[T.C.]

Do blacks feel physical pleasure differently than whites? In sex, food, warmth and other physical pleasures and desires, it appears black people are somehow hungrier for the pleasure than white people. How can this be? Neurotransmitter differences? Serotonin uptake?

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Name : T.C., City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, 

[JerryS]

It never occurred to me that blacks are hungrier for pleasure than white people. Are you mistaking their indifference to your behavioral norms for an innate difference? It is true that some cultures are more exuberant than others, and that some cultures are more Sybaritic (enjoying pleasures) than others, but I don't think race enters into it. Sure, the Puritans were white and supposedly abstemious (although they drank rum in enormous quantities), but they were racially indistinguishable from Vikings, who were stereotypically lusty. I'm sure if you were to compare different cultures across sub-Saharan Africa, you'd see a similar range. Historically, people have tended to equate the seeking of pleasure with decadence, and hence with inferiority. During the Crusades, the Western Europeans looked down on the Italians and Byzantines as pleasure-obsessed sissies, and the Mongols regarded the Persians and other urbanized civilizations the same way.

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[Veronica24535]

I'm shocked that anyone would ask such a question. Maybe blacks are more culturally conditioned to express feelings of pleasure/anger/humor than their white counterparts, but I doubt that their bodies react differently.

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[Tyrone-J]

As a strong black man, I can tell you that there is a hell of a difference in the way blacks feel pleasure and pain. I've been involved with women of all races: white, Italian, Jewish, Armenian, Chinese, etc. There is always this amazement that I am 'so into it' when we are having sex, for example. Brothers are very passionate. We don't 'front' or 'go through the motions' like white people do. Most blacks are raised with the belief that we may not live very long.

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[Sherman]

I don't think we feel physical pleasure differently, but we are more expressive about it. We are raised with the knowledge that we may not see tommorrow, and we have a lot of hardships to deal with, so we take pleasure whenever and wherever possible.

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[Kristina]

Blacks do not have any more neurotransmitters or serotonin than whites. What you are observing is a cultural difference. Blacks enjoy the 'simpler' things in life because they haven't had the opportunity to get more. They had to relish whatever natural pleasures they could get. This was especially the case during slavery. The things you mention, sex and food - these were the only things blacks could really enjoy freely now and then. Blacks are also more spiritually-minded than whites. This is not in reference to religion, because religion is not spirituality. This I guess could be referenced to one's correlation with life, God, and nature. The original African societies integrated spiritual elements within their culture. This integration allowed them to enjoy things of nature more. Of course, Africans are not the only ones like this. Native Americans for example also integrate elements of spirtuality and nature into their cultural behaviors.

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[Tammy]

Blacks do not feel physical pleasure differently than whites just because we are black. People are who they are based on their genetics and, more importantly, their personal experiences. How one interprets a physical encounter has nothing to do with color. It has to do mainly with one's perception, values and experiences.

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[T.C.]

You may well be correct that the differences are purely cultural. There is a more critical question, namely: do these differences exist? I'm not sure they do. Two other points: First, isn't it fascinating how so-called oppressed groups have differing interpretations of genetic factors that predispose potential (not actual) behavior? Generally speaking, homosexuals want everyone to believe their 'lifestyle' is genetically conditioned. (Maybe it is. It doesn't matter to me one way or another.) Yet it is strictly forbidden to ask whether there are physical differences between and among ethnic groups. For some odd reason, it's OK to speak in polite company about sickle cell anemia in those of sub-Saharan African descent, or even the strong tendency to alcoholism among aboriginal North Americans. But God forbid there's a genetic predisposition to, oh, say, the operation of pleasure-paid neurotransmission. Interesting, wouldn't you say? Second, your response places my question (observation?) into an interesting historic context. I didn't know all of the citations you made, but I take them at face value. You make good points, although I hadn't meant to connect pleasure-seeking with inferiority. Far from it. I'm just curious, that's all. However, now that you mention it, delayed gratification may well have survival value. Did you know that the most common form of HIV contraction in Africa is heterosexual transmission by means of blood exchange through open genital sores from relatively minor STD infections? Hmmm. Interesting again, particularly in the context of the pleasure-pain question. People literally dying for a quick squirt.

