Race has been discussed to the point of weariness, yet most discussion consists of little more than wishful thinking, contradiction, and outright malice: "All the races are equal, but whites oppress everyone else. Then again, race doesn't really exist, which is why we must strive for greater racial diversity." It is understandable that many people are at once confused by, and sick of, the entire subject — especially white people, the targets of so much blame and hostility.
The Origin of the Races
It need not be this way. The basic facts about the races of mankind can be stated briefly and clearly. According to our best current information, human beings (i.e., the biological genus Homo) originated in Africa between two and three million years ago. From there, beginning about 1.8 million years ago, they spread out across Asia and Europe.
When any animal species spreads out across a large area, it encounters new environments which present different challenges to its survival. Individuals that would have done well in the original home environment may not do so well in the new one, and so may die or fail to reproduce. A few individuals may be better suited to the new environment than the old, and thus produce more offspring. New genetic mutations may multiply and spread in one area while they disappear in the other. Thus, over time, the animals in the new region become different both from their ancestors and from their cousins who remained in the ancestral region.
This process occurs in all sexually reproducing species, and is the driving force behind evolution. It also occurred with early human beings when they left Africa for Europe and Asia. Light skin, for example, is a harmful trait in tropical Africa, but is useful in northern latitudes which do not get as much sunlight. Hence, light skin remains a rare anomaly in Africa (mostly limited to albinos), whereas it gradually became the norm in Europe.
An Example of Racial Differences: Athletic Performance
There are countless areas in which the races may be compared and differences found. Let us begin by considering one narrow area: athletic performance. Ordinary sports fans cannot help noticing that certain sports are dominated by persons of a particular race. American basketball is dominated by Blacks, while the Olympic table-tennis gold medallists are usually East Asians. Whites dominate certain field events such as the shot put and the hammer throw.
Not only are such differences well-established; in most cases, they can be explained. For example, the dominance of international sprinting competitions by West Africans (or persons of West African descent) is due to at least six traits they share. As compared to whites and Asians, they have, on average, 1) longer legs, 2) narrower hips, 3) lower center of gravity, 4) lower body fat, 5) higher quantity of fast-twitch muscle tissue (useful for short bursts of speed), and 6) higher testosterone levels. With all these advantages, how could they not excel at sprinting?
Further Reading: Richard Lynn and Edward Dutton, Race and Sport: Evolution and Racial Differences in Sporting Ability (2015), is filled with fascinating data on differential performance by race in over fifty types of sporting competition, along with explanations of the patterns. Reviewed by F. Roger Devlin, The Occidental Quarterly, Spring 2016, "White Men Can't Jump, Black Men Can't Shot Put."
Two Fallacies That Hinder Clear Thinking About Racial Differences
Reluctance to discuss or even to admit the existence of racial differences is commonly motivated by fear of possible invidious distinctions between "superior" and "inferior" races. To this our answer is twofold. First, racial differences always relate to some particular trait. West Africans may indeed be a "superior" race when it comes to sprinting. In reference to other traits, other races may be more gifted. No race is best in everything, and it is meaningless to speak of any race being superior per se. The recognition of racial differences in particular traits implies no such idea.
Second, the existence of racial differences does not logically imply that one race should rule over others or benefit at their expense. No one has ever claimed that the superiority of West Africans at sprinting entitles them to preferential treatment over whites and Asians. The same goes for all other races and all other traits. This may sound like an elementary point, but much opposition to the open discussion of racial differences is based upon a tacit assumption that recognizing such differences would ipso facto justify the mistreatment of one or more races. It is important to understand clearly that this is a fallacy. …
Northern vs. Southern Races
As mentioned above, the various human races emerged when early humans migrated out of Africa. Perhaps the most important single environmental difference faced by these early humans was that much of the Eurasian landmass turns cold for several months of the year, and food is scarce during this time. It required intelligence, resourcefulness, foresight, and an ability to delay gratification (i.e., impulse control), for ancient hunter-gatherers to survive cold winters. People with these qualities were more successful raising children than those who lacked them, so humans in more northerly areas gradually became more intelligent and future-oriented than those who remained in the tropics. The higher intelligence and lower crime rates of whites and East Asians as compared with Africans may be due in large part to the selective pressure of cold winters.
Another important environmental change experienced by early humans migrating out of Africa was that many diseases common to tropical Africa (Malaria, Dengue, Chagas and others) are non-existent farther north. Such diseases were and still are a very common cause of death among black Africans. Since for most of the continent's history the causes of such diseases were not understood, it was a matter of chance whether one caught them or not; there was nothing much one could do to avoid them.
Biologists distinguish two strategies that living organisms may employ in reproducing: one, labeled 'r,' involves high fertility with little or no parental investment in offspring once they are born; the other, labeled 'K,' involves lower fertility but higher investment in protecting and nurturing offspring. Organisms may be arranged along an r-K scale according to their fertility and level of parental investment. Oysters have half a billion offspring in a typical year and take no notice of them at all: they are extreme r strategists. Mammals and birds generally have fewer offspring but feed and care for them in early life. (Rabbits are a popular byword for fertility, but the twelve offspring they average per year come nowhere near the fertility of fish or amphibians.)
Humans are the most extreme K strategizers in all of nature: they seldom have more than one child per year and several over a lifetime, but typically devote much time and effort to raising them. However, not all human groups are equally K strategizers. Compared to white and Asian populations, black Africans are more fertile and tend to devote less time and effort to their offspring. The highest fertility rates in the world today are found in sub-Saharan Africa, where women have averaged as many as seven or eight children in recent years. African women begin having children early, but the fussy parenting style common to Europeans and Asians is not usually found among them; African children are often sent out to foster parents (commonly more distant relatives) so that the mother can turn her attention to producing more babies.
This relatively 'r' reproductive strategy of black Africans is a natural response to an environment in which diseases that seem to strike randomly are a leading cause of death. By having a lot of children, Africans increase the likelihood that some will live long enough to have children of their own.
At northern latitudes, on the other hand, the biggest threat to survival is the regular annual recurrence of winter, a threat which may be overcome by intelligence and forethought. These conditions favor a 'K' strategy of devoting more effort to preparing their children for the challenges they will face, rather than simply having more of them.
A whole host of measurable differences between the races can be explained in terms of r/K selection theory. Psychologist J. Philippe Rushton (1943 – 2012) found that East Asians average a larger brain size, greater intelligence, greater sexual restraint, slower rates of maturation, and greater law abidingness and social organization than those of other races. Black Africans are at the other extreme, while whites score in between (usually closer to East Asians than to Africans). He found that this same pattern prevailed for the racial averages of more than seventy traits. The consistency of this pattern provides important evidence that racial differences are objectively real, not a mere matter of "the color of one's skin" or socially instilled prejudice.
Further reading: J. Philippe Rushton, Race, Evolution and Behavior, 2nd abridged edition, (2000).
https://www.amren.com/news/2025/09/the-intelligent-persons-guide-to-race-racial-differences-2/