Last night the genomics community applauded a disgraceful normalization of racism and sexism as Jim Watson was toasted on his 90th birthday. /1
An example of what Jim Watson has said: “having all these women around makes it more fun for the men but they’re probably less effective.” Yes, he said this in 2012. /2
Another quote: “all our social policies are based on the fact that their [Africans] intelligence is the same as ours— whereas all the testing says not really.” Yes, Jim Watson said this in 2007 /3
And another quote: “[I] hope that everyone is equal… but people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.” Yes, Jim Watson also said this in 2007. /4
In The Double Helix he describes Rosalind Franklin as follows: /5 
These remarks were not accidents. Although he has apologized for some of them I don’t believe his apologies are sincere. He spewed racist and sexist hatred throughout his life. I witnessed it myself at a dinner at a CSHL Banbury meeting in 2004 liorpachter.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/the… /6
I’ve heard countless other horrible stories from former CSHL students that reveal Watson to be a racist and misogynist not only in words, but also in deeds. /7
We can’t pretend to support greater representation of women on the one hand (e.g. conversations like have become standard at the opening of Biology of Genomes meetings) … /8
… and then toast a mysongist at the conclusion. Please stop for a moment and think about what kind of message this sends. /9
It’s one thing to celebrate *science*, e.g. by toasting the discovery of the structure of DNA by Crick, Franklin and Watson. It’s an entirely different matter to toast a man whose actions have directly harmed not only our colleagues, but society at large. /10
I respectfully dissent. /∎