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Name : T.C., City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, 

[Sheryl S.]

This question gave me a chuckle for the day. No, blacks do not feel pleasure any differently than whites. Perception of blacks' enjoyment is in the eye of the beholder. Serotonin levels may differ in people across the board, so if you are seeing people with lower serotonin levels, their enjoyment quotient of physical pleasures would seem lower, as the reverse would be true with a higher level. I am interested in hearing what makes you think blacks feel physical pleaures differently from whites.

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[Beth]

The differences in the way blacks and whites experience pleasure is most likely an inherent evolutionary difference in the races. The black race developed in the more tropical regions of the Sub-Saharan desert, while European races developed in the harsher regions of Europe. Blacks had plenty of land resources, food and sexual partners and plenty of time to partake in these indulgences, while the white race spent its time struggling for survival. The white race had to learn to be civilized to suppress their immediate desire to eat in order to have enough food saved in the winter, while blacks could eat all they wanted anytime they wanted. What it comes down to is that now that blacks are living in white civilizations, like the United States was created to be, they are being required to work for their pleasures. They have to work to get money for food, and they aren't allowed (in theory, anyway) to force themselves on multiple sex partners. Blacks are resistant to the white 'delayed gratification system,' and their strong hunger for pleasure may well be a sign of an innate desire to return to the more base and barbaristic lifestyle of the African jungles. It is most likely a sign of the inappropriatness of blacks living in a white society. If you want more information and straight facts about the evolution of the races, I suggest reading 'My Awakening' by David Duke.

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[Melissa]

It's amazing you believe the racist rhetoric written by a former grand wizard. It's amazing how white people always generalize about other races. Keep thinking the way you do and racism will never die. Oops, I forgot, you can't see that because of the burning cross you just put on my lawn.

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[Ptah30309]

Beth, white people went to every country in the world, especially Africa, for the resources, land, food, women and everything else. Barbarians? Whites have destroyed and raped many civilizatons. If you were so civilized, how come you needed slaves? And why did whites go to every country and kill the people and rape the women?

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[Tubbs]

David Duke. . . Are you kidding? You must be. You cannot seriously be providing David Duke, ex-Klansman, as a reliable source for scientific evidence regarding race.

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[G.K.]

I don't know how you can say whites haven't been involved in past barbarism when the Serbs, Croatians and Muslims spent the last decade trying to wipe each other off the face of the planet because of religious and political differences. Africans haven't got a claim on barbaric behavior. Also, I don't think we as black people are more hungry for the average amount of pleasures and desires - we just tend to be more expressive about them. But the bottom line is we're human, and we hurt, sweat, get hungry and get sick just like any other human beings on this planet.

I also don't know where Beth gets off using that ignorant and insulting article by some sorry racist who is not even a scientist and has virtually no evidence to back up his idiotic claims. Learn to think for yourself and don't just swallow any piece of garbage thrown in front of you. I'm tired of reading B.S. in which white racists fall back on long-discredited racial theories to justify their so-called superiority. As a previous poster mentioned, how do you the explain the high popularity of S&M and other weird sexual practices among Europeans (and European-Amercans) even within what we know as civilization? Sorry, but white folks haven't got a claim on being civilized. I'm tired of reading posts written by white folks complaining about how 'uncivilized' black folks are, as if there is something wrong with us just because we don't fit into some white person's concept of what we should be.

By the way, I love Y? Forum, and I should get to hunting the book down when I get a chance!

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[Ramon]

To William: You don't know if Africans have evolved from barbaric behavior - as whites have? What about pedophile Catholic priests (most of whom are white), most serial killers, domestic terrorists like Timothy McVeigh, the white 'gentlemen' who dragged the African American to his death in Texas, the mass carnage in the Balkans, the horrors of what whites have done in South Africa (the same place where all the 'barbaric' black Africans live), the racists who bombed teenage girls in a church during the civil rights movement and other crimes by the KKK and other white supremacist groups? These surely display how much you guys have evolved from barbaric behavior.

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