The Institute (協会)

I believe I'm going to have to disappoint you, bro. :^)

On Watson, I think he meant what he said the first time, as his rhetoric clearly points to what he considers to be evidence, and his apology is meant to save face. He'll never admit it, but it doesn't look like a real apology to me.

In other words; yes, some whites do view blacks as inferior. Watson more or less ran with "The Bell Curve," judged men by a few "affirmative action" hires he's known, and assumed that the major problems that face us as a society can be cured with intelligence.

Me? I think I'd rather be ruled by a moral man with an IQ of 80 than a philosopher. Sorry, Plato.

And your friend? I don't know what's going on, but I do know that a powerful thing to say to someone who says something rude is "what do you mean by that?" Sometimes they're just an ignorant pasty white boy that needs to get to know someone who looks a bit different.

It's going beyond what duty requires, but since I worship Someone who went beyond what duty required, I just might give it a try.

WOW, Mr. Perry, you totally got me on this one. I'm very disappointed:)!

Some white kids grew up in areas where the only African-Americans they were around were undereducated. No excuse for that white kid talking to the black student in that way, but it comes as no surprise. It's the only framework he has in mind.

I have a personal example of this kind of interaction, but I can't bring myself to type it here for fear of judgment.

I'm a white South African who's grown up with race issues right in front of me all the time. To my absolute dismay and horror so many whites in my country still have this attitude, even amongst evangelicals. I pray that God would cause us to recognize this sin and repent and I hope black people are praying the same for their white brothers who clearly are the weaker brothers in this issue.

A few questions:

1. Was the white student saying it must be hard to be there becuase you are black and that campus is mostly white? Or was it very very obvious that he meant intelligence?

2. What do you think the odds are that if the white student was shown the error of his ways he would be heartbroken at what he had said, implied, and done? Has that student been given the chance to repent, learn, and grow?

3. Does that white student deserve the opportunity to repent, learn and grow?

4. I am white. I sincerely and earnestly want to bridge the gap that exists between me and the christian black community. How do I do that w/out singling someone out because they are black? Is it ok for me just to say to my brother in Christ, "Look man, I want a deep and meaningful communal relationship with you. Sometimes my brokenness in the area of race is going to be a cross that we both have to bear. I will repent, but you have to be there for me." Is that fair, or will I just have to learn as I ignorantly and not malicioulsy alienate 4-5 people until I get it?

Finally, I am always dubious at the "horror" people express at other people's prejudice. It's in every one of us against someone. We are self idolizing people by NATURE! It's not prejudice. It's animosity. We call it prejudice because that provides us the comfort of believing that education is the answer. That gives us something to DO. I think it runs deeper than that. I think it gets to the core of who we are (emphasis on we).

Anthony said, "you'll remember being warned that you always have to work twice as hard because white people will always think you're less capable, no matter what."

So, how is this "warning" from your elders any less prejudice than anything the white student said?

Hey look! A series of incidents has justified some sweeping and prejudiced generalizations that my parents instilled in me!

I'm not judging you, though, I have the same parents, they're just white and said different things that would happen no matter what. Like you, I'm trying to grow in Christ in an effort to overcome them.

The really scary thing "horrific" maybe. Is that oftentimes when I am horrified in a similar context, I am now judging the one who judges by race.

This gospel stuff is tricky business.

I think it is triply sad that Imus would probably be fine if he had actually made a funny comment. It was offensive, and not funny... And, of course, driven by money.

Anthony, how did you counsel the black student?

From reading some other things, it seems that Watson only living in the real world part of the time. I'm no longer sure that his apology was to save face, but was the reaction of coming back into his right mind and realizing what he had said. He's apparently not all that sane anymore.

At any rate, I never cease to be astonished at the pervasiveness of Satan's lie that blacks aren't as smart or as capable of learning as whites. I always wonder who these people have met and what blinders they have on.

On the other hand, I think random guy has some great points. I do wonder if all of us at different times assign motives to other people's actions based on our own fears, prejudices and expectations. People will always make stupid comments--both for dark motives and for thoughtlessness--part of the bridging process in any divisive situation is for the offended party to ignore and let go. I try to teach my students this all the time.

