Antiracist Mathematics

24 Apr, 2014 by Dave Blount

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Chicago public school teachers unsure how to apply Afrocentrism to mathematics as required by the planned curriculum can always fall back on Wikipedia for more information. From the entry entitled “Anti-racism in mathematics teaching”:

The issue of anti-racism in mathematics teaching has been the topic of some research, and there are supporters of education reform who promote an anti-bias curriculum to counter a perceived bias in mathematical education. These works claim that there is a sociocultural context to mathematical education and suggest that the study of mathematics in Western societies has traditionally exhibited racial or cultural bias.

The problem created by this bias from teachers in education in the western societies affects students of the non dominant race. These students may not be getting the quality education that they deserve when teachers have a preconceived notion about what these students already know or do not know.

While Western mathematicians often claim Western mathematics is universal, anti-racist mathematics and ethnomathematics scholars share the assumption that any given mathematical understanding or practice is a product of a particular culture.

If someone in a dashiki tells you that 2 + 2 = 7, you had better believe it — otherwise you risk being denounced as a racist.

Since the leftwing apparatchiks who run the schools, government, media, et cetera produce nothing of value but merely bark orders at those who do, they can afford to completely unmoor themselves from objective reality and drift off into a Twilight Zone of theoretical progressivism — for now. But imagine someone trying to construct a bridge in a society where math is taught according to the principle of liberal relativism.

In another generation, if Common Core is successful, we may have high school graduates who can’t count their own fingers. But the important thing is that nonwhite students will have lots of self-esteem.