"James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in the unravelling 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."
"The 79-year-old geneticist reopened the explosive debate about race and science in a newspaper interview in which he said Western policies towards African countries were wrongly based on an assumption that black people were as clever as their white counterparts when 'testing' suggested the contrary. He claimed genes responsible for creating differences in human intelligence could be found within a decade."
"Dr Watson stated at the weekend that he is '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 went on to argue that although one hopes that everyone, regardless of ethnicity, has equal powers of reason 'people who have to deal with black employees find this not true'."
Peace and blessings,
The following excerpts were taken from the first two articles below. I heard about
Another issue I have with Watson's claim is that his so-called evidence is suspect. For a world renowned molecular biologist to claim in 2007 that Africans are not as intelligent as Europeans, and to base this claim on IQ tests in the 1990s that showed some differences between racial groups, is problematic. For one, many have argued that IQ tests are flawed and biased. Also, I don't see how he can have the audacity to suggest that Africans are not as intellegent as Europeans, given that many humanity's intellectual contributions to the understanding of the world (e.g. science, philosophy, mathematics) either originated or was epitomized and "borrowed" from the Egyptians, who are North Africans. Lastly, no one can dispute the fact that life began in Africa, which would explain why Africa is home of the first university in the world, the
In the book Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children (Gloria Ladson-Billings, 1997), the author recalls a teacher who told her students in her math class about the African Orgins of Algebra, and how the first definitive evidence of the use of Algebra were found in the writings of Ahmes, an Egyptian mathmetician who lived around 1700 B. C.
In closing, I just pray that we get to a point where we can celebrate difference as one of God's may gifts to human kind, and to view these differences not as our limited, flawed nature wants us to view them, but how God our Creator views them. Given that we did not create any aspect of our being (e.g. brain), we are in no position say one group's intellect is better than another's. To start passing value judgments on people's intellect is to suggest that we know everything there is to know about intellect, and history clearly shows us otherwise, lol. What do you think? What are your thoughts on Watson's comments? Do you think that groups of people can generally differ in their intellect? Stay blessed, encouraged, and speekonit...
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