What I Meant To Say Was…

The other day, I said I didn’t think it was necessary to get up in arms over Dr. Watson’s claims about racial intelligence because his proof just wasn’t strong enough to make it worth it.

But a lot of people got up in arms over it anyway. There were shouting matches and some of his speeches were cancelled. He was also temporarily suspended from his post as Chancellor of the non-profit research group he works for.

Now, probably because of the suspension, Dr. Jim Watson has apologized “unreservedly” for stating that blacks were not as intelligent as whites and said he was “mortified” by the comments attributed to him. Mortified?
Nobel-winning biologist apologizes for remarks about blacks – CNN.com.
DNA pioneer suspended after he’s quoted saying blacks not as intelligent as whites – USATODAY.com

“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,” he said.

He did say what he was quoted as saying, but he’s suggesting he didn’t mean it in the way it was interpreted. You have people on one side who just blow up at any suggestion of race & DNA and then you have people on the other side who are so eager to further the idea of racial superiority that they make the remarks seem like more than they are.

This man has a history of making statements that he can always claim later were taken out of context or misinterpreted, but were they?

In 1997 – Watson said that if a gene for homosexuality were isolated, women who find that their unborn child has the gene should be allowed to have an abortion.
In 2000- Watson suggested there might be links between a person’s weight and their level of ambition and between skin color and sexual prowess.
In 2003 – Watson suggested stupidity was a genetic disease that should be treated.