Genes, Race and Intelligence: what James Watson didn’t get

Just when we’re teaching our children to treat everyone fairly, despite color, race, sex or abilities, here comes a leading DNA scientist hitting the wedge deeper with his controversial comments on race and intelligence.

James Watson, one of the genetics scientists responsible for discovering the structure of the DNA molecule in 1962, recently made a racial comment about intelligence levels among blacks.

A profile in the Sunday Times Magazie of London quoted him as saying:

He’s “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 that while he hopes everyone is equal, “people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true.” He also said people should not be discriminated against because of their color, adding that “there are many people of color who are very talented.”

Not everyone is equal, we know that. And from genetics, we know that diseases and genes are more prevalent in a certain race or sex than in others. But, each individual or race are unique, special, and gifted in their own way. And in no way should we treat people differently, disciminatorily, because of what they were born with. I would think James Watson would have gotten that right.

That’s not healthy. That’s not something we want our children to learn or grow up becoming.

Now, when you’re school children were to ask you about the differences between people and their abilities, how do you best handle it?

Tags: race, intelligence, DNA, James Watson, genetics, controversy, news