Post by derick PO gibbs on Oct 19, 2007 9:33:29 GMT -5
Maybe it should be charged to clowns like myself; the generation of underachievers who perpetuate misleading statistics like dropout rates among minorities in America.
I never graduated high school, but I'm far from ignorant, slow or naive. At the same time, I've only proven so in poems and prose, and even then, it's slight and underground so the masses prejudge and maybe (maybe) justifiably so. And with that, not even a Nobel Prize winner can keep his foot out his mouth, though I wonder if it's more about race than the fact that there are not enough of us with our faces in a book.
If I could create and put up a significant amount of billboards around this country (not just my neighborhood), they would say, simply “READ SOMETHING”.
.
.
.
LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British museum has canceled a lecture by Dr.
James Watson, co-founder of the DNA double helix, after he claimed
black people are less intelligent than whites in a recent newspaper
interview.
Watson, who won the 1962 Nobel prize for his part in discovering the
structure of DNA, provoked a storm of criticism after his comments were
published in the Sunday Times.
The eminent biologist told the British newspaper 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."
Watson, 79, had been due to give a lecture at London's Science Museum
on Friday but the museum canceled his appearance, saying his comments
had "gone beyond the point of acceptable debate."
The American professor's words have been roundly condemned as "racist,"
with fellow scientists dismissing his claims as "genetic nonsense."
"He should recognize that statements of this sort have racist functions
and are to be deeply, deeply regretted," said Professor Steven Rose of
the British Open University.
Watson is credited with discovering the double helix along with Maurice
Wilkins and Francis Crick in 1962.
In the newspaper interview, he said there was no reason to think that
races which had grown up in separate geographical locations should have
evolved identically. He went on to say that although he hoped everyone
was equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this not
true".
The British government's skills minister, David Lammy, who is black,
called the comments "deeply offensive" and said Watson would only succeed
in providing oxygen for extremist political groups.
"It is a shame that a man with a record of scientific distinction
should see his work overshadowed by his own irrational prejudices," Lammy
told CNN.
Watson is not the first scientist to show sympathy for the theory of a
racial basis for intellectual difference. In March of last year Dr.
Frank Ellis from Leeds University provoked anger in Britain after he
admitted he found evidence that racial groups perform differently "extremely
convincing."
I never graduated high school, but I'm far from ignorant, slow or naive. At the same time, I've only proven so in poems and prose, and even then, it's slight and underground so the masses prejudge and maybe (maybe) justifiably so. And with that, not even a Nobel Prize winner can keep his foot out his mouth, though I wonder if it's more about race than the fact that there are not enough of us with our faces in a book.
If I could create and put up a significant amount of billboards around this country (not just my neighborhood), they would say, simply “READ SOMETHING”.
.
.
.
LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British museum has canceled a lecture by Dr.
James Watson, co-founder of the DNA double helix, after he claimed
black people are less intelligent than whites in a recent newspaper
interview.
Watson, who won the 1962 Nobel prize for his part in discovering the
structure of DNA, provoked a storm of criticism after his comments were
published in the Sunday Times.
The eminent biologist told the British newspaper 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."
Watson, 79, had been due to give a lecture at London's Science Museum
on Friday but the museum canceled his appearance, saying his comments
had "gone beyond the point of acceptable debate."
The American professor's words have been roundly condemned as "racist,"
with fellow scientists dismissing his claims as "genetic nonsense."
"He should recognize that statements of this sort have racist functions
and are to be deeply, deeply regretted," said Professor Steven Rose of
the British Open University.
Watson is credited with discovering the double helix along with Maurice
Wilkins and Francis Crick in 1962.
In the newspaper interview, he said there was no reason to think that
races which had grown up in separate geographical locations should have
evolved identically. He went on to say that although he hoped everyone
was equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this not
true".
The British government's skills minister, David Lammy, who is black,
called the comments "deeply offensive" and said Watson would only succeed
in providing oxygen for extremist political groups.
"It is a shame that a man with a record of scientific distinction
should see his work overshadowed by his own irrational prejudices," Lammy
told CNN.
Watson is not the first scientist to show sympathy for the theory of a
racial basis for intellectual difference. In March of last year Dr.
Frank Ellis from Leeds University provoked anger in Britain after he
admitted he found evidence that racial groups perform differently "extremely
convincing."