Math is racist

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Leymenaide

Senior member
Feb 16, 2010
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Absolutely nothing wrong with trying to teach in ways non-white males may engage with more. Especially in schools that have basically no white kids.

I completely disagree with getting rid of gifted and advanced tracks, though. You just have to make sure those programs aren't hurting the regular and remedial classes. When I was a kid it was the extreme Christian right that wanted to kill gifted programs, now it appears to be the extremely far left. I don't think many districts have actually gotten rid of them, though, except due to budget cuts.
I have taught in a range of schools. One major observation is all children can and want to learn. As a math's teacher I was surprised at first by how hard one of my classes worked for me. It was a class that we lost a student to gun violence. I asked why was he selling? I had a half dozen students tell me why they sold after school. They and their siblings were hungry. These kids could and wanted to learn. The difference in schools can be measured by the support gotten at home. A community committed to educations and parents demanding excellence will outperform kids with no food at home or living in a car on cinderblocks.
My daughter attended one of those top 200 schools. My last conversation with the school principal was loud and public. We were in total agreement. He was not pushing the students hard enough. The curriculum should be expanded with more honors and A.P. classes. we are not challenging these kids enough. This is one of the best schools and the kids are not learning enough. We need higher not lower standards. You can fire up kids to learn but you have to fuel the fire.
 

SmCaudata

Senior member
Oct 8, 2006
969
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No. The "best and brightest" don't pay attention to stereotypes, rather decide based on their own abilities and interests. This is for the low IQ kids and should include the low IQ white males too.
Completely false. Studies show girls will stop pursuing a field with their first B at a rate as men that fail a class for the second time. Our society expects women and minorities to be perfect while allowing the "boys will be boys" and "locker room talk" mentality to excuse performance and behaviors of white men.

If you genuinely don't belive this, the Dunning Kruger effect is strong with you like it often is with white men.
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
15,142
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Another oddity is that in my day, inner-city schools with racially-and-ethnically-diverse intakes were disaster zones, and performed very badly. For one thing, the affluent people in those areas opted out and sent their children to private schools. Apparently after the financial crash there was a big increase in pupils trying to get into the better state schools, as those parents could no longer afford private school fees.

I swear there was at least one pupil in my year who went through his entire school career without learning English, and who never understood a word anyone said to him.

But since then the picture has, apparently, flipped entirely, and inner-London schools with a high intake of children of migrants, perform very well (perhaps partly because of a kind of 'migrant motivation' effect?), while the problem now is worst in provincial areas with largely white-working-class students. Likewise girls now outdo boys when it comes to getting into universities, the reverse of how it used to be.
 
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1prophet

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
5,313
534
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Math is racist, the latest trend to devalue education and lower the standards on the path to idiocracy, kind of like teaching CRT without actually calling it that for plausible deniability so people can stay angry and not think logically, since angry people are easy to manipulate and control just like greedy people while they think they are making their own decisions. If they need people to actually do real math for things that don't tolerate this new politically correct woke education system they will just import them with H1b's at a greatly reduced price while Americans with their six figure student loans and little to show for it choke on their debt.

 

m8d

Senior member
Nov 5, 2012
672
1,080
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Is math education racist? Debate rages over changes to how US teaches the subject (msn.com)



White males need not apply? So, I guess, Math is racist...

Isn't this also saying that other people outside of white males just don't have as much IQ? So they need to do things like math as a group event (more minds means more right answers) rather than an individual skill? What a way to achieve in the world, make everything group-think... And expect the same careers as those that can do it on their own due to natural IQ..? I suppose this is the communist way. I think I'm just going to become disabled. I'd have the same quality of life if I identify as a gay black woman... (I can do that right, as a white male?)
When black people try to better themselves. White people burn it down or tear it down.damned-if-you-do damned-if-you-don't
 

ivwshane

Lifer
May 15, 2000
33,541
17,058
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Math is racist, the latest trend to devalue education and lower the standards on the path to idiocracy, kind of like teaching CRT without actually calling it that for plausible deniability so people can stay angry and not think logically, since angry people are easy to manipulate and control just like greedy people while they think they are making their own decisions. If they need people to actually do real math for things that don't tolerate this new politically correct woke education system they will just import them with H1b's at a greatly reduced price while Americans with their six figure student loans and little to show for it choke on their debt.


