Posted on 10/17/2007 10:20:53 AM PDT by blam
Nobel scientist condemned for 'racist' claims
By Stephen Adams
Last Updated: 2:48pm BST 17/10/2007
Nobel Prize winning scientist Dr James Watson has been heavily criticised for making “racist” comments after he said Africans were not as intelligent as Europeans.
Dr Watson is no stranger to controversy
Dr Watson, who helped unravel the structure of DNA with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, was roundly condemned for saying 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”.
The eminent American, currently in Britain to promote a new book, also said the assumption that different racial groups shared “equal powers of reason” was backed by “no firm reason”.
His comments have been fiercely attacked by fellow scientists, anti-racism campaigners and politicians.
Neourobiologist Prof Steven Rose of the Open University, a founder member of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science, said such “racist” comments were also “genetic nonsense”.
“He should recognise that statements of this sort have racist functions and are to be deeply, deeply regretted,” he said.
“Making statements of that sort is certainly a great day for the British National Party but it’s a sad day for scientists and racial harmony.”
Dr Watson has courted controversy before, saying darker-skinned people have a higher sex drive and that women should hypothetically have the right to abort fetuses that “may have a tendency to become homosexual”.
He has also backed genetic screening.
Prof Stevens thought the 79-year-old American was stirring up trouble to raise publicity for his new book, entitled 'Avoid Boring People’.
He said: “He doesn’t need to do it. He had a distinguished reputation as a molecular biologist and he should keep out of areas in which he is not well qualified.”
No evidence that claimed to find people of African descent were less intelligent than Europeans or other racial groups had stood up to scientific scrutiny, he stressed.
Koku Adomdza, director of the black equality pressure group The 1990 Trust, labelled Dr Watson a “complete dinosaur” and pressed him to apologise to “Africa and all people of African origin”.
He said: “Dr Watson is really a relic of the oldest stock and deserves to be made to account for his extremely offensive and ignorant remarks.
“His very poisonously racist opinions put students and the unsuspecting public at serious risk.”
Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, commented: “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 exists at the highest professional levels.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission, successor to the Commission for Racial Equality, said it was considering Dr Watson’s remarks “in full”.
The comments by Dr Watson, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962 together with Britons Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, were first made in The Sunday Times.
I call on this man to apologize for his ageist statement.
ROTFL ... he’s certainly doing his part to diminish the value of a Nobel prize. Queue Al Gore ...
http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3067222.ece
articles cannot be posted by independent so you have to go to see the original story.
“He doesn’t need to do it. He had a distinguished reputation as a molecular biologist and he should keep out of areas in which he is not well qualified.”
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A little out of touch. Dr. James Watson is the original loudmouth celebrity scientist. He has been spouting off about subjects of which he know nothing for forty years.
Can’t let facts interfere, can we. Remember the “Bell Curve”? I think it’s also been offered that the Asian race is a tad smarter than the Caucasian race. Should we protest and demand a retraction to facts? Hmmm?
Why isn't the NBA dominated by 4'3" oriental women?
The big pic is to work together! Not tear each other apart!
I don't know why it's so threatening to some that there might truly be inherent, genetic differences among groups of people. It seems that some are unable to comprehend the difference between statements of generalized facts and statements of specifics.
If it's a general fact that one race or another has an average IQ higher or lower than another, that does not mean a thing about any specific person's IQ. Anglo-Saxons can be less intelligent on average than Asians, and it doesn't mean anything about my intelligence. It's simply a general fact about an overall population.
My intelligence is exactly what it always was. My success and happiness in life are not completely dependent on my IQ. I'm no more nor less of a good or valuable person because of my IQ.
In other words: So what?
Don't fear truth.
I believe that the reason is that Watson has always been a darling of the Left and has been a very useful idiot in advancing their causes.
They can't resist sensationalizing anything "racist," but they don't want to permanently damage his utility to them, so they scrupulously avoid including his name in the headline, because that's the only thing most people will bother with anyway.
Tut, tut! Not political correct thing to say in this climate.
Amazing that a guy this intelligent could postulate something so stupid. I think he just singlehandedly brought down the caucasion IQ enough to negate his study’s “results.”
Oh boy! That'll get everyone pissed off!
William B. Shockley, 79, Creator Of Transistor and Theory on Race
I love it! The liberal education establishment lives and dies by "testing" and "research". What phonies.
If a scientist does a study to prove him wrong, but the numbers end up supporting him, is the study de facto racist?
It is best to determine the required outcome before any studies are done, in order to ensure that the science is objective ;-) Same applies to global warming studies.
Seems sensible, however, to actually challenge the man’s statements not through counter-claims, but actual science. But I realize this won’t happen; the budget is still tied up in the trans-gender inequality study.
“Nobel Scientist Condemned For ‘Racist’ Claims”
During the years I was in/around science in “the academy”, the rap
on Watson was he was “a sexist pig”, given some of his remarks on
the females of the species.
(and maybe an unseemly bit of skirt-chasing...for the average scientist!).
Asian isn’t a race. If it was, then it would shatter the MA Teacher’s Union’s assertion that the MCAS Test is racist.
I'm also tire of people stating that Norwegians are taller on average than Pygmies. Its insulting. People are all exactly the same, no matter what.
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