Professor Denounces Math (It Promotes Whiteness)

[wvwvw]

EDUCATION
Professor Claims Math, Algebra And Geometry Promote ‘White Privilege’
Photo of Ian Miles Cheong
IAN MILES CHEONG

A University of Illinois math professor believes that algebra and geometry perpetuate “white privilege” because Greek terms give Caucasians unearned credit for the subject.

But that isn’t the professor’s only complaint. She also believes that evaluations for math proficiency perpetuates discrimination against minority students, if they do worse than their white counterparts.

Rochelle Gutierrez argues in a newly published math education book for teachers that they must be aware of the identity politics surrounding the subject of mathematics.

“On many levels, mathematics itself operates as Whiteness,” she argues with complete sincerity, according to Campus Reform. “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.”

Gutierrez argues that subjects like algebra and geometry, which relate to arithmetic, also perpetuate racism and white privilege. She worries that “curricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans.”

Gutierrez claims that the importance of math skills in the real world also places what she calls an “unearned privilege” for those who are good at it. Because most math teachers in the United States are white, white people stand to benefit from their grasp of the subject disproportionate to members of other races.

“Are we really that smart just because we do mathematics?” she asks, raising the question as to why math professors get more grants than “social studies or English” professors.

“If one is not viewed as mathematical, there will always be a sense of inferiority that can be summoned,” she says, claiming that minorities “have experienced microaggressions from participating in math classrooms… [where people are] judged by whether they can reason abstractly.”

To resolve the intelligence gap, Gutierrez calls on math professors to develop a sense of “political conocimiento,” a Spanish term for “political knowledge for teaching.”

She concludes her argument with the claim that all knowledge is “relational,” or is, in other words, relative. “Things cannot be known objectively; they must be known subjectively.”

http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/23/professor-claims-math-algebra-and-geometry-promote-white-privilege/

[Loki]

And is anyone still doubting that American "civilization" is about to crash-fall into oblivion? Time's over folks. Keep playing on your mobile phones.

[crazyladybutterfly]

she basically called non whites too stupid ti understand maths? lol

[Loki]

she basically called non whites too stupid ti understand maths? lol

Yep and maybe she has a point. But her reaction is knee-jerk and won't solve the problem. Non-whites don't have to study maths if they don't want to.

[Fractal]

she basically called non whites too stupid ti understand maths? lol

Advanced Placement Calculus courses in the USA are filled with Indians and Orientals, so not sure what she's talking about

[Jennifer]

Not to take away from everything else stupid about this article but....isn't algebra from the Arabic?

[Colonel Frank Grimes]

Instead of trying to help kids reach a standard they attempt to get rid of the standard. This is more about her trying to protect her own education caste system from being held responsible for decades of failure. You can't be held responsible if students don't meet the standard if there is no standard.

[Colonel Frank Grimes]

Not to take away from everything else stupid about this article but....isn't algebra from the Arabic?

Yes, the word is taken from Arabic.

[catgeorge]

There is talent everywhere.

But in terms of technicians, engineers, fund managers, science, entrepeunearship in todays world the Euro gene dominates.

Not to say this will stay the way as it is as New World love affair with money-only multi culaturalism a juxtoposition between trotskyism and capitalism will eventually dilute the Euro gene....The current third world has potential to jump ahead as we see China & Koreans being one of the most dominant players on the world stage today.. the shift could end up elsewhere soon perhaps...as they stay pure.

[wvwvw]

Not to take away from everything else stupid about this article but....isn't algebra from the Arabic?

The Greeks were using complex Algebra over a millennium before the Arabs and there are ancient texts from the time of Christ showing this and were using the concept of zero and infinity in 200 BC since Archimedes invented calculus. Everything the Arabs had was second hand knowledge from the Greeks.

[Jennifer]

The Greeks were using complex Algebra over a millennium before the Arabs and there are ancient texts from the time of Christ showing this and were using the concept of zero and infinity in 200 BC since Archimedes invented calculus. Everything the Arabs had was second hand knowledge from the Greeks.

What does that have to do with the etymology of the word algebra?

[Fractal]

The Greeks were using complex Algebra over a millennium before the Arabs and there are ancient texts from the time of Christ showing this and were using the concept of zero and infinity in 200 BC since Archimedes invented calculus. Everything the Arabs had was second hand knowledge from the Greeks.

This is absolute bs. No single person discovered Algebra. Algebra was discovered by multiple people at different time periods.

Basically every major civilization worked out some portion of it but I'd say it definitely was not the Arabs first.

[wvwvw]

Yes, the word is taken from Arabic.

Which is corrupted from Greek Algorithmos deriving from Algo Rythmo (Difficult Symmetry), which the Arabs transliterated not very well into Al-Khwarizmi.

[Dandelion]

The Greeks stand at the basis of every civilisation. It's a known fact. Ask Raine.

[Colonel Frank Grimes]

I'm currently using an algorithm to tell me which Black players will be more successful in putting a ball through a hoop for my financial advantage.

Math's racism knows no bounds.

[Fractal]

The Greeks stand at the basis of every civilisation. It's a known fact. Ask Raine.

Babylonians were solving algebraic equations before the Greeks. As I said before, no one person discovered or invented it.

[wvwvw]

This is absolute bs. No single person discovered Algebra. Algebra was discovered by multiple people at different time periods.

