Pioneering DNA Scientist Draws Outrage for Saying Africans Are Less Intelligent

The Chronicle of Higher Education
News Blog
October 18, 2007

Pioneering DNA Scientist Draws Outrage for Saying Africans Are Less Intelligent

The Nobel laureate James D. Watson, a co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, has drawn waves of outrage after the geneticist told The Sunday Times, a British newspaper, that Africans and Europeans have different levels of intelligence.
The comments have triggered a landslide of condemnation from scientists, lawmakers, and civil-rights leaders.
London’s Science Museum canceled a sold-out lecture by Mr. Watson, who shared a Nobel Prize in 1962, after the newspaper printed his remarks. Mr. Watson is now chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, in New York.
The Times quoted the 79-year-old scientist as saying 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 added that while he hoped everyone was equal, “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.”

[To see the entire article, and the accompanying blog comments, go to: http://chronicle.com/news/article/3267/pioneering-dna-scientist-draws-outrage-for-saying-africans-are-less-intelligent?at&commented=0#txpCommentInputForm ]