Lab revokes honorary titles for Nobel Prize winner James Watson

[TroubleInc]

Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson has been stripped of his honorary titles at the laboratory he once led after doubling down on racist comments.

Watson, who discovered DNA’s double helix structure alongside Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin in the 1950s, said that genes cause a difference on IQ tests between blacks and whites in a recent PBS documentary "American Masters: Decoding Watson."

The leaders of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island said his comments were “reprehensible, unsupported by science,” in a statement.

This isn't Watson’s first controversial comment about race. He lost his position as chancellor at the lab in 2007 after he told the Sunday Times 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."

Link to news story

Is there any truth to his statements or does he deserve all the ridicule he is receiving? It's easy to just label him an "old racist" but given his expertise and accolades, it seems like he would know what he is talking about. Why is it not racist to say something like "black people have darker skin tones and are on average taller than white people" but comparing levels of intelligence crosses the line? Would it be racist to say Asians have higher IQs on average than white people? Doubt there would be such an uproar if somebody did.

[GreenJesus]

Lol.. what did he think would happen when he said that on camera? Honestly I don't know. Asians definetly do seem more intelligent on average and white people seem to lack the ability to dance on average and black people are built to be more athletic on average. Stereotypes exist for a reason. But I wouldnt go say "why are we wasting our time in Africa assuming hey are even on the same level of IQ as us." That is pretty racist. I'm not sure how I feel about people losing their prizes for achievements years after the fact.

[TehTemplar]

And this is why our society is full on moron. We denigrate brilliant minds because they don't go along with the toxic globalist PC culture.

[TroubleInc]

Lol.. what did he think would happen when he said that on camera? Honestly I don't know. Asians definetly do seem more intelligent on average and white people seem to lack the ability to dance on average and black people are built to be more athletic on average. Stereotypes exist for a reason. But I wouldnt go say "why are we wasting our time in Africa assuming hey are even on the same level of IQ as us." That is pretty racist. I'm not sure how I feel about people losing their prizes for achievements years after the fact.

It's kind of revising history to accommodate social justice.

[Veknazel]

Thanks, liberals. So we now censor science based on people's feelings. I started to miss the middle ages anyway.
When are you going to start burning books that write about X and Y chromosomes and only identify two genders?

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Also, gotta love the double standards when SJWs call a Nobel prize winner geneticist a racist idiot or a fool when he's talking about genetics, his own home turf, and then ridicule anyone who criticizes the global warming theories, claiming that SCIENTISTS SAID SO and anyone who argues with scientists is a moron.

[Khelek]

A person does not lose their value as a human being based on their intelligence. Intelligence, like hair color or height, is largely genetic and is out of the control of the individual to a certain extent. We would not say a short person is less of a person because they are short. The same is true of intellect, but modern society puts such value on intelligence as a fundamental barometer of what makes humans human, that to declare one person or group less intelligent than another is tantamount to dehumanizing them which is wrong on every level.

Stating that Ireland's population is made up of higher than average numbers of redheads or that people from the Netherlands are taller than average should be no different than saying this group or that group have certain levels of intelligence, but we, as humans, define ourselves by our intelligence (it's how we separate ourselves from other species) and so we cannot talk about intelligence as we have wrongfully associated it with humanity. Smart, stupid, tall, short, etc has no bearing on a persons humanity or value as a human being. All people have the same human rights.

This wrong-headed association has caused major problems. To have a functioning democracy you need an average IQ of about 95 at minimum. Trying to create a democratic system outside this threshold has always failed to the detriment of the people. If this was known, the US population would have recognized the democratizing the middle east would be much harder, but under the delusion that we are all identical, people in government and in the general population believed, wrongly, that if the Taliban and Saddam fell democracy would leap into existence.

[Perkunas]

Thanks, liberals. So we now censor science based on people's feelings. I started to miss the middle ages anyway.
When are you going to start burning books that write about X and Y chromosomes and only identify two genders?

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Also, gotta love the double standards when SJWs call a Nobel prize winner geneticist a racist idiot or a fool when he's talking about genetics, his own home turf, and then ridicule anyone who criticizes the global warming theories, claiming that SCIENTISTS SAID SO and anyone who argues with scientists is a moron.

Says the person on the side of fucking creationists...

[Veknazel]

Says the person on the side of fucking creationists...

If you're curious, I'm an atheist. Or did you mean that I'm not allowed to agree with creationists on some things or other?
Did you know? Hitler liked cookies. If you like cookies, you're on the side of Hitler.

[Perkunas]

If you're curious, I'm an atheist. Or did you mean that I'm not allowed to agree with creationists on some things or other?
Did you know? Hitler liked cookies. If you like cookies, you're on the side of Hitler.

You can't bitch about "science denial" when the majority of your side believes in creationism, chief.