Nice projection. I think you are a perfect example of a failed education.
 
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woolfe9998

Lifer
Apr 8, 2013
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I do agree that students should be taught in whatever way motivates them best. If one method produces superior results, then that method should be replicated.

I do not agree with eliminating courses for gifted kids. That is an incredibly stupid idea. It's an attempt to force equal outcomes because we just don't like that a majority in those classes are white or Asian. And it's trying to do so by bringing down those at the top, not the other way around.

I also do not agree that lessons about racial inequality should be taught in mathematics courses. And yes, the article says so directly. This isn't just about relating math problems to student's real world interests. For some it seems to be about introducing the subject of race into math classes.

Sorry, but the left has race on the brain 24/7 these days and they seem to want kids to be that way too. Every last thing in this world isn't about race. Of all things, math is the last subject where these social issues should be discussed.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
74,762
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I will get around to this horrible math racism but only after I explain to the world the real enemy to racial equality, the piano. It has, in its modern version, 52 white keys and only 36 black ones. That is just wrong wrong wrong and racists as hell.
 
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Jan 25, 2011
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I will get around to this horrible math racism but only after I explain to the world the real enemy to racial equality, the piano. It has, in its modern version, 52 white keys and only 36 black ones. That is just wrong wrong wrong and racists as hell.
Wait until you hear about bowling. Evens it out.
 
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MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
26,067
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Only a racist would find that ways to teach underprivileged kids is actually racist. I do think there should be gifted and talented programs of course, I was in one from 5th grade on, but along with the same investment in making education equitable so there is not so much disparity by race due to both systemic racism and those systems leading to poverty, leading to a lesser education and so on and so forth. A vicious cycle.

But a lot of conservatives deep down do feel blacks are an inferior race. They actually think that whites are the oppressed and blacks have the privilege. Therefore, they must feel the lesser performance of blacks can only be due to their race if they aren't the ones being oppressed, since it clearly is not from systemic issues.
 
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Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
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No. The "best and brightest" don't pay attention to stereotypes, rather decide based on their own abilities and interests. This is for the low IQ kids and should include the low IQ white males too.
Yeah, my mother was a born engineer with an engineer father and engineer son. She never even considered engineering because that just wasn't something women did in 1970.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,354
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I mean, the irony inherent in the original topic is that if math isn't racist/is universal, changing the method of teaching it should affect white and black kids equally. The presumption that white kids will suffer while black kids will improve or do well belies the belief that what is being taught is, in fact, racist.
 
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pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
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I mean, the irony inherent in the original topic is that if math isn't racist/is universal, changing the method of teaching it should affect white and black kids equally. The presumption that white kids will suffer while black kids will improve or do well belies the belief that what is being taught is, in fact, racist.

I don't understand your point.

I don't see that it follows that if "maths is universal", that "changing the method of teaching it would affect white and black equally".

Maths might be 'universal' but different methods of teaching could motivate or interest different groups differently. Seems to me that 90% of learning is about motivation, rather than some supposed intrinsic aptitude or ability.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,354
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I don't understand your point.

I don't see that it follows that if "maths is universal", that "changing the method of teaching it would affect white and black equally".

Maths might be 'universal' but different methods of teaching could motivate or interest different groups differently. Seems to me that 90% of learning is about motivation, rather than some supposed intrinsic aptitude or ability.

-I agree no "thing" is inherently racist, its just a thing. But in the context of the topic "math is racist", the manner in which math is taught to students is being deemed racist, as no one is suggesting 2+2 should equal 5 under a somehow less racist system of maths.

