Embrace not mock cultural variations
My fellow b5 Science and Health journalist Grace at Kids Health Notes wrote a most interesting article in response to Dr James Watson’s less than helpful comments on intelligence and culture which I have previously alluded to in my article Dr James Watson co-founder of DNA - retires
I would also like to add my opinion on genetics and its impact on individual cultures. Although we have a fundamental right to freedom of speech, there are boundaries which should not be crossed for fear of causing immense offense.
I believe cultures evolved and adapted to suit the environment they were inhabiting. As these cultures migrated and settled around the world, they took their inherited behavioural traits with them. Despite ’sprinkling nurture dust’ over them, inherited traits, having evolved over many thousands of years are deeply imprinted and will take many more thousands of years to remove.
Within each culture you will find ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’ irrespective of race, creed or colour. We should be embracing these wonderful differences, not mock them … after all if we were all the same, life would be insanely dull!
Elaine Warburton
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2 opinions for Embrace not mock cultural variations
mihai andrei
Oct 29, 2007 at 8:39 pm
how do you know for sure that it would be dull ?:) in fact being unique is just being the same as everybody else since everybody is unique
but education has a huge role here; probably bigger than genetic; but not going to start the Locke vs Rousseau thing here
Mark
Nov 5, 2007 at 7:57 pm
The problem in this case is that much of what Watson said is verifiably true. IQ tests have repeatedly show that Africans score significantly lower than white who score somewhat lower than Asians. Now, you can argue whether IQ tests really matter, but you can’t deny their results.
But, just as Watson said, the fact that Africans score lower on IQ tests doesn’t make them genetically inferior, any more than I’m genetically inferior to the many, many people - many of whom are black - with higher IQs than me.
I don’t know if telling your children to deny facts - facts that could have tremendous impact on policy decision, which is the reason that Watson was discussing IQ in the first place - is such a good path.
As to the idea that we don’t want to cause “offense” to others, that’s an understandable screen for whether to tell someone the truth, i.e. telling an unattractive person that they’re ugly doesn’t really acomplish much except to hurt their feelings. However, when telling someone the truth can help them do better, then perhaps the truth should be told.
For example, when I was in high school, I tried out for wide receiver. My couch, without worrying about my feelings told me I was too slow. Because of that, I switched to tight end and became fairly successful. Now, what if my coach had worried about my feelings and not told me that I was too slow? I might have kept trying out for wide receiver and failing. I believe that Watson was doing something similar when he talked about African IQ and the aid policies of Western countries toward that continent.
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