LONDON, England (CNN) -- Nobel laureate biologist Jim Watson apologized "unreservedly" Thursday for stating that black people were not as intelligent as whites, saying he was "mortified" by the comments attributed to him.

"I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said," Watson said during an appearance at the Royal Society in London.

"I can certainly understand why people, reading those words, have reacted in the ways that they have."

"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly. That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief," he said.

Watson, 79, an American who won the 1962 Nobel prize for his role in the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, told the Sunday Times 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."

Watson also asserted there was no reason to believe different races separated by geography should have evolved identically, and he said that while he hoped everyone was equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true."

His comments were met with an avalanche of criticism, and London's Science Museum canceled Watson's planned Friday appearance, saying his remarks had "gone beyond the point of acceptable debate."

The British government's skills minister, David Lammy, who is black, called the comments "deeply offensive."

"It is a shame that a man with a record of scientific distinction should see his work overshadowed by his own irrational prejudices," Lammy said.

Watson's remarks to the Sunday Times were the latest in a number of controversial comments from the eminent biologist.

The man should not apologise to anybody. Anyone that can agree that they are black should also admit that they are the must stupid set of people.

the man is right.

hey thank god some are listin

denex:

The man should not apologise to anybody. Anyone that can agree that they are black should also admit that they are the must stupid set of people.

the man is right.

lol Denex I think his having to apologize is more an insult than it is anything else.

Kobojunkie:

lol Denex I think his having to apologize is more an insult than it is anything else.

You are one heck of an intelligent dude I must say! Most feel because he has apologized it is all good now. All you have to do is make an "oyinbo" man smile to a "darkie" and they are best friends again. You gat it! More insult to injury added!

YOU CAN NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART TO BE TRUE! This is just to placate the "simple minded"-- Simple damage control. Like it changes anything? What a joke! See how easy it is to please "our" people? No wonder we have the kinds of rulers we have in Africa! May God help us all!

I hate political correctness.
His first utterrances are his true feelings.
period.

nwando:

I hate political correctness.
His first uttererrances are his true feelings.
period.

Exactly @Nwando

Too late

The senile bastard has already spoken his mind. He had spilt the milk, lapping it with his tongue now will change absolutely nothing. The man should just make restitution with his God and wait for his death, because thats what he lives for now.

@denex
so you are one of those that support his claims! thats awful men,
my skin is black but my brain is human
just like any other HUMAN

He simply said what majority of whites hold to be true. Dont mind the fact that they smile very politely each time they see you.

Watson is free to express his views.

bibiking1:

The senile bastard has already spoken his mind. He had spilt the milk, lapping it with his tongue now will change absolutely nothing. The man should just make restitution with his God and wait for his death, because thats what he lives for now.

@denex
so you are one of those that support his claims! thats awful men,
my skin is black but my brain is human
just like any other HUMAN

and You my friend, have just added Ten Points to his side of the Argument with your come back there @BibiKIng1, Are you sure he is the senile one??

Let's be frank, we are genetically engineered to be different.
If not why are whites better swimmers, blacks better short distance athletes and Eastern Africans better long distance runners?

@ Dylan
they have their faults too, its not all rosy for and intellegetsia for them. They have some of the dumbest dimwits in the world too. So why the hell is the old man generalising?

Its pure racism

Where are those spitting invectives on the guy yesterday. Maybe now they feel more genetically superior after his apology.

mrpataki:

Where are those spitting invectives on the guy yesterday. Maybe now they feel more genetically superior after his apology.

LOLOLOLO OH PLEASE NO!!!!!

LAUGHING SO HARD NOW!!!!

Kobojunkie:

LOLOLOLO OH PLEASE NO!!!!!

LAUGHING SO HARD NOW!!!!

Oh no please take it easy oh

There is a yoruba saying that: Oro ologbon enu asiwere lati gbo. Meaning: The words of wisdom are often times heard from the mouth from a mad man.

I am still waiting for the bunch of genetically superior black brothers like, Afam et al to come display their genetically superior talks

mrpataki:

Oh no please take it easy oh

There is a yoruba saying that: Oro ologbon enu asiwere lati gbo. Meaning: The words of wisdom are often times heard from the mouth from a mad man.

I am still waiting for the bunch of genetically superior black brothers like, Afam et al to come display their genetically superior talks

YOU NAILED IT!!!!

@bibiking1

you know I've always differentiated black people and niggers from Africans.


And I have made it adequately clear that nothing good can come out of black people. NOTHING!!!
That is why they are called black people.


bibiking1, if I didn't know you personally, I would have believed when you said your skin was black. Your skin is yellow. Stop claiming to be black. There is nothing black that is good. In fact, the word BLACK itself means BAD.

If you guys want to know where the old man drew his conclusions from, go through this thread https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-84852.0.html#msg1573272 you would surely be enlightened. the Europeans are not genetically superior to black people or more intelligent than Africans, but it should be noted that the nature of their environment made it possible for them to have made a lot use of their brain than Africans. we would be bunch of Idiots not to see this, the brain is like muscle tissue, the more you exercise it, the better it works, the capabilities of the human brain is not quantifiable, food for thought, they held this same view about the Asians before, but today the Yellow race are far smarter than Europeans, this is why the intelligent quotient of a particular region is not static, If we Africans would challenge our selves, we can even do better than the yellow race, is all about determination.

