Dr. Watson, I presume

Everyone has thrown their hat in on this, so whatever.

One of the world’s most respected scientists is embroiled in an extraordinary row after claiming that black people are less intelligent than white people.

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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. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so”.

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The newly formed Equality and Human Rights Commission is studying Dr Watson’s remarks “in full”.

Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said today: “It is sad to see a scientist of such achievement making such baseless, unscientific and extremely offensive comments.

“I am sure the scientific community will roundly reject what appear to be Dr Watson’s personal prejudices. These comments serve as a reminder of the attitudes which can still exist at the highest professional levels.”

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[Steven Rose, a professor of biological sciences at the Open University] added: “If he knew the literature in the subject he would know he was out of his depth scientifically, quite apart from socially and politically.”

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“If he knew the literature”? Ah. How about if he wrote the literature, asshole?

I’d like to say that the wealth of comments attached to this article are the most asinine and torpid I’ve ever seen… but I am familiar with the internet. And I am familiar with the proletariat.

Dr. Watson says something that is universal to genetic science. He is not only an expert but a pioneer in his field. Some douchebag spokesman from the Equality and Human Rights Commission is not his peer in any way and his comments are ignorant and moot. Steven Rose is a member of the British Humanist Association, his opinions stem from socio-political bias. If you accept evolution you MUST ACCEPT GROUP DIFFERENCES. It doesn’t work without them. Dr. Watson is right. It would be astounding if there were not arithmetic mean variation. Intelligence is just one characteristic of many; it differs within and between groups, like everything else. Get over it. Accept reality and move the fuck on. It’s a sign of sheer stupidity that this man was accosted so.

Shayne