When I was a child, my friends had discovered a way to discredit any member of our group; we pointed an accusing finger and announced, “He has cooties!” No one seemed to know exactly what cooties were, but it was enough to exclude them from the group, and banish them in disgrace. As personal hygiene became more widespread, cooties disappeared from the public conscious, leaving in its wake no mechanism of equal effect in expelling someone from the tribe.
Then some creative individual discovered the term “racist” and the vacuum was filled by an even more potent weapon for shutting down dissenting opinion. Embedded in a history of moral injustice, the charge, “racist!” became a powerful accusation for inciting disgust toward the accused and with it, exclusion. Terrified to be at the receiving end of an accusing finger, people who did not belong to an identified minority began to commence their sentences with, “I believe in racial equality, but …” Sometimes, they would virtue signal by announcing how many personal friends of theirs were from minority groups. Members of the perceived majority were put on defence and declarations of innocence were seen as admissions of guilt, in much the same way that women were found guilty of witchcraft a few centuries ago.
As the charge of racism spread like a virus throughout the human population, it mutated from humans to institutions. This new strain of the virus first attacked university admissions, asserting that if proportions of students admitted to the university did not match proportions of the population by race, then it was prima facie evidence of discrimination. What seemed to some as a logical measure of discrimination became a widespread litmus test for a measure of racism in the workplace.
In the absence of a vaccine for the racist accusation, it spread to the world of inanimate objects. Statues identified as “racist” were toppled from their pedestals, while observers cowed by the fear of the racist accusation, watched in trepidation. As the “racist” statues crashed to the ground, sounding the end of the old regime, people began to feel that the racist virus would die a natural death. Few were aware that the virus had mutated again and was surreptitiously slithering into the schools where it could ensure its survival in the generations to come. The new curriculum was ensuring racial tribalism by dividing people into aggressors and victims by race, and breathing new life into the “racist” accusation. The English language was purged of racial epithets, while “racist” books and resources were removed from the schools. Amid all this kerfuffel, mathematicians were basking in the knowledge that their subject, as a universal language involving abstract symbols and concepts, was immune to the vagaries of this most dreaded accusation. But, as events unfolded it became apparent that even the lofty levels of abstract reasoning could not transcend the accusatory finger of racialism.
In an American Mathematical Society blog post of May 2017, titled, “Get Out of the Way,” temporary assistant professor at the University of Hawaii, Piper Harron, [a black female] begins, “If you are a white cis man you almost certainly should resign from your position of power. That’s right, please quit.” She proceeded to suggest that these white cis males should be replaced by a woman of color or a transgender person. [“cismale” is a term applied to males who have been male from birth, but does not apply to males who were born female and switched gender.]
Anticipating that the mutating racism virus would invade the mathematical domain, Bruce Tinsley, creator of the cartoon strip Mallard Fillmore, presented in 2018, his New Year’s prediction followed by the discovery that it had already been realized.
In an article published in 2018 and titled, Political Conocimiento for Teaching Mathematics, Rochelle Gutiérrez, Professor of Education at the University of Illinois wrote:
On many levels, mathematics itself operates as Whiteness, … School mathematics curricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans. Perhaps more importantly, mathematics operates with unearned privilege in society, just like Whiteness.
The witchcraft that the white cismales are alleged to have been practicing is called, “mathematics” and it has been deemed by the accusers as a tool that white males use to enhance their power by making minorities feel inferior. Historians of mathematics explain that the ancient Egyptians used special cases of the Pythagorean theorem over 4000 years ago and that the Japanese, Chinese, Muslims, and Hindus also contributed to the body of knowledge known as mathematics. However, the overwhelming majority of all surviving documents enunciating mathematical theorems, whether carved in stone or etched in clay tablets, are of European origin. [See Intelligence: Where we Are, Where we Were, & Where we’re Going. p. 486]
On December 8, 2021, USA TODAY published an article titled Is Math Racist? When a maelstrom of negative reaction flooded social media, the newspaper changed its headline to Is Math Education Racist? The article suggested that the poor performance of minorities in mathematics was prima facie evidence of racism in teaching.
Outraged by the charge, Professor Peter Boghossian of Portland State University wrote, “No, math is not racist. Major venues like @USATODAY even asking this question is a sign of cultural sickness. Racial disparities can be addressed (in part) by using the best evidence-based pedagogical practices that enable student learning. Please stop suggesting math is racist.”
Eric Weinstein, who received his Ph.D. in mathematics at Harvard answered as follows:
Q: Is Math Racist? Why do “students of color struggle with the subject”?
A: Congratulations to our first place US Math Olympiad team members Vincent Huang, Colin Tang, Edward Wan, Brandon Wang, Luke Robitaille, and Daniel Zhu. Pictured below.
When Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his powerful “I have a dream” speech, he said:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
The “racist” virus is now attacking Dr. King’s dream, as it seeks to make skin color the basis of all judgments. Life was less racist under the tyranny of the cooties virus.
Thinking mathematics is racial is about as crazy as thinking an embryo decides what color it wants to be in the womb. Color has nothing to do with anything except being an excuse to either excel or accept being less than you are capable of becoming. Of course, many obstacles must be overcome and you need to spend time studying.
Many gifted mathematicians have been from countries all over the world, of every color, and many different religions – becoming all you can be is never an easy task – never give up!
Well-expressed Steve.