Nobel Winner Apologizes For Race Remarks

DNA Pioneer James Watson "Mortified" He's Quoted As Saying Africans Are Less Intelligent

(CBS/AP)  Nobel Prize winner James Watson, the 79-year-old scientific icon made famous by his work in DNA, has apologized for comments to a London newspaper about intelligence levels among blacks, saying he's "mortified."

The renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where Watson served as chancellor, also suspended his administrative responsibilities Thursday following the outcry, the laboratory said in a news release.

And London's Science Museum canceled a sold-out lecture he was to give there Friday.

Watson has a history of provocative statements about social implications of science. But several friends said Thursday he's no racist.

A profile of Watson in the Sunday Times Magazine of London quoted him as saying that he's "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 he hopes everyone is equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true," Watson, who won a Nobel Prize in 1962 for co-discovering the structure of DNA, is quoted as saying. He also said people should not be discriminated against on the basis of color, because "there are many people of color who are very talented."

The comments, reprinted Wednesday in a front-page article in another British newspaper, The Independent, provoked a sharp reaction.

The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said his comments "represent racist propaganda masquerading as scientific fact.... That a man of such academic distinction could make such ignorant comments, which are utterly offensive and incorrect and give succor to the most backward in our society, demonstrates why racism still has to be fought."

"I think these remarks are extremely dangerous and extremely offensive to make," Steven Rose, a neuroscientist and a co-founder of the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science, told CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips. "They distress black people; I think quite rightly, too. And they do no good either scientifically or to the fight against racism, in Britain or the United States."

In the United States, the Federation of American Scientists said it was outraged that Watson "chose to use his unique stature to promote personal prejudices that are racist, vicious and unsupported by science."

And Watson's employer said he wasn't speaking for the Cold Spring Harbor research facility on Long Island, where the board and administration "vehemently disagree with these statements and are bewildered and saddened if he indeed made such comments."

"I am mortified about what has happened," Watson said. "More importantly, I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said.

London's Sunday Times says it has the recording, reports CBS News correspondent Larry Miller.

Watson is in Britain to promote his new book, "Avoid Boring People," and a publicist for his British publisher provided this statement Thursday to The Associated Press:

"I can certainly understand why people, reading those words, have reacted in the ways they have. To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly. That is not what I meant. More importantly, from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief."

Watson's publicist, Kate Farquhar-Thomson, would not address whether Watson was suggesting he was misquoted. "You have the statement. That's it, I'm afraid," she said.

Watson's new book also touches on possible racial differences in IQ, though it doesn't go as far as the newspaper interview.

In the book, Watson raises the prospect of discovering genes that significantly affect a person's intelligence.

"...There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically," Watson wrote. "Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so."

Watson is no stranger to making waves with his scientific views. In 2000, in a speech at the University of California, Berkeley, he suggested that sex drive is related to skin color. "That's why you have Latin lovers," he said, according to people who attended. "You've never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient."

Some years earlier he was quoted in a newspaper as saying, "If you could find the gene which determines sexuality and a woman decides she doesn't want a homosexual child, well, let her."

"Jim has a penchant for making outrageous comments that are basically poking society in the eye," Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, said Thursday.

Collins, who has known Watson for a long time, said his latest comments "really ... carried it this time to a much more hurtful level."

In a brief telephone interview, Collins told The AP that Watson's statements are "the wildest form of speculation in a field where such speculation ought not to be engaged in." Genetic factors for intelligence show no difference from one part of the world to another, he said.

Several longtime friends of Watson insisted he's not a racist.

"It's hard for me to buy the label 'racist' for him," said Victor McElheny, the author of a 2003 biography of Watson, whom he's known for 45 years. "This is someone who has encouraged so many people from so many backgrounds."

So why does he say things that can sound racist? "I really don't know the answer to that," McElheny said.

Mike Botchan, co-chair of the molecular and cell biology department at the University of California, Berkeley, who's known Watson since 1970, said the Nobelist's personal beliefs are less important than the impact of what he says.

"Is he someone who's going to prejudge a person in front of him on the basis of his skin color? I would have to say, no. Is he someone, though, that has these beliefs? I don't know any more. And the important thing is I don't really care," Botchan said.

"I think Jim Watson is now essentially a disgrace to his own legacy. And it's very sad for me to say this, because he's one of the great figures of 20th century biology."

