A great scholarly paper on how math is racist.

PDF

quote:

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Mathematics fields in the United States (US) were developed to preserve the elite status of White, upper-middle–class men (Castro, 2014; Leyva, 2017; McGee, 2016). Mainstream mathematics education plays a central role in this preservation and, consequently, in the marginalization of people of color (Battey & Leyva, 2016). Consistent racial ordering of mathematical achievement reifies a racialized hierarchy of mathematical ability, maintaining this status and effectively marginalizing Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students. We see this appear in White-normed measures such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and college readiness exams (e.g., SAT) with little to no change across decades of school reform efforts. This hierarchy squarely places Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students on the bottom, and White and Asian students at the top (Deyhle & Swisher, 1997;

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This is what we’re up against.

Also, all authors are women.

My takeaway is that, despite billions of dollars being thrown at the issue, they’re mad about POCs performing poorly in math and know that it’s not going to change. Therefore, they want to shift the focus from the shortcomings of minorities to ‘minorities are the victim’.