{"id":3959,"date":"2007-12-11T18:30:51","date_gmt":"2007-12-12T01:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/12\/11\/when-you-use-race-science-against-yourself-and-dont-even-know-it\/"},"modified":"2007-12-11T18:30:51","modified_gmt":"2007-12-12T01:50:39","slug":"when-you-use-race-science-against-yourself-and-dont-even-know-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=3959","title":{"rendered":"When You Use "Race Science" Against Yourself (And Don't Even Know It)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disclaimer: I think racial DNA tests are absurd, and are based primarily on social notions of race, not actual distinct genetic and biological human categories. Personally, I think the idea of African, Asian, or European DNA borders on absurd, and I do not endorse the use of “racial DNA tests.” However, I couldn’t resist posting this because I got a really big chuckle out of it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Remember a few months ago when renown Nobel Prize winner James Watson claimed blacks were naturally less intelligent than whites–well I wonder if he now thinks he is less intelligent other “whites.” Check this out:<\/a><\/p>\n

JAMES WATSON, the DNA pioneer who claimed Africans are less intelligent than whites, has been found to have 16 times more genes of black origin than the average white European.<\/p>\n

An analysis of his genome shows that 16% of his genes are likely to have come from a black ancestor of African descent. By contrast, most people of European descent would have no more than 1%.<\/p>\n

The study was made possible when he allowed his genome – the map of all his genes – to be published on the internet in the interests of science.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis level is what you would expect in someone who had a great-grandparent who was African,\u201d said Kari Stefansson of deCODE Genetics, whose company carried out the analysis. \u201cIt was very surprising to get this result for Jim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson won the Nobel prize, with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, after working out the structure of DNA in 1953. However, he provoked an outcry earlier this year when he suggested black people were genetically less intelligent than whites.<\/p>\n

This weekend his critics savoured the wry twist of fate. Sir John Sulston, the Nobel laureate who helped lead the consortium that decoded the human genome, said the discovery was ironic in view of Watson\u2019s opinions on race. \u201cI never did agree with Watson\u2019s remarks,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do not understand enough about intelligence to generalise about race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The backlash against Watson forced him to step down as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York state, after 39 years at the helm. He had said he was \u201cinherently gloomy about the prospects for Africa\u201d because \u201call our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really\u201d.<\/p>\n

The analysis by deCODE Genetics, an Icelandic company, also shows a further 9% of Watson\u2019s genes are likely to have come from an ancestor of Asian descent. Watson was not available for comment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And if you want to read a bunch of racist rubbish you can go read the comments to the article<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disclaimer: I think racial DNA tests are absurd, and are based primarily on social notions of race, not actual distinct genetic and biological human categories. Personally, I think the idea of African, Asian, or European DNA borders on absurd, and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}