Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports And Why We're Afraid To Talk About It” as Want to Read:
Enlarge cover
Open Preview
See a Problem?
We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Taboo by Jon Entine.
Not the book you’re looking for?
Preview — Taboo by Jon Entine
Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports And Why We're Afraid To Talk About It
by
In virtually every sport in which they are given opportunity to compete, people of African descent dominate. East Africans own every distance running record. Professional sports in the Americas are dominated by men and women of West African descent. Why have blacks come to dominate sports? Are they somehow physically better? And why are we so uncomfortable when we discuss ...more
Paperback, 400 pages
Published January 10th 2001 by PublicAffairs
(first published 1999)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about Taboo, please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about Taboo
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Average rating 3.70 ·
· 89 ratings · 9 reviews
Start your review of Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports And Why We're Afraid To Talk About It
Jul 25, 2019 Dennis Littrell rated it really liked it
Nothing better to do
The first thing to note is that this is an excellent book, well-written, well-researched, balanced and fair without even a hint of racism anywhere.
The second thing to note is that a taboo is irrational to the point where it doesn't matter what the evidence is one way or the other. The taboo holds simply because it is a taboo, a combination of instinctive and learned behavior that will not and cannot yield to reason or evidence. Consequently it doesn't matter how well Entine's ...more
The first thing to note is that this is an excellent book, well-written, well-researched, balanced and fair without even a hint of racism anywhere.
The second thing to note is that a taboo is irrational to the point where it doesn't matter what the evidence is one way or the other. The taboo holds simply because it is a taboo, a combination of instinctive and learned behavior that will not and cannot yield to reason or evidence. Consequently it doesn't matter how well Entine's ...more
Jul 11, 2009 Mike Horne rated it liked it
Easy book to read. The guy argues that race is a valid biological construct, and the differences between races are clear in the higher ranks of some sports (running is the clearest).
The book is very anecdotal and not very scientific (I don't mean that in a bad way--he simply does not follow through on the differing scientific opinions of race and genetics), but I was not put off by that. He does a fairly good job of discussing why modern folk do not like thinking about race. He jumps around alo ...more
The book is very anecdotal and not very scientific (I don't mean that in a bad way--he simply does not follow through on the differing scientific opinions of race and genetics), but I was not put off by that. He does a fairly good job of discussing why modern folk do not like thinking about race. He jumps around alo ...more
Apr 03, 2008 Anna rated it it was ok · review of another edition
Observes that blacks appear and excel in competitive sports in disproportionate numbers, and examines why this is so and what inhibits us from discussing it. The author seems convinced that blacks are generally more gifted physically because of genetics, but doesn’t provide as much information to back that up as I would have liked. Discusses “why we’re afraid to talk about it” quite a bit, with annoying digressions into the history of evolution, eugenics, etc. I think it may have been this book ...more
Why do black athletes of West African extraction dominate the sprint events and those from East Africa the long distance? And why is discussing this so fraught? An interesting account written before the human genome had been sequenced. Hopefully the new genomics will finally silence all those sociologists who claim the reasons are cultural and not genetic. An interesting read
Mar 12, 2020 Ian Pitchford rated it did not like it
Dec 31, 2019 Michele rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: nonfiction
I read this book because I was curious about why there are so many amazing black athletes. I wanted to understand why Black athletes dominate so many sports, such as football, basketball, track and field, and they have a significant showing in baseball as well. It turns out that there are physical differences that have adapted over time that have lent themselves to distinct advantages, depending upon the sport. It also turns out that it is a complicated subject.
The author goes beyond presenting ...more
The author goes beyond presenting ...more
Jun 16, 2009 Jessie rated it liked it
Very fascinating discussion, but poorly organized and repetitive. Still worth the read, just do some skipping.
Mar 31, 2009 Richard rated it it was amazing
Gives an analysis on why blacks are dominating the current sports scene. Would be controversial to many people.
Related Articles
“I'm in a weird place because the book is about to come out. So I'm basically just walking around like a raw nerve and I'm not sure that I...
1 likes · 0 comments