Submission + - DNA Discoverer Claims Africans Are Not Intelligent 1
An anonymous reader writes: Nobel laureate James Watson, the co-discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA, has made controversial remarks about race and intelligence in an interview with The Sunday Times. Watson 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 said he hopes that all races are equal, but 'people who have to deal with black employees find this not true'. He also 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. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so'. In reply, a British politician has said, 'It is sad to see a scientist of such achievement making such baseless, unscientific and extremely offensive comments.' Watson is promoting his memoirs, entitled 'Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science'.