Ex-UK athletics chief banned for saying black people are good sprinters ‘because they have to get away from burglaries’

36 comments

  4. Just remember when boomers complain about “woke and cancel culture”, it’s because they can’t say stuff like this with their buddies anymore.

  5. Black people are better sprinters I believe, but why the fuck would you ignore the scientific literature and instead go for a racist stereotype?

    Guys a fucking idiot

    “Here we explain a much avoided phenomenon in the evolution of speed sports for men and women: The world records in running tend to be set by black athletes and in swimming by white athletes. We show that this phenomenon is predictable from physics. Locomotion is a ‘falling-forward ’ cycle, in which body mass falls forward and then rises again. Mass that falls from a higher altitude falls faster, down and forward. In running, the altitude (L 1) is set by the position of the center of mass above the ground. In swimming, the altitude is set by the upper body rising above the water, and it is proportional to H – L 1, where H is the height of the athlete. The anthropometric literature shows that the center of mass in blacks is 3 percent higher above the ground than in whites. This means that blacks hold a 1.5 percent speed advantage in running, and whites hold a 1.5 percent speed advantage in swimming. Among athletes of the same height Asians are even more favored than whites in swimming but they are not setting records because they are not as tall.”

  6. Usually with this kind of headline, you read what they actually said and it has been sensationalised. In this case however…:

    ​

    >The UK Athletics Disciplinary Panel found Starkey said this or similar, “Usually when athletes start to be more specific in events, most black athletes tend to edge towards sprinting and hurdling… the blacks are all good at running because they have to get away from their burglaries”.

    ​

    Starkey’s defence was that there was a gap between the first and second sentences (?) and that he was facing “mental health challenges”.

  7. > Mr Starkey admitted that he had made the comment “subject to the caveat that there was a gap between the first sentence and the second sentence.

    The first sentence was, “Usually when athletes start to be more specific in events, most black athletes tend to edge towards sprinting and hurdling”.

    The second sentence was, “**the blacks are all good at running because they have to get away from their burglaries**”.

    The second sentence is absolutely awful in isolation or in the context of the first sentence. It’s baffling how he thinks that it’s any kind of partial defence to argue that there was a gap between them. Even if he said them on different days, he’s still a massive fucking racist!

  8. This is the kind of shit I’d be writing in league of legends lobby a decade ago, when I was a fucking kid. Glad to know that uks athletic chief has the mentality of an edgy teenager from decade ago. Fucking moron.

  11. How do people not know that these types of comments are wrong, like ever? Not now, not five years ago, not even twenty years ago should this have been acceptable.

    ​

    I have a co-worker who when the subject of being bisexual came up (a man on a quiz show had had two ex wives and an ex husband) she just stood and boomed “See I hate this, this is how you spread AIDS”. Like COME ON, we are not this ignorant nor mis-informed are we??!

  15. > Ex-UK athletics chief banned for saying black people are good sprinters ‘because…

    Here we go, I know where this is going

    > …they have to get away from burglaries

    Oh holy shit, I stand corrected

  17. Even if we ignore the 1970s type racism, just from a scientific standpoint Lamarckian evolution epigenetics are wrong. Running away from burglaries won’t alter your DNA. If it did we’d have a lot more Scouse gold medallists surely?

  18. “He had mental health issues at the time”, I also have mental health issues, none of which have brought on sudden onset racism.

  22. Lol what a cunt.

    This isn’t a family barbecue mate you have to at least pretend you’re not racist.

    Jesus.

    Imagine how many of them are not this dumb and just don’t public say the shit out loud.

  23. Meanwhile, every mainstream comedian makes constant jokes about white people and nobody bats an eyelid. Why is there this weird hierarchy of offence that’s allowed to take place?

  24. Some proper 1970s racism right there. It’s not just that this is wrong, it’s that people have been calling this wrong for 50 years. If he was any more old-fashioned he’d be complaining about black people’s skull shape.

  25. There’s an interesting example of this – the BMA recently had two junior doctors resign off its committee, one of whom made jokes about the Holocaust, gas the Jews, all that.
    Kicked off the committee and reported to the GMC. Absolutely, fair enough.

    Another one was posting stuff like “white women are bitches” and how he wouldn’t consume podcasts or media made by white people and a sunset of MedTwitter came out up in arms defending him, “you can’t be racist against white people” stuff.

    I understand that saying the Holocaust is a hoax is a bit different from being prejudiced against white people, but it’s the same principle.

  26. In the right setting, said by the right person, this could be quite a funny joke.

    Unfortunately this was not that setting, and rather inappropriate.

  29. Aren’t burglaries about stealth not speed?

    Are people only stealing from neighbours and running home with the loot?

    Seems risky and inefficient.

    Sometimes I think racism isn’t about reason, logic or facts.

  30. If you can’t take it as a joke then you admit truth in it. The true offence is in athletic bodies taking the comments seriously.

  32. I hate to say it but I’m not surprised to read this.

    This sort of joke was common place when I was growing up (I’m 54). And until I moved from Essex, I heard this sort of thing every day. I said it and laughed at it as well. I was ignorant.

    Those that think people aren’t racist anymore simply haven’t met enough people.

    I am right on the cusp of growing up with non white people being a part of my TV childhood, so I didn’t think of them as different. Although my childhood also included the black and white mistral show and Jim Davidson doing his Chalky White voice on primetime TV. And my school and workplace were 99% white.

    I think that the guy here wouldn’t call himself a racist and he may well have treated everyone equally. But there is a very large percentage of the population who just doesn’t get what is and what isn’t acceptable. Like the publican in Grays, who can’t understand that what was ok in 1973 isn’t ok in 2023.

  34. JFC have these people been living alone in caves before they’re interviewed? How could they possibly believe this wouldn’t be taken poorly?

  36. If it was said privately as a joke between friends in a closed circle that’s one thing, but airing them so publicly is asking for trouble.

Leave a Reply