, the time period of slavery is not a significant enough amount of time for major genetic differences to have been formed. Any changes like this requires thousands or tens of thousands of years at a minimum. A better case could be made that the more dangerous environments of certain areas has selected certain traits as more successful.

However, I believe that most scientific evidence indicates no major genetic explanation and it's pretty much environmental effects or false perception.

It's not about altering the entire gene pool. It's about taking taking physically desirable characteristics and having those two people mate.

If I wanted a blue eyed child, I'd have two blue eyed parents have an offspring. If I wanted a high IQ person, well.....two high IQ people. In the recent book Coming Apart, Charles Murray showed that an offspring's IQ is determined by the average of the parents' with a deviation of about 18 points from that mean. It is the same thing with physical genetics.

I have no clue if that happened, but I suspect that is what the research would need to show and be tested.

Frank Coztansa · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:18 am

I think "benefit" is a very poor choice of words, but I'm interested to hear the results of the research.

Ugueth Will Shiv You · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:22 am

Huh. And here I was thinking this entire time that they just had an extra ligament.

spanky · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:25 am

Boilermaker Rick wrote:

I watch a lot of sports, and pretty much all athletes explain at the end that they couldn't have done this without the man upstairs, so that pretty much kills his theory.

Ugueth Will Shiv You · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:26 am

Boilermaker Rick wrote:

I watch a lot of sports, and pretty much all athletes explain at the end that they couldn't have done this without the man upstairs, so that pretty much kills his theory.

That's only valid for plantations with a basement.

Don Tiny · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 10:51 am

Mini Ditka · **Joined:** Wed Oct 11, 2006 2:55 pm **Posts:** 3392

Clearly there are good things that can come out of bad situations such as slavery. I'm not entirely sure where Michael Johnson is going with this. Clearly black men have a competitive advantage in sports where running and jumping is involved. If you want to say that's because their ancestors were the slaves that survived the trip across the Atlantic I don't know what evidence there is for that. I suppose the slave traders probably took the slaves who looked the strongest. The running advantage could be also be due to better nutrition or better access to training facilities. The African athletes that do well in the running events are the skinny ones who run long distances. Most Africans born in Africa living in America are much thinner than African-Americans.

Douchebag · **Joined:** Tue Aug 19, 2008 3:03 pm **Posts:** 44177

Mini Ditka wrote:

Clearly there are good things that can come out of bad situations such as slavery.

Anyone else want to get on this guy's bandwagon?

But yet, SHARK is the guy who gets shit on here.

Terry's Peeps · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 1:42 pm

Douchebag wrote:

Mini Ditka wrote:

Clearly there are good things that can come out of bad situations such as slavery.

Anyone else want to get on this guy's bandwagon?

But yet, SHARK is the guy who gets shit on here.

He gets shit on here plenty.

It's like a fucking German "scheisse" video.

Douchebag · **Joined:** Tue Aug 19, 2008 3:03 pm **Posts:** 44177

Terry's Peeps wrote:

Douchebag wrote:

Mini Ditka wrote:

Clearly there are good things that can come out of bad situations such as slavery.

Anyone else want to get on this guy's bandwagon?

But yet, SHARK is the guy who gets shit on here.

He gets shit on here plenty.

It's like a fucking German "scheisse" video.

http://score670.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=70025

Mini Ditka · **Joined:** Wed Oct 11, 2006 2:55 pm **Posts:** 3392

Douchebag wrote:

Mini Ditka wrote:

Clearly there are good things that can come out of bad situations such as slavery.

Anyone else want to get on this guy's bandwagon?

Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and he became one of the head rulers in Egypt. Then the Jews were slaves in Egypt and they were miraculously led to the Promised Land.

stoneroses86 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 2:19 pm

Thank God a black man said this.

Terry's Peeps · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 2:22 pm

stoneroses86 wrote:

Thank God a black man said this.

Don Tiny wrote:

You both are right on the money.

JORR · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 5:40 pm

Mini Ditka wrote:

Clearly there are good things that can come out of bad situations such as slavery.

Air Jordans!

Makaveli · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 5:46 pm

stoneroses86 wrote:

Thank God a black man said this.

They can be ignorant too. Now some people will use his scientific expertise to repeat the same thing. I guess steroid don't make you smarter.

lipidquadcab · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 7:54 pm

Douchebag wrote:

http://score670.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=70025

I stand by my nomination with regards to what it was about. Guy was getting shit on left and right simply for starting a lot of topics that people thought were annoying.

Obviously recent developments lead me to believe the guy is a moron.

FavreFan · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 7:56 pm

Douchebag wrote:

But yet, SHARK is the guy who gets shit on here.

http://score670.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=70025

excuse me? I started a thread called "mini ditka is a douchebag". It's hard to be less subtle than that when criticizing someone. Not my fault the big man pruned it. It's not like I nominated him for dbotw.

spanky · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:07 pm

_____________________ thinks the benefit of slavery is that the house is always clean.

FavreFan · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:11 pm

spanky wrote:

_____________________ thinks the benefit of slavery is that the house is always clean.

A.) Steve
B.) Mini Ditka
C.) Ugie
D.) All of the above

What do I win?

spanky · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 9:20 pm

FavreFan wrote:

spanky wrote:

_____________________ thinks the benefit of slavery is that the house is always clean.

A.) Steve
B.) Mini Ditka
C.) Ugie
D.) All of the above

What do I win?

Nothing. You forgot scorehead.

The Benefit of Slavery

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