Everyone in the field of science has heard of the legendary James Watson and his massive contributions to the field of biology through the discovery of the role and structure of DNA in 1953. As young scientists aiming to make contributions of equal magnitude in the field of research, we have admired him and praised him for his work in collaboration with Rosalind Franklin and Francis Crick. In most of our education from middle school and beyond, James Watson’s work has been illustrated as the epitome and turning point of science.
In the midst of these incredible contributions, Watson has made some claims in the recent decades that are questionable. Before we explore these claims, it is essential to remember that an individual’s scientific achievements do not guarantee that everything else that an individual promotes is scientifically sound or with validity. In 2007, Dr. Watson made the statement in a British newspaper that “Africans are less intelligent than Westerners”, with the claim of evidence in DNA to back up his ideas. He made the statement that genes are responsible for creating the differences in human intelligence. As Watson wrote his book, “There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so.” While this event sparked controversy, the conversation died down after an apology made by Watson.
In the most recent documentary from PBS originating in the “American Masters” series, however, Watson made a similar comment that referenced the idea of an average IQ difference between blacks and whites. The studies originated in the 1990s from Charles Murray, an American political scientist who suggested that perhaps the distinctions in IQs between races were based on genetics. With the recent documentary released on January 2nd of this year, Dr. Watson used the average IQ differences to reference an underlying genetic difference due to natural selection. Upon the release of the documentary, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in which Watson had held a position of honor, severed ties with the him.
Not only are Watson’s idea unsubstantiated, what he is promoting indicates a highly racist view that white people are more intelligent that black people on average. There is no sugarcoating the suggestion that James Watson may very well have strong-held racist beliefs. As I hope that those who are engaging in the news do not agree with James Watson’s false claims, below are some sources to consider in debunking what Watson states.
In the article by the Harvard geneticist, David Reich explores the consensus established in the science community that human populations are extremely similar to each other from a genetic point of view. With that idea, race is a social construct. With that in mind, Reich illustrates that research into genetics among races is often utilized to “prove” pseudoscientific arguments that promote eugenic beliefs. As genetic discoveries are continuing to increase, there is, however, DNA sequencing technology that allows individuals to accurately measure genetic ancestry.
With the mapping of genetic ancestry, there are differences in genetics that influence susceptibility to diseases. As Reich states, there exists real risk factors for diseases that differ in frequency across populations. Danielle Posthuma has currently studied more than 70,000 and found genetic variations in around 20 genes that are predictive of performance on intelligence tests, not found to be specific to any race at the moment. The difference between what James Watson has done is use their basis in scientific knowledge and position in the academic community to promote false claims backed by no evidence, and incorrectly crediting the racist stereotypes as true. As research continues into genetics, Reich claims that regardless of what is found in trait differences, the challenge to civilization is and has always been “to treat each human being as an individual and empower all people”.
Earlier in 2017, Vivian Chou, a P.h.D. candidate at Harvard Medical School wrote an article depicting the racial relation debates surrounding the last presidential election. Through Trump’s election, there was a notable rise in racial incidents. In the new era of human genetics research, it has been found that human diversity is distributed across 7 major geographical regions with 4000 alleles (traits), not the typical manner in which socially race is constructed. The majority of alleles were shared over multiple regions which indicates a fundamental similarity. Only around 7.4% of the 4000 alleles were specific to one of the particular regions. The traits associated with only one region were only found in 1% of the people from that region, therefore indicating that these specific alleles were not a large trademark to the region.
While genetics do reflect geographical origins of our ancestors to some degree, Chou also agrees that genetic differences in intelligent have not been found between populations. In the president’s alt-right campaign, individuals have been trying to prove the superiority in having a purely white heritage and have been misusing “genetics” as their battleground. The question of race and politics has transformed genetics into both a political and social issue and should be approached with caution and with scientifically sound evidence.