Now Math is racist and promotes white privilege.

[rogue06]

hey weren't our numbers invented by arabs? Math can't be white privilege! It's arab!

Like nearly everything else they got them from somewhere else. In this case, almost certainly India.

[One Bad Pig]

Like nearly everything else they got them from somewhere else. In this case, almost certainly India.

Probably thunk up by an albino.

[Sparko]

Probably thunk up by an albino.

I believe Indians are actually Caucasoid, so technically white.

[rogue06]

I believe Indians are actually Caucasoid, so technically white.

Well, those from the northern half of the sub-continent speak an Indo-Aryan language...

[Sparko]

Well, those from the northern half of the sub-continent speak an Indo-Aryan language...

So it must be true. Math is nothing but white privilege. Even though whites are not all white and can be red, black or brown. And sometimes Asian.

[Teallaura]

hey weren't our numbers invented by arabs? Math can't be white privilege! It's arab!

Um, no.

[Juvenal]

We need our resident mathemagician to weigh in on this.

I think folks should watch the movie before writing the review.

Popular press accounts of academic articles are generally poor, and this Fox News article goes out of its way to prove the rule, being a rehash with additional errors of a slanted Campus Reform article that itself focuses on a single paragraph appearing at the end of page 17.

A math education professor at the University of Illinois says the ability to solve geometry and algebra problems and teaching such subjects perpetuates so-called white privilege.

No, she didn't.

Lazy, Chinese telephone, Google Scholar journalism.

This piece by Gutierrez and another which appears in the same volume, in which she acts as principal author, are often opaque to me. She coins neologisms with Spanish roots and idiosyncratic definitions, and expands on the hidden significance of hyphenation, in a mix of social activist argot I've little interest in unwinding.

While I disagree with some of her premises on the primacy of mathematics, and strongly disagree with others, her remarks on the privileging of Greek geometers are fairly accurate. The Pythagorean theorem predates Pythagoras and his school by millennia. Evidence from Egyptian pyramid sites suggests it predates writing itself, making it prehistoric.

On the other hand, I welcome her attempt to replace the greek alphabet's use in mathematics. With that success under her belt, I can only hope she's willing to shift to a real challenge, more worthy of her talents: encouraging Americans to adopt the metric system and bringing peace on earth and good will to men.

[Sparko]

I think folks should watch the movie before writing the review.

Popular press accounts of academic articles are generally poor, and this Fox News article goes out of its way to prove the rule, being a rehash with additional errors of a slanted Campus Reform article that itself focuses on a single paragraph appearing at the end of page 17.

A math education professor at the University of Illinois says the ability to solve geometry and algebra problems and teaching such subjects perpetuates so-called white privilege.

No, she didn't.

Lazy, Chinese telephone, Google Scholar journalism.

This piece by Gutierrez and another which appears in the same volume, in which she acts as principal author, are often opaque to me. She coins neologisms with Spanish roots and idiosyncratic definitions, and expands on the hidden significance of hyphenation, in a mix of social activist argot I've little interest in unwinding.

While I disagree with some of her premises on the primacy of mathematics, and strongly disagree with others, her remarks on the privileging of Greek geometers are fairly accurate. The Pythagorean theorem predates Pythagoras and his school by millennia. Evidence from Egyptian pyramid sites suggests it predates writing itself, making it prehistoric.

On the other hand, I welcome her attempt to replace the greek alphabet's use in mathematics. With that success under her belt, I can only hope she's willing to shift to a real challenge, more worthy of her talents: encouraging Americans to adopt the metric system and bringing peace on earth and good will to men.

Her comment on Pythagoras is not actually the problem.

What about her other comments, like:

[One Bad Pig]

I think folks should watch the movie before writing the review.

Popular press accounts of academic articles are generally poor, and this Fox News article goes out of its way to prove the rule, being a rehash with additional errors of a slanted Campus Reform article that itself focuses on a single paragraph appearing at the end of page 17.

Yeah, one reason I wanted your input.

This piece by Gutierrez and another which appears in the same volume, in which she acts as principal author, are often opaque to me. She coins neologisms with Spanish roots and idiosyncratic definitions, and expands on the hidden significance of hyphenation, in a mix of social activist argot I've little interest in unwinding.

The social activism is doubtless what caught the eye of the pop press. I don't think it has a place in an academic article in a wholly different field, but I'm aware my opinion isn't worth two figs.

While I disagree with some of her premises on the primacy of mathematics, and strongly disagree with others, her remarks on the privileging of Greek geometers are fairly accurate. The Pythagorean theorem predates Pythagoras and his school by millennia. Evidence from Egyptian pyramid sites suggests it predates writing itself, making it prehistoric.

On the other hand, I welcome her attempt to replace the greek alphabet's use in mathematics.

Yeah, the Greek system is undeniably privileged in the field, though I'm not sure why that's material. It is, after all, more or less the basis of the first civilization which managed to bootstrap itself to modernity. While Pythagoras turns out not to have been the first to utilize his eponymous Theorem, he seems to have been the first to write it down, and the handle seems convenient.

With that success under her belt, I can only hope she's willing to shift to a real challenge, more worthy of her talents: encouraging Americans to adopt the metric system and bringing peace on earth and good will to men.

The metric system would be easier in the long run, but switching to it would be a massive inconvenience in the short run. We don't tend to be very good at taking the long view these days; heck, people can't wait 5 minutes to lock eyes on their smartphone.

[rogue06]

I think folks should watch the movie before writing the review.

