Month: March 2010

One of the world’s most eminent scientists was embroiled in an extraordinary row last night [2007] after he claimed that black people were less intelligent than white people and the idea that “equal powers of reason” were shared across racial groups was a delusion.

James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in the unraveling of DNA who now runs one of America’s leading scientific research institutions, drew widespread condemnation for comments he made ahead of his arrival in Britain today for a speaking tour at venues including the Science Museum in London. [ …]

Anti-racism campaigners called for Dr Watson’s remarks to be looked at in the context of racial hatred laws. A spokesman for the 1990 Trust, a black human rights group, said: “It is astonishing that a man of such distinction should make comments that seem to perpetuate racism in this way. It amounts to fuelling bigotry and we would like it to be looked at for grounds of legal complaint.”

Source of this and following quotes:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/fury-at-dna-pioneers-theory-africans-are-less-intelligent-than-westerners-394898.html

Right: the law decides whether the truth can be said by an eminent scientist. Human Stupidity, Dogmatism and political correctness in its pure form. Like the pope who would prohibit Galileo to show proof that the earth is round and moves.

But Galileo was counterintuitive: we all see that the earth does not move. But there is a wealth of intuitive anecdotal evidence in favor of difference between the races

• medieval sailors reported primitive tribes in Africa, but highly developed civilizations in Asia. That was right before white colonialism, which could not be blamed for the differences
• African Nations, even experimental nations like Liberia, for some reason never function and prosper. So Dr. Watson’s sincere concern is justified.
• In the US, states, cities and districts with high percentage of blacks tend to have more crime and poverty.
• Second and third generation kids of war fugitives from Korea or Vietnam in the US do not need any affirmative action. On the contrary, Asians are taking over the nation’s top Universities. So why do 10th generation Blacks need affirmative action, and even that seems not to work?

Dr Watson told The Sunday Times that 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 there was a natural desire that all human beings should be equal but “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”.
His views are also reflected in a book published next week, in which he writes: “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.”
The furore echoes the controversy created in the 1990s by The Bell Curve, a book co-authored by the American political scientist Charles Murray, which suggested differences in IQ were genetic and discussed the implications of a racial divide in intelligence. The work was heavily criticised across the world, in particular by leading scientists who described it as a work of “scientific racism”. […]

Especially by leading sociologists who invent such gems like “race does not exist” or “race is only skin deep”. Any child can disprove the first statement, and any forensic expert can tell you the race of a person by a single bone. An expert on race and intelligence  J.P. Rushton’s comments on Watson on NPR

It is important to state that Dr. Watson is not a racist. There is no glee: “hey, we have proven white supremacy”.  No, he is sorry for the results, but true scientists are interested in reporting the truth, not what people want to hear. And he is truly concerned about finding the right policy for Africa. Obviously the last century of Africa policy has not yielded good results.

Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “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.

Actually, the scientific proof for the “Bell Curve” is overwhelming. And with the overwheliming anecdotal evidence cited above there should better be some good scientific proof for Keith Vaz unfounded statements.