So, we've all heard of James D. Watson, one of the men who discovered the structure of DNA. Well, apparently hes still alive, and he's gotten himself into some trouble. Last week he was suspened from the Cold Spring Harbor Labratory by the board of directors after making a "racist" comment. He had so many wonderful accomplishments, his colleagues were sad to see him go, but felt it was an appropriate time for him to leave. It all started when Watson went to Europe to pubicize his new book "Avoid Boring People" (my my what revolutionary advice Dr. Watson). During the interview, Watson 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 whearas all testing says not really." He continued by saying "there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically." As one could imagine, he was faced with tons of criticism. Watson did apologize saying that "this is not what I meant" but it was too late and he was forced to resign.
I thought that this article was very interesting and there are different factors that need to be taken into consideration. Firstly, Dr. Watson is 79 years old. I am not saying that he has gone crazy because I'm sure there are 79 year olds who have there senses about them and are still sharp, but you have to wonder if this comment can be forgivable because of his age and he did not really understand what he was saying, and how it would be interpreted. To refute this point i just made, for the fun of it, Watson said this while promoting his new book, which must let you know he still is a sharp thinker. So one has to wonder, is this just a senile crazy old man or has he made some groundbreaking scientific discovery that intelligence does not evolve equally? Americans of course would refuse to believe this because it totally destroys the ideal the country was founded on, equality. Will people start using this statement, made by a valid Nobel Prize winner, as an excuse to be racist? People do have the right to free speech, and they have heard the opinions of great scientits, what will this all lead to?
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3 comments:
Hi Sam,
i did too read this article and i find it fascinating. First of all, why do people care so much about what a 79 year old dude says? Everyone has their slips and everyone is entitled to their opinion. Everyone is racist to some extent. Instead of backlashing on him, those who were offended should make their own fight stronger.
All three of us lovely women read an article about this Watson figure who could very easily had been misquoted with the words he spoke. I enjoy that Shawdi's response took a "take the plank out of your own eye before you try to take the speck of dust out of your neighbor's eye." He is a very educated man, and I highly doubt that the words he spoke were meant to take the toll they did. There is a large part of me that doesn't believe that he was trying to offend anyone, and he could have been misquoted to a very high degree.
I'm actually more surprised that he is alive than about the racist comment, although that may just be due to the fact that I am so tired. I think that when Watson was young, comments that are so clearly racist to us were commonplace and he wouldnt really think twice about what he was saying. I'm not saying that this pardons what he said, but the idea that one race is inherently more intelligent feels like an outdated claim we have moved past from today. I don't think Watson was justified in what he said and should catch up on the standards of behavior, but I don't doubt that he's still got his wits about him
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