Racist Row with Dr. Watson.
Once again, because the general populace cannot grasp a certain concept, we're seeing an uproar over a statement made by a scientist.
Watson, co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, said something rather haphazardly the other day in an interview with a British paper. While, I understand his point, the vast majority of people think what he was saying was patently racist. Let me try and boil this down to its bare and simple meaning.
Genes are not directly affected by environment, but environment weeds out certain genes by affecting their host. That is to say, it is not the environment which changes genes, but the reduction of a certain genetic expression due to environmental circumstances. For example, if there were a warren of rabbits living in Europe, a minority of which were genetically predisposed to tolerate cold, it stands to reason that if an ice age were to return, these would live, whereas the others would die out. But if a portion the non-cold resistant bunnies just happened to have a gene expressing white coats and the cold resistant bunnies were
all brown, the entire population would dwindle. If these were to ultimately mate, with luck, a group of cold-resistant white bunnies would emerge, and lo, they would weather the environment, that much stronger.
In essence, Watson is saying that due to circumstance and environment, certain genetic traits are not predominate in Africa. In this case, he is making the statement that Africa, by way of greed and corruption as well as isolation, health and other factors, is predisposed to foster a less intelligent human being. It is not to say that world wide, those of African descent are less intelligent. Personally, I differentiate the word African from black or from Afro-American. The same way I differentiate Spanish food (a generic term non-Spanish speaking people use for food from Spanish speaking countries) from say, Cuban food, Mexican food or food from Spain.
Sadly, Watson cannot explain himself out of the situation he's in. The harder he tries, the worse it will get. He simply should not have made the statement at all. His best bet is to simply close his eyes, take a deep breath, and say... "I'm sorry." Those people with at least a cursory knowledge of genetics will say, "that's a shame," and move on. People who believe that he truly was saying, "gosh, them niggers is stupid," will continue to believe that he meant this by his statement. Then there are the rest of the masses who don't even know who Watson and Crick were. They'll just go back to their lattees and shut the door to their SUV, blasting the AC at full bore while bopping their head to whatever Clearchannel station they happen to be siphoning.
I see no hope in our future.
Watson, co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, said something rather haphazardly the other day in an interview with a British paper. While, I understand his point, the vast majority of people think what he was saying was patently racist. Let me try and boil this down to its bare and simple meaning.
Genes are not directly affected by environment, but environment weeds out certain genes by affecting their host. That is to say, it is not the environment which changes genes, but the reduction of a certain genetic expression due to environmental circumstances. For example, if there were a warren of rabbits living in Europe, a minority of which were genetically predisposed to tolerate cold, it stands to reason that if an ice age were to return, these would live, whereas the others would die out. But if a portion the non-cold resistant bunnies just happened to have a gene expressing white coats and the cold resistant bunnies were
all brown, the entire population would dwindle. If these were to ultimately mate, with luck, a group of cold-resistant white bunnies would emerge, and lo, they would weather the environment, that much stronger.
In essence, Watson is saying that due to circumstance and environment, certain genetic traits are not predominate in Africa. In this case, he is making the statement that Africa, by way of greed and corruption as well as isolation, health and other factors, is predisposed to foster a less intelligent human being. It is not to say that world wide, those of African descent are less intelligent. Personally, I differentiate the word African from black or from Afro-American. The same way I differentiate Spanish food (a generic term non-Spanish speaking people use for food from Spanish speaking countries) from say, Cuban food, Mexican food or food from Spain.
Sadly, Watson cannot explain himself out of the situation he's in. The harder he tries, the worse it will get. He simply should not have made the statement at all. His best bet is to simply close his eyes, take a deep breath, and say... "I'm sorry." Those people with at least a cursory knowledge of genetics will say, "that's a shame," and move on. People who believe that he truly was saying, "gosh, them niggers is stupid," will continue to believe that he meant this by his statement. Then there are the rest of the masses who don't even know who Watson and Crick were. They'll just go back to their lattees and shut the door to their SUV, blasting the AC at full bore while bopping their head to whatever Clearchannel station they happen to be siphoning.
I see no hope in our future.
posted by sangandongo at 9:16 PM
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