Posted on 10/17/2007 1:36:52 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
'Black people are less intelligent than whites', claims DNA pioneer
One of the world's most eminent scientists is at the centre of a row after claiming black people are less intelligent than whites.
James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, has drawn condemnation for comments made ahead of his arrival in Britain tomorrow for a speaking tour.
Dr Watson, who now runs one of America's leading scientific research institutions, made the controversial remarks in an interview in The Sunday Times.
The 79-year-old geneticist said he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really".
He said he hoped that everyone was equal, but countered that "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true".
He claimed genes responsible for creating differences in human intelligence could be found within a decade.
He includes his views in a new book, published this week, in which he writes that "there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically".
"Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so," he says.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is now studying Dr Watson's remarks "in full".
Dr Watson arrives in Britain to promote his latest book, Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science.
Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, told the Independent: "It is sad to see a scientist of such achievement making such baseless, unscientific and extremely offensive comments.
"I am sure the scientific community will roundly reject what appear to be Dr Watson's personal prejudices. These comments serve as a reminder of the attitudes which can still exist at the highest professional levels."
Dr Watson was hailed as achieving one of the greatest single scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century when he worked at the University of Cambridge in the 1950s and 1960s, forming part of the team which discovered the structure of DNA.
He shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for medicine with his British colleague Francis Crick and New Zealand-born Maurice Wilkins.
He has served for 50 years as a director of the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory on Long Island, considered a world leader in research into cancer and genetics.
He has courted controversy in the past, reportedly saying that a woman should have the right to abort her unborn child if tests could determine it would be homosexual.
He has suggested a link between skin colour and sex drive, proposing a theory that black people have higher libidos.
He also claimed that beauty could be genetically manufactured, saying: "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great."
Steven Rose, a professor of biological sciences at the Open University, told the Independent: "This is Watson at his most scandalous. He has said similar things about women before but I have never heard him get into this racist terrain.
"If he knew the literature in the subject he would know he was out of his depth scientifically, quite apart from socially and politically."
Not only that, but Everyone knows that “White Men can’t Jump” or dance either for that matter.
barbra ann
What an ass.
TRUE STATEMENT: Men are on average taller than women.
LIBERAL RESPONSE: That's because men are sexist oppressors who cause global warming.
Indeed, if mankind evolved over millions of years, and the 'races' of homo sapiens sapiens have been separated for tens of thousands of years, you could easily conclude that one 'race' would be smarter, one stronger, one more artistic, etc.
Which is why Macroevolution--from a social standpoint; not bringing science into this--is an inherently racist hypothesis.
Mutations are almost invariably detrimental, and humans have only existed as a species for a few millennia, and for even less time in isolated groupings, which is now becoming more and more less isolated.
Best post on the thread so far. Nothing else even close.
George Washington Carver did more for humankind that all of the present day socialists put together!
I’d have to agree that blacks are less intelligent as they almost always vote for Democrats.
What if it’s true? Wishing it away on political grounds won’t change it and won’t help anyone either.
* What field is AlGore an expert in? *
Food Critic
Basically the man is too smart for his britches and he should shut up about Africans and just get to the matter that in the end genetics do matter.
Well darn, I guess I should tell my Sweetie not to bother finishing his Dissertation over the next 2 months...what a shame, he seemed so intelligent!
The differences in average IQ’s between the different racial groups have been known for many years. Yes there are exceptions to every rule, but on average the Black American IQ is around 85 whereas the average White American IQ is around 100. The Hispanic IQ lies in between.
These are inconvenient truths that the PC Police want supressed at all costs.
The failings of Africa are cultural. Yet I don't think we can uniformly condemn Africans as a race. Even Europe has it's "dark ages". I mean, it's relatively recently that we've engaged in standard hygienic practices.
In truth, I'll be kind of saddened if they can prove beyond a doubt there are genetic differences between races that could lead to being classified as "less intelligent". This fellow implies that such differences will be scientifically identifiable within a decade.
I mourn for the generation that will be subjected to "Genoism" and discarded as a whole from society for their inadequacies due to "sinister birth".
In the mean time, here's a list that celebrates the triumphs of black pioneers:
#1 Andrew Beard...
Andrew Beard received a patent for a device he called the Jenny Coupler. The Jenny Coupler automatically joined cars by simply allowing them to bump into each other, or as Beard described it the "horizontal jaws engage each other to connect the cars."
#2 Charles W. Buggs...
He conducted special research on why some bacteria (germs) do not react to certain medicines.
#3 Charles Drew...
Developer of techniques for storing and transfusing blood plasma.
#4 Charles Henry Turner...
He is credited with being the first researcher to prove that insects can hear and can also distinguish pitch.
#5 Daniel Hale Williams...
Pioneered in surgery on the human heart.
#6 Elijah McCoy...
