World Athletics Championships, Berlin 2009
Last night's women's 100 Metres Final
1 Shelly-Ann Fraser 10.73secs
2 Kerron Stewart 10.75
3 Carmelita Jeter 10.90
4 Veronica Campbell-Brown 10.95
5 Lauryn Williams 11.01
6 Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie 11.05
7 Chandra Sturrup 11.05
8 Aleen Bailey 11.16
Look at all those Scottish surnames, they took first, second, fourth and sixth places!
Isn't history amazing?
Last edited by crayola; 18-Aug-09 at 22:59. Reason: typo
He converted to Islam, and like many people doing so at the time, took the name of a revered Muslim scholar from the past. One of the TV commentators used to insist on referring to him by his original name for many years afterwards. His reasoning was that he was Lew when he met him and he knew Lew's mum.
Before we all get too carried away with ourselves, you should know how Afro-Caribbean athletes came by Scottish surnames. In the days before the abolition of slavery in the British colonies in the Caribbean, many of the supervisors in the plantations that used slave labour were Scottish. Like going off to Canada to become a trader for the Hudson's Bay Company, it was a way to go out into the world and make your fortune. Of course owning the plantation made you a bigger fortune.
Many of these supervisors would have one or more mistresses drawn from the ranks of the slaves, and offspring would result, taking the surname of those who fathered them. Seeing as those women had no choice in the matter, that technically makes those children the product of rape.
Now that isn't exclusively the case, as Scots, and Brits in general, continued in the sugar industry in particular long after slavery was abolished, so there could well be a more normal connection.
Either way there are a lot of Scottish surnames among people of African descent in the USA as well as the Caribbean.
Thanks for the input George. I knew full well what the reason was, I was merely throwing some questions in for a bit of fun and to perhaps create a discussion.
I read Thomas Hauser's book about Muhammed Ali some years ago and it went into a fair bit of detail concerning Wallace Fard, Elijah Muhammed and the formation of The Nation of Islam. Muhammed Ali was, of course, born as Cassius Marcellus Clay but later rejected the name, as it was a slave name passed down from the "owner"
I am an athletics fan and have seen every major sprint final for men and women since 1972, that includes the race crayola cited, where every runner had black skin. It is rare to see white runners troubling the judges in athletics these days!!
It isn't an important question, but it is an interesting one. You'd have to be pretty damn naive to think that it was just a coincidence that almost all runners are black.
With a beard like that...
Don't forget about the world number two tennis player.
I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost
[QUOTE=Alan16;582526]It isn't an important question, but it is an interesting one. You'd have to be pretty damn naive to think that it was just a coincidence that almost all runners are black.
Explain your statement, you have confused me ( I know it doesn't take much ) but talking in riddles come on.
[QUOTE=tonkatojo;582532]I started this confusion, so I'll try to explain:-
Black runners have been superior to white runners for some time now, particularly over sprint distances. As explained earlier, the Jamaican lasses had Scottish sounding names, probably harking back to an illicit and involuntary linking of genetic material back in the days of the plantation and slave labour (See Roots). For me, there is an irony that Scots who share the surnames of the lassies involved can never hope to be as fast because of their inferior, pasty-white legs.
Just some food for thought, no riddles intended.
Somebody referred to it as an "important question" and I don't think it's important, simply interesting. Any race you look at, the majority of athletes are black - because black people are faster. It isn't just luck that everyone in these races is black. That was all I was saying - there is something in the genes perhaps.
I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost
In the same, Moscow, Olympics that Allan Wells won 100m Gold the Italian Pietro Mennea won the 200m title. Since then every 100m and 200m champion has been black. Of course, the USA boycotted those Games, leaving the Cuban runner Silvio Leonard as Wells biggest threat. Leonard was a bit past his best by then, having been a bigger fancy for the 1976 Olympics before messing about in his hotel room and gashing his foot on a broken cologne bottle!!
Bookmarks