This Might Explain Al Sharpton

If you're looking for a Hall of Fame entry for controversial statements, here it is:

One of the world's most eminent scientists was embroiled in an extraordinary row last night after he claimed that black people were less intelligent than white people and the idea that "equal powers of reason" were shared across racial groups was a delusion.

James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in the unravelling of DNA who now runs one of America's leading scientific research institutions, drew widespread condemnation for comments he made ahead of his arrival in Britain today for a speaking tour at venues including the Science Museum in London.

The 79-year-old geneticist reopened the explosive debate about race and science in a newspaper interview in which he said Western policies towards African countries were wrongly based on an assumption that black people were as clever as their white counterparts when "testing" suggested the contrary. He claimed genes responsible for creating differences in human intelligence could be found within a decade.

The newly formed Equality and Human Rights Commission, successor to the Commission for Racial Equality, said it was studying Dr Watson's remarks "in full". Dr Watson told The Sunday Times that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really". He said there was a natural desire that all human beings should be equal but "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true".

While this might explain Al Sharpton, I'm not sure you can really generalize it as much as Watson did. However, he's a Nobel laureate and we've all been reminded very recently how smart Nobel prize winners are.

Not to add to the controversy (though I probably will) I've often wondered why the European cultures so radically out-developed the African ones. The Europeans seemed to have an innate curiosity which caused them to explore, invent, and look for better ways to do things while much of the African cultures (south of Egypt, anyway) seemed to halt their progress just this side of the stone age. There are tribes today still living as their ancestors lived 1,000 years ago. You won't find that in Europe or areas where Europeans migrated.

I'm not a cultural anthropologist (and I don't even play one on TV) so I can't offer any scientific reasoning for the dramatic differences in cultural development, but observation alone tells you that there is something inherently different. Assigning that difference to intelligence is probably way too simplified an explanation.

UPDATE: Watson apologizes for his remarks. Who didn't see that coming...