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October 19, 2007

Scientist Crosses Line with Race-Based IQ Comments

You've probably heard by now about the Nobel prize-winning geneticist who reportedly said 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." James Watson now says his comments are being misreported and that he is mortified by the response his reported comments have received from the public. He says now that Africans are not "genetically inferior." He has been at the center of controversy in the past, too, over statements of his scientific opinion that ran contrary to socially acceptable view. For instance, he said women should be able to abort babies if genetic tests showed the babies would be homosexual, that skin color is linked to sex drive (the darker the skin, the higher the drive), and that it would be good to genetically modify fetuses to ensure physical attractiveness. I think in his quest to unlock the mysteries of science, however, he has entirely ignored something far more important: the human soul.

Back to the issue of race and intelligence, obviously, we know that differences on IQ tests have been tied to cultural differences and differences in test-taking abilities, thereby virtually eliminating the notion of racial differences in intelligence. I would add to that my own suspicion that different brains process things differently, and western IQ tests are predicated on the notion that everyone being tested thinks the same way, which they probably don't. Based on my own experience as a teacher in Zimbabwe for a year back in 1983, I simply do not believe that black people are less intelligent than white people. I found my students to be very bright, and certainly harder working and more engaged than American kids – they were hungry to learn and wanted to contribute to building their new country. I personally believe Africa's problem is political corruption, not intelligence.

But the whole controversy got me thinking. Some years back, a similar controversy raged over the suggestion that black people were better athletes in some sports because they had larger thighs, if memory serves. For the longest time I did not understand where it was racist to point out something like that. You could just as easily say that black people can stay out in the sun longer because they have more pigment. It's a simple fact. I have often thought that black people tend to have more soul and their music is just plain the best in the world (think Jimi Hendrix or all the amazing jazz and blues artists). We know that talents have a genetic basis – that they are passed on in families – so why is it so difficult to accept particular abilities being stronger in one race than another, when evolution would indicate otherwise? We see a genetic basis for talents in the rest of the animal kingdom all the time, which is why winning race horses are sought after as sires of future race horses and why people pay so much money for the pure-bred offspring of award-winning dogs. So why would people be any different? My point is, I could not understand why we would be so afraid of noticing if members of one race tend to be better at something than members of another race.

The answer comes only if you ask a more difficult question. What if scientists actually did find intelligence differences in the races? Should the science be suppressed in the interest of building an egalitarian society? Isn't that sort of like imprisoning Galileo for challenging the flat-earth believers? Or is it a way to make the world safer for everyone? Here's my answer: human nature being what it is, the stakes involved are too great to allow something like that to be known. It can only lead to oppression and misery. We're all better off if we focus on equality of opportunity and work to stamp out corruption in the world. In such an environment, people all around the world do a pretty good job of finding happiness and creating a good life for themselves and their children.

So that brings me to why noticing differences in thigh size actually does matter. You cannot notice that one race is better at something than another without noticing that the other race is less able at that thing. You also cannot notice general trends within the races without creating stereotypes that limit particular members of various races. And the fact is that we are all, as a worldwide society, striving for a time when each human being matters and can reach his or her full potential. Shedding stereotypes and seeing people as individuals is a necessary part of that quest. And science, while informative and useful in so many ways, can never measure the capacity of the human soul when filled with hope and provided with opportunity.

Posted by Becky at October 19, 2007 11:04 AM