Fury at DNA pioneer's theory: Africans are less intelligent than Westerners

Celebrated scientist attacked for race comments: "All our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really" (The Independent)

It is dangerous, probably, to blog about this. After all, the mere mention of an issue like this is likely to result in someone calling you a racist. However, there are a couple of important issues here worthy of discussion.

I read The Bell Curve back when everyone made such a fuss over the book. I also recall Jimmy "The Greek" being fired from CBS sports for commenting that Blacks were more successful at sports because of selective breeding during slavery.

The Bell Curve was of course much criticized even though the bulk of the book did not deal at all with racial differences in intelligence. It was an amazing and eye-opening experience to one have read the book and two talk to people that had not but were certain it was a racist tome. I carried a copy on a flight and a colleague berated me for even considering that as reading material. However, the book did make numerous valid points supported by data.

Jimmy "The Greek" was another issue entirely. He had only anecdotal evidence, just his own observations and an opinion based upon those observations. However, a logical examination of his theory essentially stands up. Africans and African-Americans certainly are vastly different physically. I am not certain this is all a matter of environment and nutrition. There are many well nourished Africans that compete and win long distance running events, very few African- Americans compete in these events. It also has to be more than the geographical separation. Four hundred years is not enough time to manifest the physical differences that are so apparent in these two groups. Jimmy must have been correct, it has to have something to do with the experience of slavery.

So back to James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner associated with mapping human DNA (not that a Nobel Prize means a lot, a la Gore). Here is a scientist with accomplishments and expert knowledge in the area he is speaking about. For sure he is positing a theory that cannot be backed up with hard evidence, after all there is still much we do not know about genetics. The history of science is filled with experts positing theories that are later proven to be true.

Alas, this is no ordinary theory. Those see the world through certain glasses never want such a theory explored. What if Watson's theory was proven true? What would that mean to egalitarians around the world? I certainly believe that all men are created equal in the eyes of God but we all know that we do not each have the exact same skills and abilities. Why is it so preposterous to examine the possibility that thousands of years of geographic separation produced more differences than just skin color? Perhaps honest scientific evaluation will answer these questions for us - but then again probably not.

Anti-racism campaigners called for Dr Watson's remarks to be looked at in the context of racial hatred laws. A spokesman for the 1990 Trust, a black human rights group, said: "It is astonishing that a man of such distinction should make comments that seem to perpetuate racism in this way. It amounts to fuelling bigotry and we would like it to be looked at for grounds of legal complaint."

There you have it. This is the European Union at its finest. If academics are not allowed freedom to pursue their own ideas, subjected to honest peer-review, then the world of ideas and real learning will fall into the shadows. Watson may be all wrong, but we may never really know if victims are able to use political correctness to silence his thoughts and punish him for actually having thoughts they dislike.