Francis Crick on race and intelligence

Francis Crick (1916-2004), James Watson’s partner in the discovery of DNA, was even more outspoken on the genetic basis of race differences in intelligence than Watson, who in 2007 was fired from his post as chancellor of the Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory for his views. (See VFR’s entries about the Watson affair, particularly this one on Watson’s Larry Summers-like cowardly recantation under fire, and this one on how Watson, again like Summers, was dismissed from his position despite his recantation.) In early 2008 Steve Sailer posted Crick’s letters from 1971 laying out his position on the race and intelligence issue, for which he, unlike Watson, was never attacked. Sailer comments:

Really, isn’t it about time that we dig up the bones of Crick and fire him? How can we live with ourselves knowing that there are thought criminals who escaped their just rewards by the trick of dying before we could properly humiliate them? Judging from these letters, it sounds like several other greats, such as Ernst Mayr and C.P. Snow, deserve posthumous show trials and exemplary punishment too. I’m sure there are others…

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 01, 2009 07:45 AM | Send