I stumbled across this article from the Times of London in which quotes James Watson, the scientist who discovered the double helix formation of DNA as saying that blacks are not as intelligent as people of other races. His comments were made when discussing his opinion for the prospects for change in Africa. He is quoted as saying that things were gloomy in the region 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.”
Watson went on to say that: "His hope is that everyone is equal, but he counters that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”. He says that you should not discriminate on the basis of colour, because “there are many people of colour who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level”. He writes that “there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically."
This is not the first time that Watson has made insensitive remarks. In the past, he has been raised the ire of women’s groups for his comments about female scientists. It seems that Watson would counter that many of his comments have a basis in science in scientific research. One has to wonder if these statements were made in an effort to help sell his new book. If it isn’t, this may just be an example of how seemingly intelligent people can be shockingly ignorant.