Mensa AG 2018

Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We Are Afraid to Talk About It (Room JW Grand Ballroom 1)

07 Jul 18
10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

Tracks: Speaker

Speaker(s): Jon Entine, Genetic Literacy Project Executive Director

In its April issue, National Geographic apologized for endorsing over many years the "myth" that there exist different races, declaring in a bold headline, "There’s No Scientific Basis for Race — It’s a Made-Up Label." If Nat Geo was making the pedantic point that there are no distinct population groups and that simplistic racial stereotypes have been toxic and even genocidal, well okay. But that’s not what they are saying. If there is anything "made up," it’s this post-modernist belief that there are no meaningful differences among populations. This talk will draw from two of my books — Taboo focusing on the outsized success of African-descended athletes in sports; and Abraham’s Children on the historical genetic distinctiveness of those of Jewish ancestry. In the coming years, we need to prepare ourselves for the reality genetic studies will show that many traits are influenced by genetic variations, and that these traits will differ on average across human populations. It will be impossible — indeed, anti-scientific, foolish, and absurd — to deny those differences. For more information, visit geneticliteracyproject.org.