So, is slavery responsible for the athletic performance of African Americans?

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. The idea of the documentary is that selection during slavery had an effect

on the overall genetic health of the slave population. That is quite different from Murray's "whites are superior scholars because of their genetic makeup"; and yet your OP claimed 'this is much the same argument that was made in the book "The Bell Curve"'. And then you claimed 'The Bell Curve was indeed saying essentially the same thing' as the documentary. It doesn't; The Bell Curve is about IQ. The Bell Curve cannot point to some conditions in which intelligence is highly selected in European (or Asian) populations, but is not in African American populations. It just says "that's how everyone is".

The Bell Curve claims there's some innate intellectual superiority among Europeans and Asians; this documentary claims better average strength and health among African Americans because of a deplorable, but properly identifiable, history.