Anti-racism campaigners called for Dr Watson's remarks to be looked at in the context of racial hatred laws. A spokesman for the 1990 Trust, a black human rights group, said: "It is astonishing that a man of such distinction should make comments that seem to perpetuate racism in this way. It amounts to fuelling bigotry and we would like it to be looked at for grounds of legal complaint."
And the apology:
The DNA pioneer James Watson today apologised "unreservedly" for his apparent claim that black people are less intelligent than whites.
"I am mortified about what has happened," he told a group of scientists and journalists at the launch of his new book, Avoid Boring People, at the Royal Society in London.
"I can certainly understand why people, reading those words, have reacted in the ways they have."
"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise unreservedly.
Here is the situation for this and related racial distinctions that one might make. First, science is supposed to work by someone posing a question like whether or not there are differences in intelligence among races and then conducting well-designed experiments to answer the question. Well, the research has not been done to date because researchers are not allowed by society to do the research. As a result, you can't even ask the question. The main objection of the opponents is what do you do with the information---if the theory that there is a racial difference is substantiated? So, even though there is a lot of research conducted which is not "practical", racial differences fall into a special category. I think it is regretable, but it is what it is.
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