The Influence of the Eugenics Movement on Physical Education in the United States

How "race" is used in U.S. peer-reviewed studies of cardiovascular health and cardiorespiratory fitness: A scoping review protocol

“…The goal of this study is to examine if and how race is used in peer-reviewed research to explain differences in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and/or cardiovascular health (CVH) amongst racial/ethnic populations living in the United States (U.S.) . This scoping review is informed by a review of literature that details how social and cultural notions of race manifested within antebellum scientific studies that examined differences in biological, physiological, and intellectual capabilities of U.S. populations (Couturier, 2005). As such, we are interested in how and if contemporary definitions and understandings of race are used to construct health and fitness narratives that inform health practices.…”

“…Another reason we are interested in how and if race is used to explain population differences in CRF and CVH is because, post-emancipation, during Jim Crow in the 1930s, the triumphs of Jesse Owens in the 1936 Berlin Olympics ignited a profuse amount of research that examined, and even reported causation between race and athletic performance (running particularly; Dyreson, 2001). In short, Black success in athletics was not conceptualized as being a product of their ability to work-hard , but rather, it was tied to their "inhuman" and "primitive" physiological structures (Couturier, 2005). Since the "spirit of science" often requires that contemporary studies of race and CRF/CVH be informed by the studies of the past, we are interested in seeing how and if contemporary studies define and utilize race in their modern studies.…”