White fascination with black physicality has been part of a dark historical undercurrent. Racial and ethnic groups were ranked according to all kinds of measurements, for example, skull size. By this noxious stereotype, which still holds sway in many circles today, black athletes are seen by some as contemporary African savages in breechcloth and nose ring. It is this racially charged subtext that informs the Lewis controversy and needs to be shattered. IF I ts not confronted in its full historical and scientific context.
Race is soaked in much folkloric nonsense.
Virtually all complex phenomena, such as intelligence, do not fall into neat racial categories. Although racial labels are occasionally helpful terms, as when geneticists try to isolate shared genes that cause diseases, they can mislead. Some few traits are correlated, as with dark skin color and curly hair. But such links are not absolute. Some East Indians also have dark skin, but straight hair.