[foghamar]

Interestingly enough, there is more than one way to read what Dr. Watson had to say. I did not intepret it the way the press chose to spin and inflame it. You notice, there was no complete quote - only bits and pieces of statements interwoven with spin. Having studied anthropology I am quite aware that intelligence is differently developed (not greater or lesser) depending upon the environment. We adapt to differing physical and cultural norms. When we interact in other cultures then we appear not to fit in quite so well. It is not a matter of greater or lesser I.Q. it is that of differently developed proclevities. I''d like to hear ALL of what was said and not just a couple of snippets that are easily distorted. Having worked in the news industry, one wonders if the editor sent someone out to "get the dirt" and the spin resulted. (One of the reasons I am no longer in the journalism industry, by the way.)

[chamade-2009]

But is he right? Not long ago controversy swirled over the SAT and blacks. Seems the SAT was geared towards whites. If blacks are on an equal footing with whites in the area of intelligence, and learning the same subjects in school as whites, why the need for a new test? http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/SAT.htm We can''t have it both ways. Either Watson is correct and there are significant differences, or he''s wrong in which case the need for a new Black SAT was in error.

[rational_1]

Okay, so whites score higher on the SAT than blacks. That''s undeniable (just do a Google search), but the bigger question is what that truly means. These standardized tests are, in my opinion, of truly limited utility. I''ve been on biology graduate student recruitment committees at a large U.S. research university and, in my opinion, the GRE exam all applicants are required to take is absolutely useless in predicting who will become a successful graduate student or researcher. Sure if you score below 1000 that might be indicative that you don''t have the intellectual wattage to succeed in grad school, but if you show me two kids with 1200 vs. 1400 verbal + quantitative GRE scores, I think it''s a toss-up who''ll make a better scientist. Long story short - who cares if whites on average score better on SATs that blacks. It probably means the square root of **** all.

[myidoncbs]

chamade said, "Either Watson is correct and there are significant differences, or he''s wrong in which case the need for a new Black SAT was in error. "

That conclusion cannot be drawn from what you presented. Watson suggested the difference in intelligence was due to genetics. However, the differences in SAT scores could very easily be explained by cultural and language differences, not just by genetics. Furthermore, the SAT test does not even measure "intelligence" or IQ; it''s a measure of how much you know about certain subjects.

Therefore, Watson could be wrong AND the need for the "Black SAT" could be true.

Doesn''t ANYBODY in this country understand logic these days?

[redbarron73]

Watching about 5 minutes of BET and/or watching a hip-hop video makes me think he was right the first time, but then I see some white guy with his pants pulled down below his boxers, cap turned sideways & a big gold chain, listening to ghetto rap & I realize that stupidity comes in ALL colors.

[toldyouso21]

"The renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where Watson served as chancellor, also suspended his administrative responsibilities Thursday following the outcry, the laboratory said in a news release. "

More like, he is mortified that he got suspended from his job. LOL. I actually saw Watson when he came to my university in 1983 to speak about his DNA double helix discovery. It turned out, there were several scientists there, who actually had done the preliminary work and who claimed Watson and Crick stole it. I was finishing my senior year and found out that stealing data, plagarizing, and claiming info was common for Scientists and there is a lot of bad blood and people race to be the first or unique. It turns out--that not many in the audience besides us students--were impressed with Watson and Crick. Most said they were theives and glory hounds. We thought it was jealousy--until we learned a bit more.

Of course Watson is a racist--cut along the same lines as the Scientists who worked in Eugenics in the 1930s. His real problem is--that he misread the noose , rapes, Imus and other incidents and thought we were down deeper on the road to race war than we actually are. Give it a few more years WAtson--if you live long enough--you''ll be lauded as a prophet and your words as gospel. but not quite yet. Not yet.

[zoltaric]

statistically, blacks are not as intelligebnt as whites. This is fairly obvious. They also have a crime gene. It''s sad you can''t speak the truth anymore.

[toldyouso21]

Posted by chamade at 09:36 AM : Oct 19, 2007

I know many blacks and other races, and some are smarter than a lot of whites and some are not. It is all individual--but what I have found out is what Foghamar stated: that cultural differences to affect how one processes information, retention and application. I am married to a man from Holland. By all standards he is considered extremely intelligent--yet as he goes about his day to day in America, there are many instances where he seems to come off as retarded. He does not know how to respond in certain situations and he reads innuendo, cues, etc wrong. The fact is, he was raised differently culturally and so there are different connotations. Notice Rice and Powell and many other "intelligent blacks"? guess what makes them different from the "ghetto" blacks? How they were educated and how much contact they had with whites. The more contact--the better they were able to assimilate and regurgitate information in the same manner. Intelligence measures only ones ability to learn NOT how smart one actually is. Blacks and other minorities are just as smart as other races--but one must look deeper to see disparities--like the fact that in black culture, mimicing whites in any way (including in education) is perceived as selling out and any black who shines schoolwise is in for a lot of mistreatment.

