Should scientists talk about race?

Another Old Post

… the nub of the story is that Dr. Watson was quoted in a British newspaper as saying that Africans are less intelligent than Europeans. 
 
The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the US suspended him, the Science Museum in London cancelled a talk he was scheduled to give. He’s gone home now without completing his book tour. 
 
Regardless of whether you agree with the assertions attributed to him, should he or anyone else be allowed to make such comments? Or does race have to be removed from science’s research? Are there some beliefs about race which are simply intolerable and deserve disassociation and condemnation? 
 
It’s worth adding that Dr. Watson says he doesn’t remember saying the comments. (BBC)
 
ABC comment: 
 
Scietists should be allowed to discover any aspect of human life; coz no one can stop that. 
 
And of course, even acc to evolutionary theory, some races may be more intelligent than the other, if their predecessors were in the business which required mental skills. Some races are physically sturdier similarly. 
 
However, this should by no means be applied to decide on individual cases.  

1. randall butisingh said,

   February 16, 2008

   To say that Africans are less intelligent than Europeans is outrageous. They may be less informed when they live in an environment which denies them education. The same could be said of Europeans two thousand years ago when they were not yet out of the woods, and Asians, like the East Indians and Chinese were civilizsed and well into learning and philosophy. Any race, however primitive, place them in any environment where the mind is exercised and note the difference.

2. dacostad                                                                                                 Quite frankly, I have been on this Earth for quite a few years.. I still have problems using race on a social level, much less a scientific level. If science disputes its existence – then it should be removed. Has it served any purpose?

3. Baekho said,

   February 2008                                                                                  I think scientists should be allowed to talk about race, however, they shouldn’t say anything about race that isn’t borne out by science.

   As it happens, “race” is a social construction, and so it seems to me that Watson’s comments are completely unjustified, and unbecoming of an intelligent individual.

4. jdick said,

   Let’s set something straight here. Race is a social construct, just like gender. Defined, a social construct is is any institutionalized entity or artifact in a social system “invented” or “constructed” by participants in a particular culture or society that exists because people agree to behave as if it exists or follow certain conventional rules. Historically, race was invented by Europeans in order to justify the enslavement of African people in the Americas by purposely stating that Africans or black people were inferior to that of white people and used ’scientific data’ to prove that. Unfortunately, many people today in the US still adhere to these social constructs and as black people we have come to internalize these constructs and as a result come to believe most of the prejudices or stereotypes about black and white people. We as a people are socially conditioned and it is only until we deconstruct ourselves from these conditionings, by thinking critically about our identity, can we end all oppression faced by people of color, women, and working class people. Therefore, I do not believe race should be considered in scientific research. Essentially, there is no need to classify people in terms of race because it is a false, social construct.