Popular press accounts of academic articles are generally poor, and this Fox News article goes out of its way to prove the rule, being a rehash with additional errors of a slanted Campus Reform article that itself focuses on a single paragraph appearing at the end of page 17.

A math education professor at the University of Illinois says the ability to solve geometry and algebra problems and teaching such subjects perpetuates so-called white privilege.

No, she didn't.

Lazy, Chinese telephone, Google Scholar journalism.

This piece by Gutierrez and another which appears in the same volume, in which she acts as principal author, are often opaque to me. She coins neologisms with Spanish roots and idiosyncratic definitions, and expands on the hidden significance of hyphenation, in a mix of social activist argot I've little interest in unwinding.

While I disagree with some of her premises on the primacy of mathematics, and strongly disagree with others, her remarks on the privileging of Greek geometers are fairly accurate. The Pythagorean theorem predates Pythagoras and his school by millennia. Evidence from Egyptian pyramid sites suggests it predates writing itself, making it prehistoric.

What continues to be overlooked is dat da maths is of da debil.

On the other hand, I welcome her attempt to replace the greek alphabet's use in mathematics. With that success under her belt, I can only hope she's willing to shift to a real challenge, more worthy of her talents: encouraging Americans to adopt the metric system and bringing peace on earth and good will to men.

4e45b831092fa51880d6d759a2150a5a.jpg

[Juvenal]

Her comment on Pythagoras is not actually the problem.

From your lips to Fox News's ears.

What about her other comments, like:

... according to a Fox News take on Campus Review, that looks to have been picked up by the Daily Caller, too.

Hellooh ..ellloo, .llooo ..lo

I've got a $500 donation lose/win to TWeb/ACLU that says the Fox News "journalist" didn't even read the paper, and another $500 that says the Campus Reform correspondent didn't either. Money says the Campus Reform writer has a slew of Google Scholar alerts around key phrases, reads no more than needed to pump out an article, and gets paid by the click.

It's not that they're not honest; it's that they can't be, because they don't try. If it's not there at the end of page 17, it doesn't appear in either article. These are fringe warriors, not Ed reporters, doing propaganda, not journalism.

First, it's Whiteness, not whiteness, which to her credit, the CR writer gets right, and is shown accurately in the Fox News graphic.

Mathematics itself operates as Whiteness.
- Rochelle Gutierrez

This would be the ...

... social activist argot I've little interest in unwinding.

Gutierrez isn't as reticent.

"Whiteness is the act of characterizing what is natural, real, or customary around the white experience." (Leonardo, 2002, cited in Joseph, Haynes, & Cobb, 2016, p. 3). Unconsciously viewing themselves as normal translates for many PTs into viewing the culture of "the other" from a deficit perspective, or as less than normal.

You have to read a bit deeper for that clarification, but it's not like you can't find it by searching out "Whiteness" in the Google Book preview like I did.

And now I've done what you should have done before posting up any popular press take on an academic paper. It took about 20 minutes to read both of her articles in the anthology. You read those and go back to the Fox News article, and you too can waste time playing spot the mistakes.

I really do have little interest in unwinding this, but for context, in clear English, she's training white teachers to teach in minority high schools, and is concerned the concentration on historical contributions from Greeks minimizes contributions from cultures that are more likely to resonate with minority students.

Much of the rest circles around the standard intramural struggle for prestige in academia, and in this case an Ed professor is punching up toward her more distinguished colleagues in mathematics. I won't punch down at her profession in return. She doesn't deserve that.

She's jealous of my perfect hair.

[rogue06]

She's jealous of my perfect hair.

Every time I read comments like this I think of this guy


0000000000000a7.jpg

[Sparko]

"Whiteness is the act of characterizing what is natural, real, or customary around the white experience."

what the heck does that even mean?

Math is math. How can it be "white?"

White people don't have a corner on math. We didn't even invent it. Math is color blind. It is pure reasoning and logic. It freaking transcends humanity. It is a universal language, a universal truth.

[rogue06]

"Whiteness is the act of characterizing what is natural, real, or customary around the white experience."

what the heck does that even mean?

Math is math. How can it be "white?"

White people don't have a corner on math. We didn't even invent it. Math is color blind. It is pure reasoning and logic. It freaking transcends humanity. It is a universal language, a universal truth.

Back in the 80s there was a Princeton professor who proclaimed that linear logic was racist

[Darth Executor]

No, she didn't.

Lazy, Chinese telephone, Google Scholar journalism.

Wrong, that's exactly what she says. In fact, given your own admission that you don't have any interest in unwinding "social activist argot" I'm not sure why you're even commenting on it. SJWs always project, I guess, and you project SJW dishonesty on others for that reason, SJW.

I really do have little interest in unwinding this, but for context, in clear English, she's training white teachers to teach in minority high schools, and is concerned the concentration on historical contributions from Greeks minimizes contributions from cultures that are more likely to resonate with minority students.

The contributions of blacks and hispanics (the latter didn't even exist until relatively recently in history) to math are practically zero. I'm not sure why you think teaching Babylonian or Indian conventions would resonate more with these groups. And in fact whenever the rad came up in my classes it makes people literally cry and beg for more Greek.

Conversely, why don't Chinese and Indian students suffer from Greek induced mathematophobia? Seems to me that blaming it on ole Py is just another way through which liberals deflect from the fact that they've run black and hispanic communities for decades and produced nothing. It's even absurd, when you think about it for more than a second, that some half literate gangsta thug is suddenly gonna start spitting out trig identities if you told him black people discovered them. It's just more squid ink you and your kind spill to avoid the noose that you know is gonna start tightening around your necks as soon as people realize the civilization wide scam you've been running.