Unpopular, maybe. But truth nonetheless.
What he said that REALLY got him in trouble is that, in his opinion, because Blacks score lower on I.Q. tests they were incapable of rising from the corruption and poverty and plagues modern day Africa.
Seems logical enough to me. If intelligence is what gets one out of economic straits, then more intelligence increases the likelihood of being freed from poverty and corruption. Conversely, less intelligence reduces that likelihood.
It wasn’t so much pointing out that they score lower, it was the implication that this lower score was due to genetics
I'm always uncomfortable with "implications." Dr. Watson is intelligent enough to express himself clearly if he had a point to make. He doesn't have to rely on vague implications. So I suspect it's just as likely that his "implications" are actually someone else's "inferences." And that is THEIR problem, not his.
... and the direct statement that BECAUSE of this difference there was really ‘no hope for Africa’.
A little strong, perhaps. Hyperbolic? Probably. But certainly reflective of a sentiment, if not an actuality.
One need only look at Zimbabwe and South Africa to see the truth of what you’re saying. Or look at Japan. They were mired in the doldrums for a long time due to isolation and an outmoded feudal system. But less than a century after Perry opened the Japanese ports, Japan was a powerful nation. They were able to defeat Russia in a war, conquer massive China, seize most of East Asia, hit us at Pearl Harbor, and hold their own against us for several months until we were able to turn the tide at Midway. Even then they kept fighting and we had to firebomb one city and nuke two others to finally bring them down.
And within a few short years, Japan was a world economic and intellectual power again.
Is any African country capable of that? They’ve been exposed to Western ideas for quite a while now. Yet their progress seems to be based on how many westerners are present in their countries. Every white westerner in Japan could leave tomorrow and the country would still flourish. But if every westerner were to leave Africa, and no one else were to move in (such as the Chinese), what would happen there? As bad as it is now, imagine what it would be like then.
But where is the cut off? If I.Q. score is a direct reflection on the ability to maintain a civil and productive society then why don’t we see Asian civilization topping the charts as far as corruption-free bastions of good governance? I don’t believe that the two things show a direct correlation, let alone causality.