There Is No Such Thing as "White" Math - Common Sense with Bari Weiss (substack.com)
Take for example the recent educational program called “a pathway to equitable math instruction.” The program is backed financially by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; it counts among its partners the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley, the California Math project, the Association of California School Administrators, and the Los Angeles County Office of Education, among others; and it was recently sent to Oregon teachers by the state’s Department of Education.
The program argues that “white supremacy culture shows up in the classroom when the focus is on getting the ‘right’ answer” or when students are required to show their work, while stipulating that the very “concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false”. The main goal of the program is “to dismantle racism in mathematics instruction” with the expressly political aim of engaging “the sociopolitical turn in all aspects of education, including mathematics.”
Well, I was going to comment on this, but two paragraphs down, the author does a far better and more succinct version than I could have.
So let me state the following for the record: Nothing in the history and current practice of mathematics justifies the notion that it is in any way different or dependent on the particular race or ethnic group engaged in it.
Getting the right answer is not racist, nor is expecting the right answer. Being required to show your work is not racist. It shows your understanding of the problem. And allows the instructor to give you partial credit, if you clearly understood the problem but somehow misread your scribbles and read a 6 as a 0 and ended up subtracting wrong.
I certainly would not want to drive over a bridge built by someone who had been taught by people that thought being forced to get the correct answer was racist.
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