This past week was off the hook with incidents around the world. First and foremost the death of reggae legend Lucky Dube in front of his children. Highly disturbing and unfortunate.The other was the world-renowned geneticist Jim Watson who commented that blacks were not as intelligent as whites and by Thursday, had withdrawn his statement.
"World-renowned geneticist James Watson, 79, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his role in helping break the DNA code, is being widely criticized after telling The Sunday Times of London that he's "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 went on, reports the newspaper, to say that "people who have to deal with black employees find...it is not true" that all humans are equal." [Excerpt from Scientific American.com]
He said other ridiculous things about other groups including Latinas/Latinos and people with autism. I initially did not want to dignifiy this with a post. But, I think it is important to point out that most times we place too much emphasis on how smart people are so that they are elevated to a little 'god' status. Just because Watson or anyone out there is smart and have won numerous awards or degrees from here to Mars; does not confer on them a supernatural power or even common sense where they can be so convenient as to utter supidity about other people. Plus, how are we measuring intelligence? I am fatigued with the comparisons of blacks or African intelligence to whites especially when most of the comparisons has more to do with the ability to build certain technologies centered on destroying other human beings i.e. Weapons of Mass Destruction [WMD]. Do the Masai, a peaceful people in a very harmonius environment with nature, need to go build WMDs? Does the lack of sophisticated ammunitions make them less intelligent or inferior? We beg to differ. Point is, we all need to check the oshi [foolishness] that people throw at us and hold them accountable for their oshi, especially when they want to make it the rule of the day.
On a lighter note, AfricaNe.ws just went mobile while Kevan Hall in the recently completed L.A. fashion week was all about Africa for his Spring collection. Kevan Hall by the way is just an all around cool guy. His designs are really fabulous and he is just real, no faking, despite his huge success. On to the rest of our African/African fashion news.
- Shock and anger
- Ethiopia - Fashion & Style Marcus Samuelsson
- Low-slung trouser laws hit young blacks below the belt: experts
- JDA sizes up South African retailer
- Snapping Out of Stereotypes into Africa's Reality
- Zimbabwe: Designers to Converge for Fashion Week
- 'Africa: A Safari' themed Kevan Hall show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion ...
- African Heritage Week planned Oct. 22-27
Have a brilliant day!
3 comments:
sup mamacita, still waiting for the pictures from your event.
Lucky was a legend. He will be greatly missed.
Watson is an idiot. The best way to fight this kind of ignorance and stupidity is to get an education. As a black woman in corporate america, I know the value of an education. Racism is a weapon of Mass Annihilation. The only way to deal with that kind of enemy is to become the aggressor's worst nightmare. We can do this by learning, encouraging the youth in our community to build their minds, mentoring youth and helping build self-esteem in our young men and women. As a graduate from an HBCU, I learned early on that a mind is a terrible thing to waste. A smart, sophisticated, fabulous, educated black man or woman is a majority racist's worst nightmare. I say majority racist because there are minority racists out there. Always remember that ignorance is not bliss and stupidity cannot be cured!!!!
Re: James Watson comment
Reminds me of the Yoruba song that goes; Iwo ni kan ko lo gbon, Iwo nikan ko lo ye...To ba gbon to nenikan o gbon, Iwo ni baba obo(Excuse my Yoruba spelling but you get the idea). Loose translation: If you think you are smart and other aren't, then you are the most stupid person ever.
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