Posted on 10/19/2007 1:52:48 AM PDT by T.L.Sink
One of the most respected scientists is embroiled in an extraordinary row after claiming that black people are less intelligent than white people. James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, has provoked outrage with his comments. 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 the the testing says not really."
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
He may be another Newton, but it’s my guess he’s going to wish he was a brilliant diplomat instead by the time this is all over.
next thing you know, even Nobel Peace Prize winners will express wacky views. oh wait...
There are a couple of stories linked on Druge where he is apologizing for the comments.
Pheh, he’s an atheist if IIRC. I assume he’s an evolutionist as well. It’s not really surprising (or new) when evolutionists reach this conclusion. Nothing new here, just a logical conclusion if you’re starting from the supposition that man evolved from a lesser being and is still evolving (whether neo-darwinist or punctuated equilibrium, etc. it doesn’t matter)—he’s just being more forthright than your average macro-evolutionist.
Now if you start with the supposition that God created man in His own image, it’s different.
Nobel Prize or not Watson is toast.
This is at least the third article posted here about this guy and his claims. Of course, all the Bell Curve people are all over the other threads in full force calling the rest of us “politically correct” etc. Personally, I think his comments reflect negatively on the Nobel Prize, and I couldn’t be happier, considering some of the other recipients.
What’s odd is that I have seen numerous studies published stating that Asians were more intelligent than Caucasians, but never seen an uproar about that.
Why is that?? Someone help me out here!
If an influx of Asians were suddenly taking many jobs away from Caucasians, then there would be an uproar. Me - I don't buy that claim about Asian intellectual superiority over Caucasians, either.
Africa’s problems are moral, not intellectual. It doesn’t take a genius, or even an above average IQ, to know that rule of law, low taxes, security of property, and so on make for a successful polity.
I wonder what the gentleman thinks about North Korea.
If you embrace evolution as settled science it follows that races have a different genetic make up based on the evolutionary pressure from the environment they lived in. Thus their intelect would be “different” rather than the judgemental “smarter” or, “stupider”. This would apply to all characteristics. Variablility among individuals is obivious and undeniable. Variability among genetically isolated populations is required for evolution to work. Humans and human races are subject to the same forces as the rest of the species.
If you don’t accept this perhaps evolution should be reexamined....
< /humor>
Africa’s moral problems have indeed lead to a situation whereby, what we consider “intelligence” is, in the most general sense, diminished across populations.
I don’t think the factual matter of the depreciated intelligence of the citizens of third world countries across the world is so arguable.
I think this argument simply falls afoul of political correctness because the argument has been associated with skin color rather than the nature of third world nations and the cultures therein.
I feel, without evidence, that the measures of intelligence within the US today, among these same demographics, would not be dissimilar (they are) if assimilation were the by-word of today instead of “diversity”.
The important part to keep in mind is that these differences exist and political policies should be impacted by those differences.
For example: When seeking to influence a people in a foreign country favorably toward the US, how we seek to influence them depends greatly upon the intelligence of those people.
Actually, you have the cause and effect backwards. Intelligent people that can think logically tend to be conservative because their principles are based on logic and fundamentals. Less intelligent people tend to be liberals because they base their beliefs on "feelings" and don't think through and analyze their actions/policy beliefs.
Do you also disavow the claim that blacks are athletically superior to Caucasians or do you believe your lying eyes?
Years ago, I worked in a group home for retarded adults. They were mostly from rural areas of western Pennsylvania, and all of them were white. We had two in the group who were thought to have normal intelligence - but functioned and tested at a retarded level because of severe cultural deprivation.
They had been brought up on welfare in little backwoods trailers where everybody was their own aunt, uncle or cousin. Their diet consisted of boiled macaroni, an occasional squirrel, and soda and potato chips. They had almost no language skills because nobody ever talked to anybody else and their language had been so non-standard for generations that they were practically unintelligible anyway. They had no interaction with the outside world, except for an occasional visit from the social worker to certify them for welfare, until they got to the mandatory age for public school (and sometimes not even then, because the parents simply refused to send them).
A lot of Africans are in this situation. Their traditional culture has broken down and has been replaced by a highly politicized chaos that has no intellectual structure that could shape or train them to interact with the world around them in anything but the most instinctive and “primitive” way. Intelligence in its various degrees may be innate, but it is developed by living in a world that offers people fixed realities and concepts for building a theoretical structure that enables them to understand the world and act rationally in it (which also involves moral action). Therefore, their innate intelligence is simply never going to be developed until they have the structure that enables it to develop.
I have met some extremely intelligent African Christians, many of whom grew up in the same poverty as anybody else but were taken and sent to Catholic boarding schools when very young and emerged in no way inferior to their white counterparts.
We need more missionary activities in Africa. (Not to mention in rural Pennsylvania!) It is the structure and foundation of society that enables its people to be “intelligent.” While there will always be natural, individual differences within this, the basic level of civilized man will be pretty much the same. However, the very point of “cultural deprivation” is that there is no culture to nourish the mind, and this results in the permanent stunting of intellectual growth. Africa as a whole is in a state of cultural deprivation, and its people reflect this; but it’s a curable situation, if anybody cares to do so.
Well said! The gist of what he is saying may or may not be so, but it is out of context without explanation in that intelligence is not one absolute score. Plus such a statement tends to bias the entire body implying that the dumbest member of one race is smarter than the smartest person of the target race. Better that he would say nothing. Darwin already said what he said with consequences of slavery for years!
I am not in a position to opine on the accuracy of the intelligence comparisons. However, I do not agree that it’s particularly relevant. The cultural and moral factors that plague Africa are not unique to any racial group.
Our own “intellectual” class is proof that simple intelligence does not correlate with moral excellence, economic utility, or practical comprehension. If we can’t convince the brightest minds (by IQ measure) in the U.S. and Western Europe that Marxism is a recipe for disaster, why would we say that lower intelligence explains Africans’ falling for it?
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