Those of us who tend to lean a certain way politically are quick to expect the dwindling number of reasonable people on the center-right to come to the defense of America and democracy when their brethren on the fringes introduce yet another conspiracy theory or a lame-brained explanation as to why they think it’s okay for horrible people to do horrible things. But if we don’t point out stupidity on our side of the divide, aren’t we guilty of the ultimate political sin, that of hypocrisy?
It is in that spirit that I share with you something so mind-numbingly bizarre that it affords all Americans—left, center, and right—the rare opportunity to come together to roundly ridicule something that has inexplicably made its way into the public square. It is called “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction: Dismantling Racism in Math Instruction.”
In its opening salvo of dumbassery masquerading as we-care-so-much pedagogy, the authors write “White supremacy culture infiltrates math classrooms in everyday teacher actions…(perpetuating) educational harm on Black, Latinx, and multilingual students.”
You heard me. White supremacy math, right here in River City.
In all sincerity, we as a society should watch for racist and/or other forms of revisionist propaganda that can creep into history or civics or even English classes. The guy who was President last year, trying to counter those horrible rumors that there used to be slavery in the United States, had some of his cronies craft a flag-waving curriculum in an effort to re-white history.
But this is math.
Before we address this non-existent problem, can we PLEASE stop trying to make “Latinx” happen? It’s like Gretchen Weiner in Mean Girls trying to make “fetch” a thing.
Latinx is defined as “relating to people of Latin American origin or descent (used as a gender-neutral or non-binary alternative to Latino or Latina).” Seriously?! Do we really need to do that?
I’m old enough to remember when the term most-commonly used was “Mexican.” Not Mexican-American, but Mexican, even if somebody was Guatemalan or Dominican or Chilean. Thankfully, society evolved to “Hispanic,” which a lot of people still use. Few, if any, people are offended by it. But then, some people moved on to the next step and began using Latino or Latina.
You should never say never; there may well be a new term that comes along in a decade or so that supplants Hispanic and Latina. But it damn sure ain’t gonna be Latinx. It’s like taking the seventh derivative of an equation and expecting it to mean something.
(The first two derivatives give you velocity and acceleration, while the third gives you jerk, which is basically the acceleration of the acceleration. The fourth, fifth and sixth derivatives give you nonsense. They’re known as snap, crackle and pop, which shows you just how seriously they should be taken. The seventh may someday be known as Latinx.)
I suppose I understand the desire of some people to use a word that is non-gender-specific. But there are others who prefer to be referred to in gender-specific terms. So, in an effort to keep from offending one group, you end up offending another. Sticking with the calculus theme, trying to find the perfect word is like approaching something as a limit. You’re never going to get there.
I read the entire textbook just to see if, on Page 37, it was revealed that it was a side project by people from The Onion. But no, it’s serious (and quite embarrassing, as well). Some of their main points are that “we see (that) white supremacy culture in the mathematics classroom can show up when:
“There is a greater emphasis on getting the ‘right’ answer.”
IT’S MATH!!! The right answer doesn’t come with quotes. It’s the right answer!
I have a friend who is an African-American woman with a Ph.D. Her daughter just graduated high school last week and is off to USC in the fall, where she will either try to make the world a better place or join a sorority. (You can’t do both.)
I asked the mom how she would feel if she got a notice from the school informing her that because of her daughter’s ethnicity, the child wouldn’t be required to get the correct answers in her math class. The kid would just have to try hard. The mom’s response was what you might expect from someone who is a mother first and a Ph.D second.
“Independent practice is valued over teamwork and collaboration.”
Um…IT’S MATH!!! Since when do students of any ethnic background solve a math problem by committee?
“Contrived word problems are valued over the math in students’ lived experiences.”
OK, not many people like word problems. (I always did, but I’m weird.) I tutor a lot of kids and I have yet to see a word problem that asks “How many debutantes can you fit on the deck of a 40-foot yacht?” Or, “How much fabric would it take to make pointy hoods for the entire Congressional Freedom Caucus?”
This is a solution to a problem that simply does not exist. In my second Mean Girls reference of the day, math is the same in every language. Shame on the people who came up with the book and shame on liberals and progressives who don’t call BS on it.
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 2, 2021.
I must admit that it is somewhat refreshing to see that Danehy sees the idiocy the left is trying to push on America. I doubt that it will happen, but I would hope that he also realizes that the entire “racist” rage that the left has been pursuing over that past 5 months is BS.
Will Danehy be forced to resign for creating an unsafe space at the Weekly? Stay tuned.
