Thoughts on James Watson (DNA structure co-discoverer) controversial statements?

[CitizenKain]

This reminds me of The Bell Curve.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve

All I think you need to do is look at history and the world around to see the truth.

No surprise the rightwingers in here are jumping over something to justify their racism. Serious, the shit you ignorant people believe is astounding. Some of you believe intelligence is decided by skin color.

 

[dastral]

But yet you take groups of people that have evolved independently for 10s of thousands of years and you expect them to have the same IQ?

I don't expect them (inherently) to have higher or lower IQ/Intelligence.

Saying "Dem' africans are dumb as rocks" doesnt really surprise me....
Living in the world's shit-hole/dump is not what i'd call a "facilitating factor" for "intellectual development".
< 10s of thousands of years > will only compound the issue.

I don't know if they would be "as smart as everyone else" but at least, knowing where they live....
I can't see how they "can be expected to be" knowing all the external factors.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

No surprise the rightwingers in here are jumping over something to justify their racism. Serious, the shit you ignorant people believe is astounding. Some of you believe intelligence is decided by skin color.

You seem to have completely missed the point. No one said that race determines intelligence. People seem to be acknowledging that intelligence amongst groups of people is distributed along a bell curve.

Why do you accept that different races can have discernibly different physical characteristics but that it is metaphysically impossible for characteristics related to brain physiology to differ? Is your belief based on science or wishful thinking? ("It would be so horrible if it were in any way remotely true, it cannot possibly be true!")

Is it possible, could it be possible that certain genes related to cognitive ability and development might differ slightly in various ways between the races and different ethnic groups? Why is that so inconceivable?

 

[Zebo]

I read an article years ago by a liberal policy maker in NYT who said basically we should not shun these findings such as if we find X performs worse in math than Y because instead of fostering racism it should be used to drive more math funding into X's school so they can catch up.

Anyway - I think days of using wildly exaggerated racial/sex differences are behind us that were used as a basis for many atrocities in human history. We've all been around each other enough to know if there are any differences they are infitesmal and science could be be put to good use.

 

[nehalem256]

No surprise the rightwingers in here are jumping over something to justify their racism.

That something that you are referring to would be science.

Why do liberals hate science?

Serious, the shit you ignorant people believe is astounding. Some of you believe intelligence is decided by skin color.

Intelligence has a strong hereditary factor. Believing that groups that have been separated for 10s of thousands of years might have different intelligence is basic evolution.

This chart should explain the problem you are having

 

[nehalem256]

I read an article years ago by a liberal policy maker in NYT who said basically we should not shun these findings such as if we find X performs worse in math than Y because instead of fostering racism it should be used to drive more math funding into X's school so they can catch up.

Of course they only need to "catch up" if minorities or women are doing worse than white men.

You don't see any calls of racism/sexism for

(1) NFL running backs - In 2012 the top 60 rushers were all black

(2) College graduation - ~60% are now women.

 

[zinfamous]

You seem to have completely missed the point. No one said that race determines intelligence. People seem to be acknowledging that intelligence amongst groups of people is distributed along a bell curve.

Why do you accept that different races can have discernibly different physical characteristics but that it is metaphysically impossible for characteristics related to brain physiology to differ? Is your belief based on science or wishful thinking? ("It would be so horrible if it were in any way remotely true, it cannot possibly be true!")

Is it possible, could it be possible that certain genes related to cognitive ability and development might differ slightly in various ways between the races and different ethnic groups? Why is that so inconceivable?

The problem is that intelligence is extremely difficult to measure--yes, it's possible and perhaps probably that you can differentiate genes that might have corollary effects on intelligence, or ability to learn; and we certainly know that certain people have more "plastic" brains, some have photographic memories...traits that make the accumulation of knowledge vastly easier of them, or a natural ability to solve problems (perhaps a better indicator of intelligence than simple knowledge accumulation).

Thing is, while these traits are somewhat inheritable, the expression of these qualities in the individual is largely a function of population-meaning, what access did this person have while growing up? How were they nurtured? Tying this to race is spurious at best, as it requires acknowledging that these qualities can certainly by attributed across communities and populations and hey! look at the common race found within each population! That is highly problematic, because the selective process is population, not race which, at the genetic level, remains more or less meaningless.

Additionally, for those that are screaming racism, I don't see many people here mentioning skin color; they are simply suggesting what I say above, but trying to equate population effects with race--which is rife with error.