Basically every major civilization worked out some portion of it but I'd say it definitely was not the Arabs first.

You are absolute bs. The Greeks invented logical reasoning and rigorous mathematical proofs with which science cannot develop. They performed their own autopsies and operations on living patients and developed their own ideas from them. Then this knowledge was passed on to Arabs. Before 700 AC there was no Arab civilization. The Arabs were disorganised Bedouin camel bandits until Islam came along. The argument that it came form the illiterate Arabs who had no cities and no recorded arts or sciences until they obtained them from the Greeks who ruled them in Syria and Egypt is totally absurd. The Greeks controlled the traded roots in this era not the Arabs, for over 2000 years.

[wvwvw]

Were ancient Minoans centuries ahead of their time?
Unprecedented mathematical knowledge found in Bronze Age wall paintings.
Philip Ball

A geometrical figure commonly attributed to Archimedes in 300 BC has been identified in Minoan wall paintings dated to over 1,000 years earlier.

"This is the earliest time that such advanced geometric figures have been spotted," says Papaodysseus. "The next such figures appear only 1,300 years later." The team report their work in the journal Archaeometry1.

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060227/full/news060227-3.html

[adsız]

Babylonians were solving algebraic equations before the Greeks. As I said before, no one person discovered or invented it.

He was doing sarcasm.

[de Burgh II]

Instead of trying to help kids reach a standard they attempt to get rid of the standard. This is more about her trying to protect her own education caste system from being held responsible for decades of failure. You can't be held responsible if students don't meet the standard if there is no standard.

Very true. Education is meant to challenge and strengthen one's mental acuity. If people can't meet the standards of what is expected of them; then that will only lead to a regression in the intellectual sphere. Its cognitively easier to shift the blame to an imaginative scapegoat rather than taking responsibility for their own failures. Which is why politics should never mix in academia. By lowering standards, we are inadvertently making more people self-entitled and intellectually stunted. Without challenge or maintaining high standards; it will only set them up for failure with unrealistic expectations and a fervent, zealousness for all things trivial and insignificant such as political correctness. Which in itself is a recipe for disaster because all political correctness does is promote favoritism, bigotry, victim complexes ("special snowflake syndrome") and intellectually stunted, hyper-reactive people.

Subjectivity and impartiality is a misnomer; its like mixing water and oil, they don't mix.

[Thordis]

:picard1:

Math is totally colorblind, one can even make it if one hails from a ghetto in India, to give an extreme example. And Algebra is an Arab word because back then, the Arabs developed and understood it, while the Greeks didn’t... they described the same thoughts much less elegantly geometrically because they were obsessed with Geometry, and that’s why it is a Greek word. There are few black mathematicians, admittedly, but that’s not because math is “racist”, it’s rather an IQ thing.

Of course discussions and evaluations in relation to IQ cannot be held without accusations of racism and discrimination. So what should typically happen to a “racist” math professor who “doesn’t allow blacks to pass?” How would they explain it, if only 20% of their White/Asian students failed in comparison to 80% of their black students? So they tend to let them pass instead of fail, give them C’s instead of D’s or A’s instead of B’s, etc., so that they are considered fair, balanced and objective in their review. And then those students who have been favored, being “equally qualified”, will get the job, even without the need for affirmative action... There was actually a case in South Africa where a female Indian all-A student brought her case to the Constitutional Court because her local university (in Natal) was forced to prefer male black C-students (due to racial quotas; the racial makeup of students at the university has to match the racial distribution in the province). Not sure whether her case was granted or dismissed, but it doesn’t make any sense, of course. If anything, it fosters reverse discrimination.

Due to this type of affirmative action, whites are the only group which is severely underrepresented at Ivy League universities. But the mainstream media will, of course, complain about “white privilege” and too few Asians, “because Asians are more gifted, so should be higher represented”. Typical...

[Aldaris]

Most of the current research in modern algebra is actually done by Chinese or Chinese Americans, most of the recent articles in my field are written by them. Meanwhile, Indians are slowly taking over theoretical computer science, which can easily be considered as a subset of mathematics.

[Aldaris]

Babylonians were solving algebraic equations before the Greeks. As I said before, no one person discovered or invented it.

However, no civilization before the Greeks used definition-theorem-proof approach in their proto-mathematics. In fact, I consider Euklides’ Elements to be the most influential mathematical publication ever written, and not because of it’s content, but because of it’s form, which barely differs from modern articles.

[Dandelion]

However, no civilization before the Greeks used definition-theorem-proof approach in their proto-mathematics. In fact, I consider Euklides’ Elements to be the most influential mathematical publication ever written, and not because of it’s content, but because of it’s form, which barely differs from modern articles.

Nothing as masculine as math. Professor is an enemy versus honour and dignity. Now you're a PhD you are weaponised to put a counterweight versus frauds like that woman. Fight the good fight, Vya!

[Ginney]

Most of the current research in modern algebra is actually done by Chinese or Chinese Americans, most of the recent articles in my field are written by them. Meanwhile, Indians are slowly taking over theoretical computer science, which can easily be considered as a subset of mathematics.

Who else would it be? Mexicans, Blacks? :lol:

I looked at a few published research papers on the subject, and had no idea what any of it was, its VERY math intensive.

[Astarte]

Δουλειά δεν είχε ο διάολος, γαμούσε τα παιδιά του.