[Magnagarde]

Absolutely horrible and disgusting treatment of a scientist of this magnitude. This man came up so many times during my studies and his older work is referenced to this day. Thanks to their work in genetics, Watson and Crick have helped revolutionize physiology, biology, oncology, genetics and so much more. His and his colleagues' findings have had a groundbreakingly positive impact on humanity.

His words have stinged the ears of some, but his work will have helped save and improve countless millions of lives.

[Th3Scourge]

A person does not lose their value as a human being based on their intelligence. Intelligence, like hair color or height, is largely genetic and is out of the control of the individual to a certain extent. We would not say a short person is less of a person because they are short. The same is true of intellect, but modern society puts such value on intelligence as a fundamental barometer of what makes humans human, that to declare one person or group less intelligent than another is tantamount to dehumanizing them which is wrong on every level.

Stating that Ireland's population is made up of higher than average numbers of redheads or that people from the Netherlands are taller than average should be no different than saying this group or that group have certain levels of intelligence, but we, as humans, define ourselves by our intelligence (it's how we separate ourselves from other species) and so we cannot talk about intelligence as we have wrongfully associated it with humanity. Smart, stupid, tall, short, etc has no bearing on a persons humanity or value as a human being. All people have the same human rights.

This wrong-headed association has caused major problems. To have a functioning democracy you need an average IQ of about 95 at minimum. Trying to create a democratic system outside this threshold has always failed to the detriment of the people. If this was known, the US population would have recognized the democratizing the middle east would be much harder, but under the delusion that we are all identical, people in government and in the general population believed, wrongly, that if the Taliban and Saddam fell democracy would leap into existence.

You've summed it up nicely. I don't see anything wrong with what he said. If he had said "Black people are less intelligent because they are black" then yeah I can understand, but there's nothing inherently wrong with saying that on average they are less intelligent is like saying that Asians are on average more intelligent or that Azkenazi Jews are on average more intelligent. There's a myriad of reasons why people in 3rd world countries are on average less intelligent

- Lack of nutrition leading to underdeveloped brains
- Migration of higher-IQ individuals (brain drain)
- Environmental factors requiring survival skills over skill development
- Lack of education
- Disease
- High infant mortality rates, leading to high birth rates and poorer conditions for women (hint: if you want to drastically improve 3rd world conditions, focus on eradicating malaria and improving conditions for women so they're not just pumping out 12 babies. Lower infant mortality = fewer births = more productive women)

It's a sign of the world we live in when people can't talk about the reasons why things are because it might offend someone. Even more telling is that science faculties are being driven my ideology rather than reason

[Seranthor]

Link to news story

Is there any truth to his statements or does he deserve all the ridicule he is receiving? It's easy to just label him an "old racist" but given his expertise and accolades, it seems like he would know what he is talking about. Why is it not racist to say something like "black people have darker skin tones and are on average taller than white people" but comparing levels of intelligence crosses the line? Would it be racist to say Asians have higher IQs on average than white people? Doubt there would be such an uproar if somebody did.

What do you expect when science surrenders their credibility to social justice warriors?

[Great Destiny Man]

The article itself says it was "unsupported by science" and that his only rationale was "if you work with black people you'll know what I mean". So yea the criticism is justified, not only from a social point of view but a scientific one.

[PosPosPos]

In 2007, the scientist, who once worked at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, told the Times newspaper 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".

While his hope was that everybody was equal, he added, "people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true".

And yet he doesn't have any evidence that they(African Americans) have sufficiently lower average intelligence compared to other Americans to warrant a completely different set of social policies.

He might be right on Africans because they are arguably in a situation where they are forced to fly before they can walk, but conflating Africans to African Americans just because they share the word "Africa" is clearly racially rather than scientifically motivated.

Just because he might have made significant scientific contributions in the past, it doesn't excuse his bigotry. If anything, he should be held to a higher standard.

[Ryme]

IQ tests show a difference between races, but I think you'd be a fool to think this was single-variate issue in genetics and not heavily if not entirely influenced by socio-economic reasons.

[PosPosPos]

The article itself says it was "unsupported by science" and that his only rationale was "if you work with black people you'll know what I mean". So yea the criticism is justified, not only from a social point of view but a scientific one.

Pretty much.

There was no evidence put forward, like showing that the average was low enough to warrant a consideration on how they were being treated in terms of social policy.

[arandomuser]

"Why are you questioning the nuremburg laws, they are scientifically accurate, shouldnt you put facts before your feelings??"
imagine if this is what america was thinking during ww2 instead of how evil hitler was.

[The One Percent]

Anyone got links to the studies that proved him wrong?

[PosPosPos]

Anyone got links to the studies that proved him wrong?

There's nothing to prove him wrong on, because all he has are anecdotes.

[Perkunas]

Anyone got links to the studies that proved him wrong?

Burden of proof is on the gent making the claim without any cited sources.