“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 Privilege…”
You’re not going to believe me, but this is what’s being taught at the University of Illinois. But I’m not kidding. Being good at math is white priviledge… or something. Tell you what – I’ll just let her talk:
Her name is Rochelle Gutierrez and she’s a professor, not some ‘catch me if you can’ imposter.
She says she’s very focused on “equity issues in mathematics education,” and worries that evaluations of math skills can perpetuate discrimination against minorities, especially if they do worse than white students.
That might be the key there, but hey – who am I? If minorities are doing worse than white in math, maybe it’s because math was invented by white people a couple thousand years ago to keep blacks in America down? I don’t know. Here’s more:
Scroll downn for VIDEO
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. … algebra and geometry perpetuate white privilege because “emphasizing terms like Pythagorean theorem and pi” give the impression that math “was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans.” “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.
If she’s right, I guess next semester, she’ll be teaching the following:?
Hip-hop artists need to get another profession because the music scale was invented by Europeans – who were white at the time. Gotta distance yourself from that whiteness. Also, James Naismith – who invented and wrote the original rules for basketball was a white Canadian… so everyone who isn’t white, please hit the showers – this priveledge must be stopped.
I’m not sure, but it may be what this professor at the University of Illinois is saying about algebra and geometry – that it perpetuates white privilege because “emphasizing terms like Pythagorean theorem and pi” give the impression that math “was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans.” But it was. So, oh watch this video, it’s hysterical.
This is the part I find not just the ramblings of a lunatic, but someone who is actively doing harm to minority students:
“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.”
Such an obtuse statement!… Get it? Never mind.
So what’s her solution? Gutierrez wants all aspiring math teachers to develop a sense of “political conocimiento,” a Spanish phrase for “political knowledge for teaching.” Although why you’d want to teach something invented by someone with a certain skin color is beyond me now.
Just a thought here: Srinivasa Ramanujan, not white, was arguably one of the finest mathematicians humanity has ever produced. Mathematics isn’t racist. Perhaps some mathematics teachers are racist? By the way, are all Greeks and Europeans white? Just asking. And wouldn’t Eqyptians have been the most likely source for advanced math? Non-white?
Here is the sad truth: This woman is saying that black students are too dumb to do math. That isn’t racist? Tell Herman Cain that. He’s literally a rocket scientist. Pretty good at math. I know – I know him. Pretty sure he’s black.
Here’s a pic of him and I:
By the way, he was MY BOSS at the time. He makes WAY more money than me and how can that be if I have all this damn white priviledge?
How did the son of a SHARECROPPER Herman Cain learn math? How? Because nothing says white privilege like the pythagorean theorem….is it the right angle or the hypotenuse that triggered her?
Algebra and Geometry are intrigal parts of any equation on problem solving. Will the professor please explain that to her college kids??
And while you’re at it, she has never benefited from the use of algebra or geometry, has she? She’s never walked up stairs? Doesn’t live in a house, designed using geometry and algebra? Doesn’t use a wheel, of any kind? Has never travelled over a bridge.
SHE is a special kind of stupid.
Source: Campus Forum
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