Everything is racist. Especially the stuff that the real racists are bad at.
Rochelle Gutierrez, a professor at the University of Illinois, made the claim in a new anthology for math teachers, arguing that, “On many levels, mathematics itself operates as Whiteness. Who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as White,”
Also who is capable of being a professor while having the writing skills of a third grader. Shall we unpack that knapsack?
But the working formula is any useful body of knowledge embodies white supremacy because it's actually useful.
Gutierrez also worries that algebra and geometry perpetuate privilege, fretting that “curricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans."
We must discover the "hidden figures" who really invented the Pythagorean theorem. Probably Trans Muslim women of color. I see a movie in it with Kevin Costner as Pythogaroas.
Math also helps actively perpetuate white privilege too, since the way our economy places a premium on math skills gives math a form of “unearned privilege” for math professors, who are disproportionately white.
"Unearned privilege" aside from their skill and knowledge. But it'a shame we don't place nearly as much of a premium on accusing math of being racist. Hopefully she can change that.
“Are we really that smart just because we do mathematics?” she asks, further wondering why math professors get more research grants than “social studies or English” professors.
Ms. Gutierrez' work "focuses on equity issues in mathematics education".She has a B.A. in Biology, an M.A. in Social Sciences and a PhD in Education. And she's largely been an affiliate of the Latino studies department.
i think that particular question answers itself.
“If one is not viewed as mathematical, there will always be a sense of inferiority that can be summoned,” she says, adding that there are so many minorities who “have experienced microaggressions from participating in math classrooms… [where people are] judged by whether they can reason abstractly.”
Whereas in her classroom students are judged by their complete inability to reason. Check your reason privilege.
Gutierrez stresses that all knowledge is “relational,” asserting that “Things cannot be known objectively; they must be known subjectively."
Math is a myth. 2 + 2 = 5. If only you will it so.