A debate over transgender men competing in women’s powerlifting has brought attention to yet another racial difference between the races.
A supporter of the ban said “Transgender male to female individuals having gone through male puberty confer an unfair competitive advantage over non-transgender females due to increased bone density and muscle mass from pubertal exposure to testosterone.”
However, it turns out that the bone density of blacks is, on average, higher than the bone density of whites — a fact which could present problems for the sport of weightlifting if it were to be used as a reason for excluding people from competition.
The problem is that, if the bone density argument is going to be used as a reason to exclude transgender men from women’s powerlifting competitions, then it could also be used as a reason to ban blacks from men’s powerlifting competitions — if having higher bone density was considered to create an “unfair advantage”, then some might demand that not only should there be separate men’s and women’s competitions, but that there should also be separate competitions for blacks and whites.
Oops, that wouldn’t be good for the SJW mantra of “race is a social construct”.
Therefore, the bone density difference is now being dismissed by some as a “red herring”, since it raises uncomfortable questions about racial differences.
Unfortunately for the Leftists in the media and universities, a scientific study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that there was racial differences in bone mineral density:
“statistically significantly greater in black than in white subjects … Adjusted bone density at various skeletal sites was 4.5–16.1% higher for black than for white men and was 1.2–7.3% higher for black than for white women … We concluded that racial differences in bone mineral density are not accounted for by clinical or biochemical variables measured in early adulthood.”
The same report also mentioned several other anatomical racial differences:
“The lower lifetime risk of hip fracture among black persons results at least partly because American black women and men achieve 5%-15% greater peak bone mass than white persons.
The greater bone density among black persons may be caused by their higher obesity rate, greater frame size, and greater muscle mass. However, Luckey and coworkers found that premenopausal black women had statistically significantly greater spinal and radial bone density than white women, even after adjusting for height, weight, and body mass index.
… Compared with white persons, black persons have lower urinary calcium excretion, higher 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1, 25D) level, and lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25D) and osteocalcin level. Moreover, bone biopsies in black persons have shown lower bone turnover.
… Black persons may differ from white persons in sex hormone level. Two studies have demonstrated statistically significantly higher serum testosterone level in young adult black men and women.”
Another scientific study, published in the Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, confirms racial differences in bone mineral density:
“Data from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF) and the Baltimore Men’s Osteoporosis Study (MOST) show that, in both sexes, blacks have higher adjusted bone mineral density than whites and a slower age-adjusted annual rate of decline in bone mineral density. Genetic, nutritional, lifestyle and hormonal factors may contribute to these ethnic/racial differences in bone strength.
… the actuarial risk of hip fracture by age 90 was 16.3 and 5.3 percent in white and black women, respectively, and 5.5 and 2.6 percent in white and black men, respectively. Thus, by any of these analyses, there are consistent racial differences in hip fracture risk by sex.
… Lauderdale and colleagues again noted differences of similar magnitude between whites and blacks in both sex groups: age-adjusted annual incidence rates for hip fracture were 10.1 and 4.1 per 1000 in white and black women, respectively, and 4.3 and 3.1 per 1000 in white and black men, respectively
… Jacobsen and colleagues also estimated the incidence rate of symptomatic vertebral fractures … average annual age-adjusted rates of vertebral fracture were higher for whites than blacks in both sex groups: 17.1 and 3.7 per 10000 in white and black women, respectively, and 9.9 and 2.5 per 10000 in white and black men, respectively.
… Barrett and colleagues estimated the actuarial risk of fracture for each of the four race-sex groups … the actuarial risk of hip fracture by age 90 was 16.3 and 5.3 percent in white and black women, respectively, and 5.5 and 2.6 percent in white and black men, respectively. Thus, by any of these analyses, there are consistent racial differences in hip fracture risk by sex. Furthermore, similar differences in actuarial risk of fractures at other sites were noted between white and black women; too few fractures occurred among older black men to allow valid estimates of actuarial risk and comparisons with estimated rates in white men.
… Racial differences in bone mineral density at the proximal femur in women were examined using data from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures … Cross-sectional comparison of bone mineral density at the femoral neck and total hip between 7334 white women and 636 black women showed significantly greater BMD at both sites among black women
… The average annual age-adjusted percent decline in BMD [bone mineral density] at the femoral neck and total hip was significantly greater in white than in black women; these differences persisted even after adjustment for additional confounding variables
… Bell and colleagues reported that black children had higher bone mass than white children and that this difference persisted into young adulthood
… Several studies utilizing histomorphometry of iliac crest bone biopsies have demonstrated that blacks have a lower rate of bone turnover than whites.”
There are many scientific studies which have brought to light a wide range of differences between the races, but acknowledging such differences is ideologically problematic for the race-deniers in the mainstream media and academia, since their belief-system demands that they stick to their “race is a social construct” lie.
However, the differences between the races regarding general intelligence are the most difficult of all for the race-deniers to deal with — to paraphrase Jack Nicholson, “they can’t handle the truth”.
It’s interesting that arguments over transsexuals have brought racial differences to the fore. Maybe the transgender agenda has its uses, after all — as the proverb goes, “it’s an ill wind that blows no good”.
Of course, allowing men who “identify as women” to compete in women’s sports is a ridiculous notion, but that’s a story for another time.
References:
Cyd Zeigler, USA Powerlifting bans all trans women from competing as women, SB Nation: Outsports, 1 February 2019
Bruce Ettinger et al, Racial Differences in Bone Density between Young Adult Black and White Subjects Persist after Adjustment for Anthropometric, Lifestyle, and Biochemical Differences, Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press) [The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 82, Issue 2, 1 February 1997, pp 429-434]
Marc C. Hochberg, Racial differences in bone strength, US National Library of Medicine: National Institutes of Health [Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, 2007, 118, pp. 305-315]
You Can’t Handle the Truth! – A Few Good Men (7/8) Movie CLIP (1992) HD, Movieclips (YouTube channel), 21 October 2012 [includes quote from Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”, 1992]
Speak Your Mind