'black people are less intelligent than white people'.....

[gnash1970]

But we are but one country. Why is almost all of Africa in the grip of war, dictatorship, and poverty?

I think you're trying to move away from what was originally a silly point. You would appear to want to believe that this man's opinions are derided becaue they oppose some mythical PC agenda. In fact they're dismissed because they're the non-scientific opinions of a man who has courted controversy in the latter stages of his career and who is promoting a book. Maybe your heart leaps to hear the straight-talking Nobel Prize winner say that mothers should abort gay foetuses. I just think it's obnoxious.

And if you want to say that Africa is the way it is because black people are less intelligent than whites, say it outright rather than hinting at it as you do here. Have the courage of your convictions but be prepared to back them up. If you're saying that experiences of war and dictatorship and poverty are in some way related to the intelligence of a population, you might like to think of other countries that have experienced these things over the last 60 years or so and consider them before advancing your thesis.

[Worldbystorm]

You think it is a question of intelligence FT? Might there be another factor? Ethnic tensions as a result of divide and conquer imperialism perhaps?

Not only, but also: environmental factors, lack of development, terrain, lack of certain animal types to work the land, overemphasis on resources as distinct from taxes as basis for funding state apparatus (similar actually there to the middle east), tribalism as a functional element of society, etc, etc.

[greenwithirony]

I really thought Jared Diamond had put all this racist bunkum masquerading as science to bed years ago in Guns Germs & Steel. How depressing it's reared its ugly head again.

[janepaisley]

isn't it right that black men are better athletes ?

And I've heard Black men have longer "feet" Is this true ?

[patslatt]

Nature always compensates for disadvantages in life, so the people with low and moderate IQs who have difficulty learning may develop good emotional IQs in qualities like patience, tolerance and determination.

Are you saying that it's also possible that these people with low and moderate IQs may not "develop good emotional IQs in qualities like patience, tolerance and determination"?

It could work both ways but more likely in a positive way. People who struggle with mentally challenging tasks can get frustrated and give up or,in most cases, they can persist and succeed through patient,determined effort. Clever people do not have to struggle remotely as hard with the same tasks.

[patslatt]

Nature always compensates for disadvantages in life, so the people with low and moderate IQs who have difficulty learning may develop good emotional IQs in qualities like patience, tolerance and determination.

To be blunt, "Nature" doesn't do jack sh!t.

You are simply a combination of your particular genes stuck in your unique environment and circumstances (admittedly with a little developmental variability and stochastic effects). One part doesn't compensate for another part: if you are innately poor at something, it does not mean you will be naturally better or worse at any other unrelated topic or action. The concept of "Nature" attempting to balance individuals' faults or talents is deeply flawed, baseless and simply illogical.

Bluntness is unnecessary,except in wage bargaining!

Some examples of nature compensating people:

Blind people tend to develop heightened senses,especially in hearing and touch.

Successful small men often have developed domineering personalities to compensate for their size, Napoleon and Hitler being the classic examples.

Because of job discrimination, homosexuals tend to flourish in the arts,probably because of their need to be self employed.

People who are poorly educated develop a toughness of mind necessary for a lifetime of working in demanding physical jobs.

[bogtrotter]

Which is the poorest continent in the world. I don't believe in racial superiority, but neither do I believe in censoring science out of a fear of causing offence.

That's a very stupid point. Twenty years ago we were one of the poorest countries in Europe. Now we're one of the richest. Did our average IQ level exponentially increase over that period? Or were other factors possibly at play?

I don't think you're getting the point here. You're accepting the position of a self-publicising controversialist whose argument (as many people have pointed out above) has no scientific basis just because he's saying something at odds with a perceived PC agenda. A stupid opinion doesn't gain any weight just because it's offensive. This man's proposal that gay foetuses should be aborted (were it possible to identify them) is a case in point.

But we are but one country. Why is almost all of Africa in the grip of war, dictatorship, and poverty?

Because European colonial powers invaded their countries, robbed them of their birth rights, brought millions of them to far away lands to be sold as as slaves, murdered and pillaged their way through their countries for centuries, advanced civilizations were wiped out by marauding thugs in the name of god. They created artifical countries with artificial boundries, brought diseases with them in their search for loot that wiped out entire local populations and we wonder why Africa is not as advanced as Europe or America...

Africian countries are only emerging from the nightmare of colonial rule, Former colonial powers should be forced by the United Nations to rebuild what they tore down....It will all take time, just as it took centuries for colonial powers to rob them of everything including their self respest.

[Bobb]

When I read What Watson wrote about Black people I could hardly breathe
Where was this man in the 1960s?
Where was he in the 1970s, '80s, '90s?
Has he learned nothing?
How could it be that black people might be less intelligent than other races?
God created all people equal. Watson must be an atheist, I think.

[stringjack]

Nature always compensates for disadvantages in life, so the people with low and moderate IQs who have difficulty learning may develop good emotional IQs in qualities like patience, tolerance and determination.

Are you saying that it's also possible that these people with low and moderate IQs may not "develop good emotional IQs in qualities like patience, tolerance and determination"?

It could work both ways but more likely in a positive way. People who struggle with mentally challenging tasks can get frustrated and give up or,in most cases, they can persist and succeed through patient,determined effort. Clever people do not have to struggle remotely as hard with the same tasks.

Don't they struggle with different tasks?

[FutureTaoiseach]

Which is the poorest continent in the world. I don't believe in racial superiority, but neither do I believe in censoring science out of a fear of causing offence.

That's a very stupid point. Twenty years ago we were one of the poorest countries in Europe. Now we're one of the richest. Did our average IQ level exponentially increase over that period? Or were other factors possibly at play?

I don't think you're getting the point here. You're accepting the position of a self-publicising controversialist whose argument (as many people have pointed out above) has no scientific basis just because he's saying something at odds with a perceived PC agenda. A stupid opinion doesn't gain any weight just because it's offensive. This man's proposal that gay foetuses should be aborted (were it possible to identify them) is a case in point.

But we are but one country. Why is almost all of Africa in the grip of war, dictatorship, and poverty?

Because European colonial powers invaded their countries, robbed them of their birth rights, brought millions of them to far away lands to be sold as as slaves, murdered and pillaged their way through their countries for centuries, advanced civilizations were wiped out by marauding thugs in the name of god. They created artifical countries with artificial boundries, brought diseases with them in their search for loot that wiped out entire local populations and we wonder why Africa is not as advanced as Europe or America...

Africian countries are only emerging from the nightmare of colonial rule, Former colonial powers should be forced by the United Nations to rebuild what they tore down....It will all take time, just as it took centuries for colonial powers to rob them of everything including their self respest.

It we were still a poor country it would be ludicrous to keep blaming it on colonialism decades after independence. These African countries have to take responsibility for the mess they are in and stop continuing to blame the colonial-era. Admittedly colonialism was a great injustice on Africa. But clearly many of these countries are now worse off than under it - notably Zimbabwe. To constantly pass the blame for Africa's mess onto the First World is just letting Africans off the hook in terms of getting them to face up to their mistakes out of self-pity. Awful governance and corruption on a scale that would make Haughey blush are to blame.