Elijah's first invention was a lubricator for steam engines, which allowed machines to remain in motion to be oiled; his new oiling device revolutionized the industrial machine industry.His other inventions included an ironing board and lawn sprinkler.
#7 Frederick M. Jones...
Frederick M. Jones patented a ticket dispensing machine for movie theaters, and also a sound system for theaters. Frederick also invented a refrigerator device installed on big trucks to keep perishables cold.
#8 Garrett A. Morgan...
Among Garrett's inventions was an early traffic signal, that greatly improved safety on America's streets and roadways. Indeed, Morgan's technology was the basis for modern traffic signal systems and was an early example of what we know today as Intelligent Transportation Systems.
#9 George Carruthers ...
George Carruthers first major contribution to science was to lead the team that invented the far ultraviolet camera spectrograph used for the Apollo 16 mission to the moon.
#10 George Washington Carver...
Former Slave, Educator, Scientist, Businessperson, Service Industry Employee, Agriculturist, Medical Worker, Artist, Author, Lecturer, Domestic, Reformer, Performing Artist.
#11 Granville T Woods...
Granville T Woods invented improvements to electric railways - air brakes - telephones and telegraphs - a chicken egg incubator and an apparatus for an amusement park ride.
#12 James Forten...
James Forten, prominent Philadelphia businessman, abolitionist and black leader, inventor.
#13 Jan Ernst Matzeliger...
Content resource on Jan Ernst Matzeliger, African American inventor of a shoemaking machine.
#14 J. Ernest Wilkins Jr....
By the time he was 27 J. Ernest Wilkins was part-owner of a firm which designed and developed nuclear reactors for creating atomic power.
#15 John Christian...
John Christian was working as an Air Force - Materials Research Engineer - when he invented and patented new lubricants - used in high flying aircraft and NASA space missions.
#16 Lewis Howard Latimer...
Lewis Latimer invented a device for efficiently manufacturing the carbon filaments used in electric lamps and shared a patent for the Maxim electric lamp. He also patented a threaded wooden socket for light bulbs.
#17 Louis T. Wright...
While serving in the Army Medical Corps during the First World War he introduced intradermal vaccination for smallpox.
#18 Madam C.J. Walker...
Madam C. J. Walker founded her own business and began selling Madam Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower, a scalp conditioning and healing formula, which she invented.
#19 Meredith C. Gourdine...
Meredith Gourdine was a physicist, pioneer researcher and inventor in the field of electrogasdynamics, a process dealing with the action of charged particles moving through a gas stream.
#20 Norbert Rillieux...
Norbert Rillieux invented the sugar processing evaporator.
#21 Otis Boykin ...
Otis Boykin invented an improved electrical resistor used in computers - radios - television sets and a variety of electronic devices.
#22 Percy Julian...
Inventor of a remedy for arthiritis led to fame and fortune for Dr. Percy Julian, a noted chemical scientist.
#23 Rufus Stokes...
In 1968, Rufus Stokes was granted a patent on an air-purification device to reduce the gas and ash emissions of furnace and power plant smokestack emissions.
#24 Vance H. Marchbanks Jr....
The first black Air Force doctor was also an space pioneer.
#25 William A. Hinton...
William A. Hinton was an African-American doctor, professor, and the first Black to publish an academic textbook.
At one point I was reading some research about blacks doing very well on tests involving making correct split-second decisions. Which might be a contributing reason why blacks are so over-represented in basketball (which involves a lot of fast decision making as to who is in the best position to pass to without interception).
Yes, but if Finns were to migrate to the Outback, they’d figure out in short order how to survive there, and I would bet that in no time they’d be building houses with electricity and air conditioning and refrigeration, and they wouldn’t have to worry about living off the land. They wouldn’t need affirmative action to keep up with the Aborigines. In fact, the Aborigines would soon be demanding access to the neighborhoods the Finns established.
I have no doubt that when the Europeans first colonized South Africa, there were some native customs that the African tribes had developed for hunting and things of that nature that the Brits and Boers admired. But within no time the Europeans were not only running the place, but had brought in technology the Africans never dreamed of, and soon Africans from further north were flooding into the territory to benefit from the higher standard of living the Europeans established there.
The problem with that is the EEOC and other agencies will judge you on your averages
Simple, there are native Africans that can live in the wilds with nothing but a sharp stick and a couple of rocks. You or I in that same situation would quite likely end up in the belly of something or other by the end of the first week.
We may be able to do algebra in our heads and type 80 words a minute, so in the case then any test based on that criteria we would obviously show a huge difference in intelligence. He on the other hand can do things taught or self learned that we probably couldn't do without years of practice also.
I guess the only way to describe it is book smart vs. street smart, is the Nigerian scammer with only his street smarts who empties your bank account any less intelligent than the WASP businessman who lets him?
Man, I don't know what it was in your upbringing that turned you into such a bitter, narrow minded racist. < /sarcasm>
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