As humans we offend, we give offense, and often the incident just isn't worth our trouble to confront or assign motive to. Making the call on that isn't always easy, but it helps to mend the fences. And in cases where you are acquainted, perhaps mentioning in a non-confrontational manner, "Hey, you know I'm sure this isn't what you meant, but it sounded like you're saying such-and-such. Maybe you could find a different way to ask that question next time so people don't get the wrong idea." Or something such as that.

Anyway, I'm curious, too: what did you tell the student?

"People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them." - James Baldwin

Drama, are you perchance referring to Watson's series of comments advocating the use of eugenics in various ways--stuff like what Dr. Veith comments upon today in "Cranach"?

I don't know that he's insane, to be honest. Rather, I think he's simply a philosophical materialist who, like Peter Singer, is simply being true to what he believes.

I don't know which I should hope for, if either--do you wish mental illness on a man, or bigotry?

Stop being so politically correct. Picture this:
New Orleans Superdome with Katrina evacuees. Qualcom stadium with San Diego evacuees. Any questions?

I am TOTALLY against what WATSON said. The black man is just as intelligent as the white man. But let's just assume that he was right for a minute, would Watson be able to answer the following questions:
1.Who is to blame for this if not the white man himself?
2. Picture this - from centuries ago the white man enslaved black Africans (we all know that for a fact!). While the white man's children were in school (presumably increasing their "intellectual capacity", where was the black man's offspring? Labouring in some plantation, not given - no let me rephrase that - not allowed to go to school, or to learn anything except what little things he needed to get by as the white man's slave.
3. While the white man's child has access to things like computers etc at very tender ages of say about 3, where is the black man's child? And you ask yourself why the black man can'y provide the same luxuries to his childrean? Well, who robbed the black man of their resources in the first place? After centuries of enslavement and colonisation by the white man, and not being treated as equals but scum, of losing everything they had to the white man, how does Mr Watson expect the black man to recover?
4. How do you expect the black man to catch up with a gap that's centuries old?
5. Being the clever scientist that he believes he is, if Mr Watson truly believes that the black man is intellectually inferior to the white man, shouldn't he also be believing that the white man is responsible for this?

I for one truly believe that all human beings have the same intellectual capacity. Do you think Dr Martin Luther King would have done what he did if he were intellectually inferior? Why was Condoleezza Rice President Bushes National Security Advisor? Why does the have US (Watson's home country by the way)have a black Secretary of State? What was Koffi Annan doing as the UN Secretary General and why on earth did also receive a Nobel Prize, jus like our good biogist Watson? Do the names Mary McLeod Bethune, Ralph Johnson Bunche, Thurgood Marshall, Sojourner Truth and Booker Taliaferro Washington mean anything to Watson?

Watson should wake up and smell the coffee! Gone are the days when the white man was considered superior (only by himself at that!). Gone are the days of repression and apartheid. The one thing that stands out the most is how he has recovered from slavery and colonisation to rise to where he is today. That takes a lot of strength, courage and a great degree of intellect! After eons of being told he was a nobody, of being treated like trash, being deprived of education and other basic human rights, the black man has put has risen above it all and offered an arm of reconciliation to the white man. What more proof do you need to show how intellectaul the black man really is?

Anthony stated: "For those of us raised in the black community you'll remember being warned that you always have to work twice as hard because white people will always think you're less capable, no matter what."

Are you saying this, Anthony? Because if you are, you just made a racist statement. You certainly didn't qualify it. I think you should apologize. As a person of caucasian descent, I'm offended.

Regarding Watson, in the interest of science, suppose a study or studies lends credibility to his conclusion. Does that make him a racist? Do we hide data/studies because they present an ugly picture of genetics? How about the black predisposition to certain medical conditions? Should we shut up about those generalizations?

As a qualification, I would state that a study does not the truth make. That's not how science works contrary to the insistence of the global warming mongers. Sociology is not science and human trends can be very difficult to predict otherwise we'd all make money in the stock market.