[toldyouso21]

statistically, blacks are not as intelligebnt as whites. This is fairly obvious. They also have a crime gene. It''''s sad you can''''t speak the truth anymore.
Posted by zoltaric at 10:16 AM : Oct 19, 2007

Oh dear. So I guess this means that white males have a rape a lot of kids and murder them serial gene then too, huh? (93% of all serial killers/rapists are white males) And I guess we also have a gene for cutting babies out of pregnant women''s stomachs, drowning our kids and molesting students in school genes too--huh?

Get real--whenever the racists come out--we see the dregs and wannabees of our own gene pool--YOu know the losers with so little going on that they want to latch on to skin color to prove superiority--because they lack any evidence in any other part of their pathetic lives....

[toldyouso21]

"Watson''s publicist, Kate Farquhar-Thomson, would not address whether Watson was suggesting he was misquoted. "You have the statement. That''s it, I''m afraid," she said. "


***, even his publicist won''t back him up or lie for him--not even a bunch of little lies to spin it better and at least confuse the public---where is his version of Dana Perino when he needed her? LOL

[mcvett]

Me and da homeboi''s be hangin in da hood readin dis bullsh*t.

Yo dog, I wants to axe whitey a queshun:

wada, wada, wada, wazzuup wit dis shizzle ma nizzle??

Dis cracka needs to go to
re-educashun camp (aka. sensitivity training classes)
so he can be taught to think politically correct.

nuff said, I wants to be hangin wit my homeboi''s stead-a listnin to this cracka.

LOL

[mnelsonix]

==Doesn''''t ANYBODY in this country understand logic these days?==
Posted by MyIDonCBS

Answer: HELLL NO!!
We react to the feeling we get about something we hear, then judge it, then maybe think about it. There is no critical thinking allowed in this *******, politically correct, super sensitive, society we live in. Logic be dammned.

[zootallures2]

This guy should have been in media, advertisement, or propaganda. You can take any 2 physical features and compare them with the mental and get a result. It''s unrelated though and not scientific. Take coke or pepsi drinkers. One is going to be more intellegent than the other. Or blue and brown eyes. Shoe sizes... It''s propaganda.

[zootallures2]

statistically, blacks are not as intelligebnt as whites. This is fairly obvious. They also have a crime gene. It''''s sad you can''''t speak the truth anymore.

Posted by zoltaric at 10:16 AM : Oct 19, 2007

Ever heard of a coincidence? You can do the same study of left and right handed people or those who eat limburger cheese and those that don''t. Skin pigment does not effect the brian.

[mnelsonix]

If you are white: How do you feel about the experiment?

If you are black: How do you feel about the experiment?

[zootallures2]

And another thing, if Blacks were smarter, what White guy is going to post the results? Plus, if there was a Black guy who was a better DNA scientist than this bozo, you wouldn''t even let him have the job and you know it. Jobs are given out by baloney, acting, and propaganda first. Their actual capabilities are secondary. Just look how you pick a president.

[zootallures2]

And most of all, this white guy''s comments don''t show much intellegence. I doubt he was the most qualified for the job. Just more socially acceptable by who ever had the cash to fund him. He might be white, but I''ll bet he had the brownest nose.

[iceman_1960]

This guy must be Anne Coulter"s favorite scientist.

[iceman_1960]

Watson: "That''s why you have Latin lovers. You''ve never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient."

He was referring to the 1996 film "The English Patient."

(He doesn"t get out much.)

Check out those steamy scenes with Kate Winslet in "Titanic," Professor.

It"s elementary, my dear Watson.

[newsjunky5]

Why all this talk about "black people?" When Watson said Africa was not as smart, it''s obvious he was speaking about those @#$*!%# Egyptians.

[iceman_1960]

RE: Post by mnelsonix at 11:05 AM : Oct 19, 2007

About your experiment...

If you conducted it 130 years ago, many of the Blacks would be lynched. The Whites would get home safely.

If it"s time dependent like that, genetics must not have anything to do with it.


It"s elementary, my dear Watson.

[mcvett]

Me and da homeboi''s be hangin in da hood readin dis bullsh*t.

Yo dog, I wants to ax whitey a queshun:

wada, wada, wada, wazzuup wit dis shizzle ma nizzle??

Dis cracka needs to go to
re-educashun camp (aka. sensitivity training classes)
so he can be taught to think politically correct.

nuff said, I wants to be hangin wit my homeboi''s stead-a listnin to this cracka.

