White Men Can’t Run 

My wife and I were at the finish line of the Zagreb Half Marathon last year when the winning male, a black African, came in a country mile ahead of the second person who was also a black African, the winning female. You could have recited the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner before the next runners, all white, even appeared on the horizon.

Something similar happened in the London Marathon over the weekend. The first bunch of five females, all black Africans (some running under other flags), were out of sight of any of the other elite females. Coming up behind them (the women start first) was a bunch of six black African male runners who were even out of sight of Britain’s finest Mo Farrar in the second bunch, who was running his final marathon. He is black as were the other runners in his pack.

Of course, by pointing this out, I am treading on the thinnest of ice right in the middle of a very deep pond, but there must be some explanation for this. The ‘correct’; explanation probably lies somewhere in the midst of the myriad arguments spawned by the social justice warriors. Undoubtedly centuries of slavery, racism and oppression are to blame. No reason for how this might be the case is needed, it just is. Or could it be the myth of ‘white privilege’ which is to blame for so much of what we see around us? Black people are so discriminated against that they now have to play all the parts in BBC television programmes. Need an Anne Boleyn, get a black woman to play her. Nobody up for Estella in Great Expectations, and guess what? Have to portray a modern British law firm or City company and you’ll not get away with it unless black people are represented way over their likely representation in these companies, let alone on our streets. One could be forgiven for believing that every barrister is black (and female), if you watch current courtroom dramas.

Thankfully, this is all balanced out by the number of white actors playing black characters. Michael Caine’s performance as Martin Luther King was masterful and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Muhammed Ali was to die for. And who could fail to be moved by Maggie Smith’s portrayal of Rosa Parkes? Of course, I am descending into the realm of the ridiculous. But it is no more ridiculous than the fact that the incredible success of black athletes across the whole of athletics is something that is almost impossible to mention without the person saying it being blasted out of the water. I certainly have been, over breakfast with some colleagues at a conference whose ‘wokeness’ I had underestimated. I was merely asking the question and I have rarely asked it since.

Well, I am asking now and undoubtedly risking the ice breaking below me only to be plunged into the depths of accusations of racism from which no one returns. But the remarkable—yet unremarked upon—performance by black athletes, especially over long distances, and their almost absolute domination at the front of the pack must have some explanation. And now the ice cracks! Is it genetic, is it environment or what combination of both leads them to perform so well? Michael Johnson, a well-known white supremacist, even suggested that black American and Caribbean athletes ran better due to genetic selection imposed by slavery which led to the ‘survival of the fittest’. Careful there Michael!

I know what I think; they are just better at running than white athletes. There, I’ve said it.

Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He is a columnist with Unity News Network and writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.