Watson's Dark Vision
By Marcy Darnovsky,
Philadelphia Inquirer
| 11. 05. 2007
James Watson has left his post as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in disgrace. He's apologized for questioning the intelligence of Africans, and issued a statement saying that there "is no scientific basis for such a belief."
Apparently unsatisfied with his double-helix fame, the man who long occupied the pinnacle of scientific achievement has made repeated headlines with egregiously offensive pronouncements. Over the last decade, Watson has said that sunlight and darker skin is the source of more powerful libidos; that abortion to eliminate a fetus predisposed to be gay would be fine; that fat people are less ambitious than thin people; that children he considers "stupid" should be genetically treated; that we should pay rich people to have more children; and that we should do what we can to prevent the birth of "ugly girls."
That's not all. Watson has pursued an aggressive agenda to mobilize genetic science in the service of a renewed eugenics. That's right: Watson wants to genetically re-engineer the human species.
At a high-profile 1998 UCLA conference, Watson joined other well-known scientists and nearly...
Related Articles
By Marcia Langton, National Indigenous Times | 09.22.2026
Pauline Hanson speaking about Aboriginal people on a white Christian podcast last year said "they're the most primitive race on Earth and we're supposed to be holding them up and saying what they've achieved? They've achieved nothing." She resurrected the...
By Gay Pasley, Essence | 09.04.2026
That is what makes the unfolding case of McKenna West so important. It is more than a disagreement about abortion or a dispute over a surrogacy contract. It asks whether an agreement signed before a pregnancy can become authority...
By Anna L. Philippe, Pop Panic | 09.17.2026
What does it mean when education is considered a threat to population? As an education student, I am interested in the ways population panics are essentialized and circulated in formal education settings. Schools can play a major role in shaping...
By Terence Keel, Los Ángeles Review of Books | 09.06.2026
This is the 16th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. The series is organized by Osagie K. Obasogie in...