Racial conversation I had with an old man about athletes:

[CavaliersFTW]

So a few years ago when I was new to the company I currently work for there was this old man there who had to be about 70. Anyways he used to play football, he was an Italian guy from Buffalo New York and he used to love to talk about his days as an athlete. He's from that generation where integration was happening. Don't know how the conversation spun the way it did but he told me the real shocking athletes back then weren't Blacks they were the Native Americans, he said they were incredible athletes on the football field. He said some other actual racist shit as his reasoning why he felt they ultimately weren't successful or couldn't advance in sports that I won't repeat but I just found that comment interesting that they were in his eyes, naturally very gifted athletes and in his opinion even more so than black athletes.

Any one care to share their thoughts on this? Are there many/any prominant Native Americans in sports today?

[You Cant Ban Me]

I think every race is more athletic than american mut whites .I mean im not trying to be racist but you're mixed with everything.A full blooded italian guy > 1/4 irish /1/4 scottish 1/2 german guy.I dont feel like breaking this down but im a geneticist just take my word for it.

[CavaliersFTW]

I think every race is more athletic than american mut whites .I mean im not trying to be racist but you're mixed with everything.A full blooded italian guy > 1/4 irish /1/4 scottish 1/2 german guy.I dont feel like breaking this down but im a geneticist just take my word for it.

[JohnnySic]

I think every race is more athletic than american mut whites .I mean im not trying to be racist but you're mixed with everything.A full blooded italian guy > 1/4 irish /1/4 scottish 1/2 german guy.I dont feel like breaking this down but im a geneticist just take my word for it.

Those are different ethnic groups but racially they aren't much different at all. Doesn't make such a person a "mut".

[CavaliersFTW]

Those are different ethnic groups but racially they aren't much different at all. Doesn't make such a person a "mut".

Plus everyone on the planet is a "mut" there's not even any such thing as a pure race that's a social construct

[NumberSix]

Plus everyone on the planet is a "mut" there's not even any such thing as a pure race that's a social construct

Quick question. Bengal tigers. Are they a social construct?

[CavaliersFTW]

Quick question. Bengal tigers. Are they a social construct?

...every classification of wildlife or grouping, sorting, or organizing of anything by humans is a social construct

Everything is individual. Humans don't think that way though, we group stuff. Including our own kind. We use arbitrary stipulations to define said groups. But genetically, we're all individuals, so are animals. We as individuals may share closer genes with some groups vs others because we're more closely related but there's overlap, lots and lots and lots of overlap, and in the case of humans everything is very recent. We have more in common with each other than even a "bengal tiger" might have with say, a "siberian tiger".

Every human on earth today is at absolute minimum, a 50th cousin of another human on earth.

[NumberSix]

...every classification of wildlife or grouping, sorting, or organizing of anything by humans is a social construct

Everything is individual. Humans don't think that way though, we group stuff. Including our own kind. We use arbitrary stipulations to define said groups. But genetically, we're all individuals, so are animals. We as individuals may share closer genes with some groups vs others because we're more closely related but there's overlap, lots and lots and lots of overlap, and in the case of humans everything is very recent. We have more in common with each other than even a "bengal tiger" might have with say, a "siberian tiger".

Every human on earth today is at absolute minimum, a 50th cousin of another human on earth.

So, are lions and tigers the social constructs?

[CavaliersFTW]

So, are lions and tigers the social constructs?

Yes

grouping life forms is a social construct

Every life form is individual due to genetic drift. You aren't a perfect blend of your parents some of your DNA actually did it's own unique thing, and your kids won't be a perfect blend of you and your partner. And so on and so forth. At what point do you start calling a group a sub species, at what point do you start calling sub-species it's own species... There's a lot of overlap.

The definitions are made by people, they are 100% arbitrary. Social construct. Life is a constant process of DNA trying to replicate itself, but by doing so ever so slightly differently every time. Our attempt to group it is just how we think, we always try to organize things by group but reality is not that simple.

If you disagree explain why.

[ALBballer]

Well native Americans consisted of different groups and weren't homogenous as we are lead to believe. But if that is true, that Native Americans were excellent athletes, you would think that Mexican (and other hispanics that are predominately amerindian descent) would excel in football and that doesn't appear to be the case.

[1987_Lakers]

Well native Americans consisted of different groups and weren't homogenous as we are lead to believe. But if that is true, that Native Americans were excellent athletes, you would think that Mexican (and other hispanics that are predominately amerindian descent) would excel in football and that doesn't appear to be the case.

Meh, most Mexicans have very little native american blood, most of them are dominated by European blood. I'm Mexican and my last name comes from Greek.

[ALBballer]

Meh, most Mexicans have very little native american blood, most of them are dominated by European blood. I'm Mexican and my last name comes from Greek.

Well depends on the area the Mexicans come from. In my opinion that there is a disportionate amount of ameridian types in the united states because they probably make up the lower economic class in Mexico and would be more prone to emigrate.

[Timmy D for MVP]

I'd have to know more about the conversation and the context in which he said it, but he would likely have had more of an opportunity to witness big time Native American athletes than black athletes when he was comin up. Especially in football, double especially in New York. Baseball has this mythos as a rural sport but really it's roots and popularity are as an urban sport.

70 seems a bit too young for all that though. He'd have been playing, likely, in his teens and late twenties, so what? Around the mid-60's? By then that wouldn't have been as true as it was earlier in the century.

[CavaliersFTW]

I'd have to know more about the conversation and the context in which he said it, but he would likely have had more of an opportunity to witness big time Native American athletes than black athletes when he was comin up. Especially in football, double especially in New York. Baseball has this mythos as a rural sport but really it's roots and popularity are as an urban sport.

70 seems a bit too young for all that though. He'd have been playing, likely, in his teens and late twenties, so what? Around the mid-60's? By then that wouldn't have been as true as it was earlier in the century.

This was back in 2008 and honestly he might have been in his mid 70's by then.. he was old

[gigantes]

from WP:

"In a poll of sports fans conducted by ABC Sports, Jim Thorpe was voted the Greatest Athlete of the Twentieth Century out of 15 other athletes including Muhammad Ali, Babe Ruth, Jesse Owens, Wayne Gretzky, Jack Nicklaus, and Michael Jordan."

he was roughly half or more native-american IIRC.