LOL

[mnelsonix]

If it''s time dependent like that, genetics must not have anything to do with it.

It''s elementary, my dear Watson.

Posted by Iceman_1960

LOL! I just wanted to see if genetics has anything to do with a sense of direction. Still lol...I never considered the time thing. Hilarious and true.

[iceman_1960]

"While he hopes everyone is equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true," Watson, who won a Nobel Prize in 1962 for co-discovering the structure of DNA, is quoted as saying."

He must have been misquoted.

Not even a mediocre scientist, much less a great one, would come to any important conclusion on such shabby anecdotal evidence.

"Heard it from a friend of a friend" is the kind of evidence real scientists are trained to discount.

[amazedd]

HERESY!

"You are accused of heresy on three counts - heresy by thought, heresy by word, heresy by deed, and heresy by action - four counts. Do you confess?"

[gunnerv1]

Why are you calling the Indians the smartest people in the world when they too are Racist. They still have in place a "Cast" system. Ever heard of the term "Untouchable" (And I ain''t talkin'' about the Roaring 20''s)

[funkiwiteboy]

Duh.... watchu taukin bout willis...
Watson''s gonna have to eat old jim-crow awhile over nothing. It''s the "US against them" agenda that the racist heritics earn their lively(hoods) stirrin up.
LAWD HEP EM SEE!!!!

[tnt1954]

scientists are all stupid, look at all the trouble
they''ve caused. military applications mostly.
the death of the planet was caused by them, all
their so-called ''progress''. it probably would
be better to have faith healers and witch doctors
run the us public health service and the world
health organization. i betcha the survival rate
would be basically the same? maybe all illness
is caused by ''evil spirits''? the amish are
right on target. for every problem solved, it
just creates more problems. shut the computer
off its driving us all nuts. mr. 666 has taken
over. an electrical eclectic nightmare. are
evolving or deevolving? who says intelligence
is better than moronism. i, moron, know. i love
therefore i am. not think therefore i am. to go
with she, h. rider haggard''s fictitious heroine,
or to flee? where? into space where its safe?
you must be kidding? enjoy time travel then.
all sorts of wicked applications. is Reality
malevolent or benevolent? you decide.

[vastr-wcon]

.
Thank you Dr. Watson for once again letting the world know the scientific truth.

Just as the right-wing denies the scientific evidence of evolution and global warming, the left-wing denies the scientific evidence of racial differences. Two peas in a pod. Selecting only those parts of scientific fact that support one''s ideology is stupid and wrong whether done by the right wing or left wing. Both should get their heads out of their A**es, see the facts and accept reality.

.

[mcvett]

Me and da homeboi''s be hangin in da hood readin dis bullsh*t.

Yo dog, I wants to ax whitey a queshun:

wadda, wadda, wadda, wazzuup wit dis shizzle ma nizzle??

Dis cracka needs to go to
re-educashun camp (aka. sensitivity training classes)
so he can be taught to think politically correct.

nuff said, I wants to be hangin wit my homeboi''s stead-a listnin to this cracka.

LOL

[andor3]

MyIDonCBS said: "Doesn''t ANYBODY in this country understand logic these days?"

You said it brother! Seems like a basic life skill kids should be taught somewhere.

If all blue haired people have purple eyes, everyone with purple eyes is a stupid criminal, because I knew a blue hair bad dude once...

[amazedd]

She should get into her head
She should not get out of bed
She should know that she''s not paid
To be loud but to be laid.

Appeasement!

[susanhelit]

Yep, Dr. Watson is letting all the idiot racists know the truth:

"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly. That is not what I meant. More importantly, from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief."

NO SCIENTIFIC BASIS for such a belief. From a nobel prize winning, prominient scientist.

[antoniof123]

He disproved his theory. I mean he has no common sense. Too funny that a person can shoot his mouth off and think someone will listen when they have no sense. What a moron.

[xzavierbrown]

ignorance does not discriminate
laziness does not discriminate
knowledge does not discriminate
desire for knowledge does not discriminate


only the one who thinks otherwise..does

[tiddsanbeer]

WHY ISN''T THE LATEST CONTROVERSIAL NOBEL PRIZE WINNER AL F''N GORE IN THE NEWS APOLOGIZING FOR HIS BS???

I mean, go to fox news dot com and read the story about all his false statements about global warming.

Go right now, lefties, read the whole story that you will only get on fox news, then come back here and post more of your f''n lies to defend AL...C''MON, I DARE YOU.....BOTTOM LEFT OF FOXES HOME PAGE, CLICK IT OR BE A ***....

