Somebody needs to do it, and I guess it is up to me. I mean it, I volunteer to be the friend of poor James Watson.
I am a fairly intelligent person who self-identifies as black. I would not abort a baby because a genetic test indicated the possibility that the child would be gay. I am not particularly attractive physically according to generally accepted American standards. I am female. I am overweight.
Poor James has felt the need to say some things about fat people, the intelligence of black people, the desirability of giving birth to a gay child, the need for more attractive women in the world and a number of other things that have not been well taken by the general public.
When I first read his opinion of the comparative intelligence of black folks, my reaction was to laugh at the level of social ineptitude shown by someone claiming a superior intelligence. Because I did not notice the flap until he had already apologized and claimed that he, himself, was shocked by what he had chosen to say, I also found myself wondering whether he was suffering from some actual illness. As a rule, a person may later regret what he/she has chosen to say in public, but is rarely shocked by it.
However, in preparing to write this, I read a bit more about poor James and discovered that his current comments are in line with opinions he has expressed in the past. The reading convinced me that James is lacking in true friends or is a member of a social group that is far too homogenized. Both may be true. His accomplishments and fame would tend to cause even the people who honestly care about him to be less likely to tell him when he is wrong.
True friends tell you when your opinions are going to get you in trouble. They tell you, hopefully, before you make yourself look like an idiot worldwide. Limiting your friends to people who think the way you do, even if they are too socially aware to express those thoughts, limits your social group's ability to help you deal with people outside of your own social group.
Poor James needs me. I deeply believe in free speech. I think that he has a right to his opinion. I also think that the public reaction to his expressed opinions are the natural, and desirable, result of free speech. All opinions should be allowed expression, but all opinions should also be subject to honest reaction. There is not, in my not at all humble opinion, any stifling of the right of free speech when I tell someone that their opinion is worthless. When someone disagrees with my expressed opinion, they are not denying me my right to say what I think, they are making use of their own right to say what they think.
James currently has his foot shoved so far into his mouth that he can lick his own backside. He is now desperately attempting to withdraw his, clearly stated, opinions about the intelligence of black folks. He is learning that it is far more difficult to un-express an opinion than it is to express one. Poor James, it would have been far better if, earlier, his "friends" had cared enough about him to force-feed him the science that refutes his arguments, and--probably a more effective check on the level of public idiocy--expose him, in a more limited setting, to the social rejection that is the natural price of 'free', but obnoxious, speech.
I admit that I am somewhat reluctant to shoulder the burden of friendship in this case. Other than the psychic reward of "doing a good thing" I do not predict much of a benefit to myself. However, I am a parent. It would be good to introduce the children to James. At some point in their lives, my children will need to decide for themselves how to react when their friends express opinions that run counter to reality, are offensive, or both.
When I believe that they are mistaken, I argue with people I care about. I try to back my arguments with actual fact. I continue to like my friends even when I disagree with them. Although I tell the children that this is the way to treat friends and that true friends will do the same for them, I am not often in a position to provide a demonstration. James would be a great object lesson in the benefit of not having too many friends who are almost identical to yourself. The benefit to the children is obvious.
So is the benefit to poor James. He would be able to explain, while apologizing, "I'm not a bigot, really I'm not, one of my best friends is a fat, black woman!"
