Taboo: Why Black Athletes are Better and Why We'RE Afraid to Talk about it (Paperback)

USA Today - Keeping Score columnist Christine Brennan, 1/13 "I don't know if Entine is right or if he is wrong, although I hope someday after decades of bickering we'll find out. But I do know this. The dialogue that he almost certainly will provoke is not the problem. It's the solution."

New York Times - Richard Bernstein review, 1/14 "Mr. Entine makes a careful and reasoned case for this point of view, and he argues forcefully against whatever tendency there may be out there in the world of racial politics to misinterpret it. ….Mr. Entine's conclusion that racially distinctive features are an essential element of the picture is part of a sophisticated argument that, whether entirely persuasive or not, cannot be dismissed."

Washington Post Book World - 2/6 "Entine marshals such an impressive array of evidence that we should no longer be content to explain why blacks excel at certain sports by simply resorting to the old cultural argument that athletics have been the only avenues of upward mobility that were truly open to them. He's raised the argument to new heights."

Emerge: Black America's News Magaine - Carolyn White, March "Taboo is a good read for anyone interested in the history of Black athletes in the United States and worldwide….Whether you agree with Entine or not, Taboo illustrates that some controversies are too complex to be solved in terms of Black and White."

Sports Illustrated, S.L. Price - 2/7 -2/14 issue "[T]he timing has never been better for Entine's balanced, well-reasoned and-above all-calm explanation of the issue….Entine convincingly argues for the overwhelming on-field evidence, allows for the determining X factors of environment and depoliticizes the discussion by attempting to kill the long-held cultural bedtime story about the link between athletic excellence and low intelligence."

National Review - John Derbyshire, February "The great value of TABOO is that it lets off another stick of dynamite under the nurturist consensus, which is already beginning to crack and split. The evidence Entine presents is overwhelming, the larger conclusions plain: we can have equal outcomes by race, or we can have meritocracy, but we can't have both."

Kirkus Reviews - 1/1/00 "A brave sprint in the marathon of genetic racial equality. Journalist and award-winning TV producer Entine writes lucidly about a forbidden topic....Courageous enough to ask tough questions about the uneven playing field, forthright enough to present hard evidence."

Salon.com - Gary Kamiya, 1/28 "Entine takes several gratifying swings at postmodern academic fog machines, who in their scholastic zeal to make sure everything comes out racially rosy simply throw science overboard."

St. Petersburg Times, Bill Maxwell - 2/6 "At long last, someone has the guts to tell it like it is….In addition to beiong an analysis of performance research, Taboo is a powerful history of African-Americans in sports itself….Thanks to Entine, the genie is out of the bottle, and the debate about race and athleticism will never be the same again."

Business Week, Mark Hyman - 2/28 "A notable and jarring work.…Perhaps Entine's topic alone will offend some readers. But that shouldn't detract from the author's balanced and thorough treatment....the science chapters establish Entine as a serious chronicler of his subject.…Entine's treatment of his central theme is laudable. And because it brings intelligence to a little-understood subject, so is this book."

Seattle Times, John C. Walter - 2/27 "Written in a breezy and informal style, yet thoroughly researched and properly footnoted, "Taboo" is both provocative and informed. Entine has provided a well-intentioned effort for all to come clean on the possibility that black people might just be superior physically, and that there is no negative connection between that physical superiority and their IQs."

Psychology Today, Michael Levin - March/April issue "Entine boldly and brilliantly documents numerous physiological differences contributing to black athletic superiority….Entine's work stands to open the conversation on racial differences to a broader range of topics-even intelligence-because success in sports is so unambiguous, and the scientific data so unarguable." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

• Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Multicultural Studies > Black Studies
• Books > Sports, Hobbies & Games > Athletics & Gymnastics > Athletics
• Books > Sports, Hobbies & Games > Reference > History of Sports

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