El Keniano wrote:
Get this geriatric off the track
http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/George+Meitamei+Manangoi+IAAF+U18+World+Championships+359CNOSZm3xl.jpg
I'm from the US. 40ish years old. European descent. This picture to me looks like someone who is about 17-21 years old.
There has been a lot of age cheating, everyone can agree on that, but George does look very close to his claimed age to me, a white guy who grew up in Orange County, California. I can attest that my ability to guess another person's age decreases as they look less and less like I do. I was a server in a restaurant as a young adult and can remember a time not carding someone, as I thought they were clearly over 30. He was Vietnamese and at the time I recall him looking to be about 35 or thereabouts. My manager, who was Chinese, asked me if I had carded the guy and I said no because he's obviously old enough. She insisted I card him, so I apologized to him and did. He was 21.
I was seriously shocked. I carded practically everyone after that as my entire foundation had been rocked. What I discovered was that I can only properly identify the age of white people with serious confidence. It may sound strange, but it makes sense to me having grown up in a predominantly white area. I went to high school with about 20 black boys and girls in a school of 1700. It's not like I was exposed to 1000s of examples of those of African descent growing up with me. To me, most black people look older than the equivalent white person. I think on average black guys have slightly more testosterone according to studies and that along with darker skin which makes for better accents of skeletal and muscular features(that's why bodybuilders get so dark for competitions) makes black people look more developed earlier on. It's partially because they are, but also because the way they reflect light makes them look even more ripped/masculine/older.
We have to admit there are certain phenotypes better suited for specific activities. Look at the Filipino national records versus that of Kenya. You can't tell me the Kenyan's simply want it more or try harder. Nonsense. They clearly have an excellent tool for the job. For this reason it's understandable that those of European descent would be especially inspired by a young lad who looks like maybe he could actually mix it up with the Kenyans!
We all know the East Africans are the cream of the crop. It's exciting to root for the underdogs, though, it's just human nature, not racism. Sort of like when I heard Stevie Wonder say he was worth at least 100 million. My first thought was h.ell yeah I never hear about ultra wealthy black people not named Oprah. The color of our skin only matters if we follow one activity in life. If you root for under-represented underdogs in general, like white guys in running or black guys in net worth, you realize you are racist at all you're simply aware of disparities. Pointing them out shouldn't be politically incorrect, but maybe I'm getting to the age where I don't see it anymore, which is sort of worrying.
