By Pete Papaherakles —
James Dewey Watson’s 1962 Nobel Prize for co-discovering deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sold for an astonishing $4.76 million at an auction held on December 4 at Christie’s auction house in New York, marking the first time a living scientist has ever sold his Nobel.
Watson, 86, referred to as “the greatest living scientist” by the auctioneer, had said he was auctioning the coveted prize because his discoveries had made him a pariah. “No one really wants to admit I exist,” he said.
Watson received the Nobel Prize in Medicine along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for discovering the double helix structure of DNA, which laid the foundation of the science of genomics. Their discovery was actually made nine years earlier, in 1953, when Watson was only 24-years-old.
In his 1968 book, The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, Watson called DNA “the Rosetta Stone for unraveling the true secret of life.” He added that DNA offered the key to how our genes determine not only the color of our hair and eyes but “our comparative intelligence and even our potential to amuse others.”
Little did Watson know that his discovery would eventually get him into a lot of hot water.
The world-famous biologist was shunned by the scientific community after linking intelligence to race. In 2007 he told The Sunday Times of London: “[I am] 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 to say that, despite the desire that all human beings should be equal, “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.”
This was no excuse for discrimination against blacks, Watson explained.
“There are many people of color who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level,” he said.
He explained that he had recently inaugurated a DNA learning center in New York near Harlem and wanted to have more black researchers at the lab, “but there’s no one to recruit.”
As many others before him found out the hard way, candor about race in the media is not a good idea. The outcry about his comments being racist forced him to retire from his position as chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, where he had worked for nearly 40 years, as director and president for 35 of those years. His work there was described by the current president as “unparalleled in the world of science.”
He has also not had any speaking engagements since 2007.
“Because I was an ‘unperson’ I was fired from the boards of companies, so I have no income, apart from my academic income,” Watson said.
What Watson said about race and IQ is nothing new. It was documented by scientists and anthropologists throughout the 20th century. The Bell Curve: Intelligence ans Class Structure in American Life, a best selling 1994 book by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, demonstrates that genetics account for many differences between the races, including intelligence.
Books by Philippe Rushton, Carleton Putnam, William Shockley, Carleton Coon and other scientists and anthropologists also reach the same conclusions. Thousands of tests and studies conducted over many decades show that on average blacks are 15 points lower in IQ than whites. This is not racism; it’s statistics.
Due to political correctness this scientifically proven fact has become like the proverbial “emperor’s new clothes” in order to maintain the equality myth. Blacks are also more prone to violence due to hormone differences, which has been demonstrated by black crime statistics and the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri. Blacks can sprint faster and jump higher than whites due to the fact that they have more fast-twitch muscle fibers, but they can’t swim, ski or perform gymnastics as well as whites. This has been documented in scientific studies and books such as Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We Are Afraid to Talk About It written by Jon Entine.
It all comes down to the nature versus nurture debate. Cultural Marxists in control of the media and academia have been teaching for many decades that race is simply a “social construct” and that there are no genetic differences except skin color and that intelligence and personality are strictly products of one’s upbringing. This nonsense has been taught in academia since Jewish “cultural anthropologist” Franz Boaz first introduced the Marxist pseudo-science idea in the 1930s. Today it has become gospel.
The myth of racial equality is essential in maintaining racial tensions. If we are all created equal yet blacks are still underachievers, it can only be that blacks have been victims of white oppression and racism and are entitled to benefits by whites as reparations.
By discrediting Watson and the evidence of racial inequality that his research exposes, the establishment is desperately trying to keep Americans under an ever-diminishing egalitarian illusion manufactured by cultural Bolsheviks.
But there was a happy ending to this story. Not only did Watson receive a whopping $4.1 million for auctioning his Nobel Prize, but he ended up having his cake and eating it, too. The anonymous buyer revealed himself to be the richest man in Russia, Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov, who plans on returning the award to Watson. The medal cost Usmanov $4.76 million including commission, and he expressed disgust that Watson was forced to sell his prize.
“In my opinion,” he stated, “a situation in which an outstanding scientist has to sell a medal recognizing his achievements is unacceptable. James Watson is one of the greatest biologists in the history of mankind and his award for the discovery of DNA structure must belong to him.”
Pete Papaherakles is a writer and political cartoonist for AFP and is also AFP’s outreach director. Pete is interested in getting AFP writers and editors on the podium at patriotic events. Call him at 202-544-5977 if you know of an event you think AFP should attend.