I have read where the teachers in the states of Oregon , Washington and Minnesota were expressing their opinions that math was racist. It’s this kind of ideology that goes against all rational thinking and the hopes of solving the issues of racism in this country. There have been an untold amount of deaths due to racism not just in this country but throughout the world.
We had our own Civil War over race and we experienced racism in our military, hopefully not as much now. We changed the laws regarding discrimination and I believe things have improved over time but what is troubling is the fact that there are those who use race as a tool not to justify certain issues but to manipulate others only for their own agenda. As long as these type of groups continue to exist we will continue to have death and destruction in our cities.
First of all people need to realize that true racism has existed since the time of man and it will continue to the end of time as we know it.
“Um…IT’S MATH!!! Since when do students of any ethnic background solve a math problem by committee?” Isn’t the answer to this question, “The entire study of Economics”?
…and so we see once again, no matter how carefully you state your position, no matter how much you deny your own biases, you can never, ever allow support of racism in any form, even when you think you are being clever and anti-racist, because when your words receive positive feedback from racists, you’re doing it wrong.
I see too many people using racism as an excuse for their own bad behavior.
Working retail, there are so many people that will say to directly to employees, that they are “racist” and meanwhile their partners in crime are shoplifting. It’s bs,
and making people feel bad about themselves over someones desire to steal from a store. A thief is thief, be they white, black, hispanic whatever.
A Google (or Bing if you’re nasty) search of the terms “racism math education” easily reveals the real issue being discussed by educators – that mathematics instruction is just one more way in which systemic white supremacy has led to inequitable distribution of knowledge, resources, and opportunity. In brief, white students on the whole are directed toward more advanced math courses and content than non-white students, including Latinx (which, like it or not, is the currently most accepted way to refer to a group of Hispanic people of both, any, and all genders.) Absolutely nobody is saying that math itself is racist. It seems that where Danehy’s ability to make rash comments based more on his discomfort as a white person than actual facts is concerned – to continue the Mean Girls reference thread – the limit does not exist.
When some people try to deny the Holocaust or downplay just how horrible slavery was or, as has happened twice in the past couple weeks, try to defend the use of the three-fifth ratio when counting Black people, that absolutely is racism. There’s a certain amount (or maybe even a whole lot) of that going on. My point is that claiming racism where it doesn’t exist weakens the argument where it does exist and allows some people to believe that it isn’t happening. It is happening…but not in math.
I totally agree that “latinx” will NEVER fly!
As a fly-in-your-face Liberal, I too call bullshit on the math thing…
Economics?! I’m talking about math. When my beloved wife was doing post-graduate work in Economics, I pointed out to her that, in Physics here on Earth, if you drop a ball, it’s always going to accelerate toward the ground. In Economics, it might go down, it might go left or right, it might just hover in mid-air (depending on the mood of the country).
Danehy and Collingsworth are both right. There is no racism in “math,” but there is in “math education.” You sum up the elements of a list and divide by the number of elements to get the average (or arithmetic mean if you prefer) purely and simply. Race doesn’t play a role. But if word problems use county club memberships, boat racing, and polo league examples, perhaps racist isn’t too strong a word.
Another nail in the coffin of public education. They can brainwash the willing participants, but the smarter ones have left.
Yesterday an NBA player had popcorn dumped on him and Lebron James demanded that the NBA provide security for them. He expects them to pay for it with income from spectators ticket sales.
This is the same Lebron james that marches with blm and demands that the police are defunded leaving Americans without protection from rampant crime.
Now that there is racist math!
America needs to say ENOUGH! Biden has divided this country even more.
The idea that mathematics is racist is ridiculous. People from many different cultures contributed to math. The term algebra, for example, derives from an Arabic term. The Arabic numerals that are used throughout the world originally came from India, I believe. The same math is used everywhere on the planet.
Then, there’s this video….https://youtu.be/Zh3Yz3PiXZw
Mathematics may not be racist but perhaps the way we teach it is systematically racist.
Our education culture runs deep, fixed in place over the last 200 years.
People who analyze culture say that fish will be the last to discover water.
So, what is the “water” in education? It is way we give feedback to children.
In the private sector, companies like Apple, 3M, Facebook, Google have internal structures designed to create positive interdependence between members of the team. The loser corporations design negative interdependence into their structures.
Our education system is modeled after the losers, starting with the grading system. An A for you is one less for me, I don’t cheer for your success, I cheer for your failure.
This structure has deep effects on the mind and how the mind forms memories. The brains of minority children are literally receiving a signal- don’t remember this its not important.
That the Black Lives Matter people would form an alliance against school choice is an abomination.
Take a look at this video to get a sense of how much different things could be:
https://youtu.be/bJYTGxgY-Gw
Watch the video twice. The second time, watch the student to the right of the center student.