[tiddsanbeer]

INCONVIENIANT LIES BY AL GORE....WHO HAS THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR...WHATTTTTTTTTT.......?????? CROCK OF SH ITOLA.
THE STORY IS AN INCONVIENIANT TRUTH FOR AL AND CBS WHO WON''T PUBLISH IT.....C''MON CBS, SHOW CAHONEYS..

[tiddsanbeer]

GOOSE AND GANDER....SLAM A CONTROVERSIAL NOBEL PRIZE WINNER HERE, THAN SLAM ONE THERE....

[mythoughtsr]

I would have given him a promotion. Everyone is so testy over THE TRUTH. Good for him for revealing what most of us have known all along.

[mcvett]

Me and da homeboi''s be hangin in da hood readin dis bullsh*t.

Yo dog, I wants to ax whitey a queshun:

wadda, wadda, wadda, wazzuup wit dis shizzle ma nizzle??

Dis cracka needs to go to
re-educashun camp (aka. sensitivity training classes)
so he can be taught to think politically correct.

nuff said, I wants to be hangin wit my homeboi''s stead-a listnin to this cracka.

LOL

[mcvett]

Me and da homeboi''s be hangin in da hood readin dis bullsh*t.

Yo dog, I wants to ax whitey a queshun:

wadda, wadda, wadda, wazzuup wit dis shizzle ma nizzle??

Dis cracka needs to go to
re-educashun camp (aka. sensitivity training classes)
so he can be taught to think politically correct.

nuff said, I wants to be hangin wit my homeboi''s stead-a listnin to this cracka.

LOL

[huangagain]

I''m far on the left, but this is when political correctness goes wrong...someone gets suspended from his job even though we are suppose to have the freedom of speech. Argue a different point and everyone can disagree with him, but don''t punish him for his "protected" right of free speech.

[signof4]

All you have to do is read the posts by MCVet (one T) and Condomism and you''ll know this man is right.

[iceman_1960]

"Scientists have already prooved that Indians for India are very smart."
- Posted by iampundit at 03:22 PM : Oct 19, 2007

That"s natural selection. All the dumb ones are kept so busy at Internet Help Desks they don"t have time to reproduce.

The last one I called about a printer problem advised me to:
(a) Unplug it completely from the electrical power source.
(b) Then hold the Power button down for 60 seconds.

Needless to say, that did not fix the problem.

[iceman_1960]

I once received an email from an India-based Internet Help Desk that read (I am NOT making this up !):

"We understand that you are currently unable to access your email messages. Please do the following steps to correct the problem..."

That"s what the email advised me to do.

[alphaa10-2009]

"tiddsabbeer"-- Faux News Network has an established reputation as political spin factaory for George Bush and the GOP. Almost everything Faux publishes has an unprofessional spin to it, replete with colored adjectives and editorial comments where none belong.
Almost as though Faux believes its viewers cannot think for themselves-- or is afraid to let them.

In any case, like any true believer, you do not bother with other points of view. You visit CBS (and probably other websites) to boast of your ignorance, little realizing how it paints both you and Faux to everybody else. Consider that a "Mission Accomplished", Bubba.

Sorry to disappoint you, but there is little acceptance of the Faux News Network in the scientific world as any kind of authority. The best answer science makes to Faux and brown-shirted types like you is an education. Get one before deciding what science has to say about global warming-- or any other topic.

[iceman_1960]

RE: Post by MCVett at 03:24 PM : Oct 19, 2007

As Bill O"Reilly pointed out, in remarks that were later taken out of context, most Black people don"t talk like that, just as most White people don"t talk like Jethro Clampett.

It"s an ignorant racial stereotype.

Ask Mr. O"Reilly.

[tiddsanbeer]

So, mr dum bshit ALPHASTOOGE, why can''t you just address the fox statements? In other words, ***, why should I believe AL GORE over fox or cbs for that matter? You see, chitforbrains, you and your left ill can never rebutt anything with facts or proof, just lies and hate.

I don''t profess to be an expert...just curious, what qualifies you?

Please, and I say it again. Go back to yo mamma, ask for a refund....YOU CAME OUT OF THE WRONG HOLE!! HA!

[tiddsanbeer]

My point of all this was too simply point out the story within the story. I mean, christ, because dr watson said something controversial, he''s front page.

Gore get''s a pass....double standard bs. For all I know, they both could be frauds.

[phil-in-fin]

James Watson''s new book is called "Avoid Boring People" ... it must be an autobiography because I cannot think of anyone more boring than a racist ...