First thing to do, I think, is to look at what Watson actually said (or is at least reported to have said - there's no recording, and his comments where within a piece of prose that wasn't presented as a word for word interview, so it's kind of hard to know). Here's the link. And the relevant passage:
Quote:
He says that 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”, and I know that this “hot potato” is going to be difficult to address. His hope is that everyone is equal, but he counters that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”. He says that you should not discriminate on the basis of colour, because “there are many people of colour who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level”. He writes that “there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so”.
There's a mix of good and bad, in there. I've not seen a study that I'd consider credible that shows that blacks are less intelligent than whites. His comment on people who have to deal with black employees is particularly bad, because as a scientist he should know well that relying on anecdote is unreliable. In the book Blink, on the subject of people's abilities to do snap judgements, the scientist author tests at one point people's reactions to black vs. white people, and finds that all his test subjects react as if they believe the whites are more trustworthy than the blacks. He tests himself, and discovers his reactions are the same - he's a rascist on an unconscious level. And
he is an African-American. If, as seems likely,
none of us are able to get past racial stereotypes, I'm afraid that I can't accept that any controls for socio-economic status, education, etc. might be adequate in a study on intelligence and race.
Still, Watson's point on the fact that just because we wish we were all equal doesn't make it so is one well made. But there's little to be done about it. Believing that any study on the subject would be futile, I can't support there ever being one funded, and even if it were possible to control for all these factors, I think a study would be a dangerous thing. What if you discovered that blacks are less intelligent than whites? Everyone's an individual, but as with almost any generalization, you'd create a situation where everyone would have that judgement passed on them. Given the difficulties that blacks already have, giving rascists a justification for discrimination would be a terrible wrong, IMO.
Er... I think I digressed somewhat, there.
_________________
"You're never more alone than when you're alone in a crowd"
-Captain Sheridan, Babylon 5
Music of the Moment: Radiohead - In Rainbows
Last edited by mmaestro on 24 Oct 2007, 4:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
20 Oct 2007, 3:19 pm
