A Racist With a PhD Is Still A Racist October 18, 2007
Dr. James Watson. DNA pioneer. Nobel Prize winner. Racist. The South African Mail & Guardian online has a rather unsurprising story on how this scientist is in the middle of a furor in Britain over statements he made regarding the “differing intelligence levels” between Africans and Europeans:
An American scientist who won the Nobel Prize for co-discovering the molecular structure of DNA has caused an uproar in Britain by reportedly saying tests have indicated that Africans are not as intelligent as whites.
A government minister, scientists and a human rights activist condemned James Watson’s comments as racist, and London’s Science Museum cancelled his speech, which had been scheduled for Friday. Watson’s interview in the Sunday Times Magazine also set off a furious debate in the British media, from the BBC to the front pages of other papers.
In its profile of Watson, the magazine quoted him as saying he 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”.
In the Times magazine interview, Watson was quoted as saying he opposes discrimination and believes that “there are many people of colour who are very talented”. But he also was quoted as saying that while he hopes that everyone is equal, “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”.
Yes, I’m outraged at his statements.
Yes, I’m disgusted.
But my outrage — and that of the media in Britain — is derived not only from the fact that one would think that a person in such a position would not voice such opinions, but also from the mistaken assumption that education rids one of prejudice. We look at academics — especially Nobel Prize-winning biologists — as the pinnacles of intelligence and worldliness. They should know stuff.
But inside all of those diplomas, grants, and fellowships is the same racist who would be gumming split-pea soup in hate-filled anonymity at a nursing home in Appalachia were his circumstances different. He’s a 79-year-old white man who still considers his rightful place to be the front of the bus, and chances are this tainted every study he ever spearheaded researching the link between race and anything.
It throws us into cognitive dissonance when we see educated people exhibiting signs of ignorance, but we must remember: a person has to decide to transcend their boundaries, and no amount of college credits can open minds.
It is important to note and REMEMBER that modern racism was developed by academics. In fact, early anthropology was almost entirely developed for the purpose of propogating racism and furthering imperialist exploitation.
The idea that the well-educated person is always a better person is FALSE. Need more proof? Many many many Nazi leaders were very well educated.
Education is not good in itself. It is only good if it is applied towards good things.
When I first came to this university, I was disgusted at the fact that a lot of people from the suburbs kept assuming everyone in my working class small town must have been racist, while they, coming from educated well to do backgrounds obviously were better than them, when sometimes they were MUCH MORE RACIST than the people I grew up with!
Everytime I hear someone use their academic bs to try and justify EUGENICS!!!!?!!! i want to SCREAM.
On the other hand, the only way you can learn to argue against these people is through educating yourself.
I am not even sure that people should waste their time commenting about stupidities. The best way to avoid pronouncing and writing the word Watson is just to award him the “Nobel of Racism” and let him retire in peace.
I know a lot of folks out there think that PhD in Science means that the holder has a global view of the universe - some are even considered semi-gods.
The reality is that Science itself is based of absurd axioms and the way it’s taught even makes matters worse.
I explain: 1) The first principle of Science stipulates that what you cannot see does not exist. Unfortunately, humans can only see less than 1% of the universe. Does that mean that 99% of the universe does not exist?
2) The second scientific principle stipulates that only repeatable measurements can be considered scientific.
Here we have a would-be scientist who cannot define what he calls intelligence in the first place, and he cannot show the device that he uses to measure intelligence. And he is still called scientist! How can he let another person verify his intelligence measurement in order to validate his discovery?
University just turns people stupid because they spend their time cramming outdated formulas instead of thinking and re-tooling science in order to increase the human perception of the universe.
Scientific axioms have not changed since its inception and thousands of PHDs are awarded every year all over the globe.. Nobody wonders what those papers mean since they are not improving human perception of the 99% of the universe that we cannot see!
I would rather award Watson his KKK white robe and a new Nobel of Racism and let him retire in peace.