NINETOFIVE:

If you guys want to know where the old man drew his conclusions from, go through this thread https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-84852.0.html#msg1573272 you would surely be enlightened. the Europeans are not genetically superior to black people or more intelligent than Africans, but it should be noted that the nature of their environment made it possible for them to have made a lot use of their brain than Africans. we would be bunch of Idiots not to see this, the brain is like muscle tissue, the more you exercise it, the better it works, the capabilities of the human brain is not quantifiable, food for thought, they held this same view about the Asians before, but today the Yellow race are far smarter than Europeans, this is why the intelligent quotient of a particular region is not static, If we Africans would challenge our selves, we can even do better than the yellow race, is all about determination. 

Excellent point made @NineToFive

This is exactly what I said in the other posts. There is no need to be offended to tell the man to retract his statement cause of our "FEELINGS" but instead we are to take it as a Challenge and PROVE to him and the many others who believe as he does but are not bold enough to tell the world, that his hypothesis is infact wrong, IF WE REALLY BELIEVE THAT TO BE THE CASE.

@denex
wow!!!!!!!!!!!
that sounded like words from a colonial affiliate.
We are living in a "doctored" world where black is said to be bad and white pure and good.
Why should i believe them?
I say i am black and black is good!!

give me reasons to change my point of view

i hate black people.

@ NinetoFive,

Well said!

mrpataki:

Oh no please take it easy oh

There is a yoruba saying that: Oro ologbon enu asiwere lati gbo. Meaning: The words of wisdom are often times heard from the mouth from a mad man.

I am still waiting for the bunch of genetically superior black brothers like, Afam et al to come display their genetically superior talks

Stick to the issue and stop going personal. I have overlooked some of your insults in the past and for good reasons too.

I am not interested in any superiority challenge between the whites and the blacks (loosely speaking) because I have seen intelligent blacks just as I have seen and worked with very unintelligent whites.

That some whites believe that whites are more intelligent than blacks don't make it a fact.

Why are Nigerians breaking academic records in the UK and US? I have written exams set by whites and I know how easy the exams were.

Someone makes a comment that some of you ignorantly attributed to scientific study and one of you was foolishly bold enough to ask anyone that does not agree with the Dr to go and do his/her own research.

Now it has been proven that no scientific study supports his claim, his peers condemned the statement and the man stated he couldn't have made that comment, implying he was misquoted and here you are trying to play with words as regards his apology does not mean anything.

If the man cannot stand by what he was reported as saying why should I bother with people here that are suffering from identity crisis?

Unfortunately, some black people have accepted the common belief of the white man that they are superior to the black people. Like I stated earlier, I am certainly not interested in any superiority contest but it is rather unfortunate that some of you use your state of mind to judge the black race.

Put differently, you can be inferior to a white man in terms of intelligence that's you own cup of tea.

Afam i am with you on this one

Afam:

Why are Nigerians breaking academic records in the UK and US? I have written exams set by whites and I know how easy they exams are.

How many Nigerians are actually doing that compared to the number of Nigerians who drop out from universities? Do you know how many Nigerian students even in Nigeria who no longer pay attention to academics and now pursue yahoo yahoo runs about? Or the number of Nigerians who are in the UK and US who no longer follow their academic pursuit again?

Afam:

Someone makes a comment that some of you ignorantly attributed to scientific study and one of you was foolishly bold enough to ask anyone that does not agree with the Dr to go and do his/her own research.

Thats the value placed on education in the Western world compared to Nigeria where lecturers spits rubbish in classrooms and we are made to believe and pour the same nonsense back to them in exams. In the western world no lecturer does that for you! You use your brain to think. Thats the bedrock of good success!

Afam:

If the man cannot stand by what he was reported as saying why should I bother with people here that are suffering from identity crisis?

Why bother initially to argue against his proposed statement?

Enuff said.

There's nothing anybody can tell me. BLACK IS BAD!!!

denex:

There's nothing anybody can tell me. BLACK IS BAD!!!

Wetin color black do you?

Excellent point made @NineToFive

This is exactly what I said in the other posts. There is no need to be offended to tell the man to retract his statement cause of our "FEELINGS" but instead we are to take it as a Challenge and PROVE to him and the many others who believe as he does but are not bold enough to tell the world, that his hypothesis is infact wrong, IF WE REALLY BELIEVE THAT TO BE THE CASE.

Thank you, the point is that I only tried to analyse this situation without any human emotions, one does not need a lot of research to notice the power or the ingenuity of the humans brain, is simple, take a walk into any European pretty high tech factories, see what they ve done with automation, you will see the correlation in the old dudes statement.  Our forefathers were not to be blamed for lack of legacies because they had no need for most of the thing invented by European as a survival front, rather the present generation should be blamed for not taking the challenge as a matter of competition.

@ NinetoFive,

Well said!

BLACK is BAD!

denex this must be the wee hours of the morning in naija.
You no dey sleep?