For the past few years, I’ve been hearing rumors about black people having an extra muscle in their leg. Of course, I am having a really hard time believing this, but in my disbelief and search for evidence to disprove this rumor, I am finding almost nothing giving information on the verification or falsification of this statement. I have read articles online from people saying that it’s ridiculous that some people say that when they have no idea where people heard it from. Then again, I’ve heard an African American say “It’s true”. My girlfriend even told me her ex-boyfriend (who is black) had said that it was true and he even gave the name for it (but she couldn’t remember the name of it). Again, I am still in disbelief. Did some racist or jealous athlete coin this idea one day to justify the presence of so many black athletes in the world today (i.e., basketball, sprinting), or did some anatomical experiment uncover this little tid-bit of knowledge and never publicize its discovery? If anyone with some credentials or a valid source of information can provide ANY imput, I would greatly appreciate it.
Fiction.
I’ll give you a cite as soon as I find one proving that white men don’t have two brains.
It isn’t true. While there are arguably some minor physiological and morphological differences between races, something as major as an additional pair of muscles would have required major evolutionary changes. Or, perhaps more accurately, a loss of a pair of muscles, since all humans evolved from a common ancestor who would have had this purported muscle pair.
Oh, welcome to the boards, by the way. 
That’s called the phallis frontalis major, my friend.
It is in fact very slighty kind of true. Some people have an extra muscle in their legs. It’s not a major muscle and it (obviously) doesn’t do anything important. It also isn’t in any way restricted to blacks nor do all balcks have the extra muscle. It just happens that more black people have extra muscle than white people. So saying black people have an extra muscle is kind of like saying that black people have lactose intolerance. It’s not retricted to blacks and it’s not found in all blacks.
Cite, please? What is the name of this supposed muscle? What studies verified that blacks possess it more frequently?
Do you happen to know the name of this muscle? Intuitively, it seems to me that the vast vast majority of people should have the same number of muscles, bones, etc. (Although I know that it happens in rare cases that someone is born with an extra finger/toe/whatever or missing something)
Perhaps the muscles themselves are a little different, on average, from race to race – bigger or smaller; stronger or weaker; speed oriented or endurance oriented; etc. But a whole new muscle? I’m skeptical.
I’m looking for a reputable cite. It’s one of those odd muscles that doesn’t actually do anything now that we walk upright since its function has since been assumed by another group. There are a few of those in the body, and not everyone has te same muscle count for that reason. Occasionally these odd little things vanish and no on is any the worse off. There’s another muscle in the jaw that in other animals help pivot the ears that is also fairly varaible in its presence, but I’ve never heard of it being racially linked.
Okay then. So with a combination of the replies so far, would it be safe to say that:
There is an extra pair of muscles, one in each leg, of African Americans, yet they do not contribute to such a significant difference of athletic performance and ability on the average of African American athletes vs. Caucasian athletes?
Yeah, thanks for the warm smartass welcome…
No it wouldn’t. No more than it would be safe to say that every African American has sickle cell anaemia. It’s a condition that is more prevalent in blacks but that is far form from universal amongst blacks and that is also found in whites albeit at lower levels.
No, it’s not safe to say that. Only one person, Blake has alleged that it might have some basis in fact. Unless he (or someone else) can come up some actual documentation, it’s best to consider this bogus.
Okay then, I guess I’ll just continue to disbelieve this rumor, as it is just a rumor…by the way, BrianS, why is it that the phallis frontalis major doesn’t exist in any anatomical dictionary I have?
However, I am really no further from the lie and closer to the truth than I was before. At least now I have the knowledge that there are those out there who disagree with this rumor and find it a general misconception just as I do. The only problem is that no one has sliced open ten caucasian legs and ten african american legs and found five times out of five, those african americans have muscles the caucasians don’t…which maybe isn’t such a bad thing afterall…
I don’t know of a leg muscle, but as this page mentions, the palmaris longus (one of the muscles in the forearm) is missing on one or both sides in about 20% of the population.
You’ve been whooshed. Look up “phallus” (the correct spelling), then think about the old joke about African men having something larger than white men.
Y’know, it’s really up to those who are making the claim to back it up. You don’t have to disprove it - those who believe it have to produce the evidence. The next time someone tells you this, ask them to put up or shut up.
We have actually discussed this before, and no one then came up with any evidence for the supposed muscle either:
Please help me dispel this racist myth
And regarding the warmth of your welcome, you are most fortunate that Collounsbury is no longer around, as he would have given you a toasty one indeed. 
There is the plantaris, which is pretty small but I have no idea if it is absent in some people. It is quite vestigial, though.
edwino, who has no palmaris longus.
OK, how about this: My wife is a foot surgeon. In medical school and since she has dissected multiple lower limbs, of a number of races, ethnicities, genders, etc. IOW, she has performed your test. Nothing. Some people have various anatomical variations in nerves, blood vessels, muscular structure and accessory bones. No “extra” leg muscles for different groups. (Obviously, there are great variations in the size and strength of various muscles groups between individuals. That’s not the claim however.)
Not good enough? Ok, it is anecdotal evidence, after all. How about Gray’s Anatomy? Looking though the chapters on the muscles and fascia of the leg and thigh, I see references to variations in the relationship of certain muscles, in structure and organization…
Wait, wait, here’s something:
And:
OK, so we have two little muscles that don’t do anything much and are occasionally missing as part of normal human variation. No extra muscles.
But can even this variation save the OP? No. There is no research indexed in peer-reviewed medical journals that supports the idea that the absence of these muscles is racially dimorphic.
I can’t prove that there is no such thing as an extra “black leg muscle”, but I think this does suggest that there isn’t any evidence for it. To echo Colibri, this is an assertion where the burden of proof is on the one who presents it.
I’ve always thought this rumor probably started as a “sour grapes” type thing by some unathletic white guys…you know…“we can’t jump as well as they can because they have an extra muscle” or some nonsense…
I was playing basketball at a local park one time in HS, and talking with some black friends of mine…I’ve always been a good jumper (for a white guy, as they would say), and one time I asked them why they thought that, as a rule, black people are better leapers than white people…one of them said ,“well how did you get here today?”
me-“i drove that car”
him-“see that bicycle? thats how i got here. When you were a kid, how did you get across town for baseball practice?”
me-“mom gave me a ride”
him-“I rode my bike there too…everywhere I’ve gone, my whole life, I’ve walked or rode a bike, you have ridden or driven a car…and you wonder why I am a better jumper than you?”