The argument seems to be "Don't change the way we teach it, white students do well and black students do poorly for reasons other than the way it is taught."

Therefore if the manner of teaching math is not the cause for the difference in outcomes between white and black students, white students should continue to excel under this new teaching paradigm while black students continue to do poorly because of their inherent incapacity to do maths well is not the root cause of the issue.

If white students do poorly and black students continue to do poorly, then we know how math is taught can affect outcomes.

If white students continue to do well and black students continue to do poorly, then nothing we're right back to square one what was the original complaint.

If white students continue to do well and black students improve or do well, then we know how math is taught can affect outcomes.
 
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shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
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Yeah, my mother was a born engineer with an engineer father and engineer son. She never even considered engineering because that just wasn't something women did in 1970.

I went to the University of Oregon for a visit before I got discharged from the Navy. Took a tour of the engineering department to help me decide if I wanted to enroll. They had a hallway filled with photos of previous engineering classes. There was one woman who graduated in 1949. After that, nothing, until about 1974 then the school was full of graduating women. Good only knows how many females applied and got abused and quit before finishing.
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
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11,256
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I went to the University of Oregon for a visit before I got discharged from the Navy. Took a tour of the engineering department to help me decide if I wanted to enroll. They had a hallway filled with photos of previous engineering classes. There was one woman who graduated in 1949. After that, nothing, until about 1974 then the school was full of graduating women. Good only knows how many females applied and got abused and quit before finishing.
Yeah, I can count on one hand the number of women engineers I've worked with that would've graduated before 85.
 

mindless1

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
8,756
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Completely false. Studies show girls will stop pursuing a field with their first B at a rate as men that fail a class for the second time. Our society expects women and minorities to be perfect while allowing the "boys will be boys" and "locker room talk" mentality to excuse performance and behaviors of white men.

If you genuinely don't belive this, the Dunning Kruger effect is strong with you like it often is with white men.

Nonsense. Society does not push loser men who fail classes, to continue pursuing that field of education. They simply push for the loser to do better. Take the hint, that's the point of "fail", a logical distinction between good and bad performance.

If studies show a girl will stop pursuing a class with a B, that is showing a need for better guidance counseling, and really has nothing to do with this topic. You might even say that the girl who does a 180' turn from a single B, isn't very smart and maybe over her head, and same is true for any male who doesn't use the B as a sign to focus more on studies. It just makes no sense to try to use gender as your argument here, other than some vague stereotype and if you want to use the strawman argument of "studies show", remember studies can be crafted to suggest just about anything the author wants them to.

No, our society does not hold this double standard the way you think, quite the oppposite. See above, that's what grades are for. We don't reward low achievers whites, rather than opposite, that minorities have an easier time getting into good universities with all else equal academically... which is racist.
 
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SmCaudata

Senior member
Oct 8, 2006
969
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Nonsense. Society does not push loser men who fail classes, to continue pursuing that field of education. They simply push for the loser to do better. Take the hint, that's the point of "fail", a logical distinction between good and bad performance.

If studies show a girl will stop pursuing a class with a B, that is showing a need for better guidance counseling, and really has nothing to do with this topic. You might even say that the girl who does a 180' turn from a single B, isn't very smart and maybe over her head, and same is true for any male who doesn't use the B as a sign to focus more on studies. It just makes no sense to try to use gender as your argument here, other than some vague stereotype and if you want to use the strawman argument of "studies show", remember studies can be crafted to suggest just about anything the author wants them to.

No, our society does not hold this double standard the way you think, quite the oppposite. See above, that's what grades are for. We don't reward low achievers whites, rather than opposite, that minorities have an easier time getting into good universities with all else equal academically... which is racist.
Countless studies by people qualified to make these states says there is a systemic double standard.

Do you have evidence about your claims? Are you using your own anecdotal experience? Or are you just making claims that make you feel good about yourself.

As a white man I know that I've had a leg up my entire life. I know that women and minorities are treated differently. When a black athlete speaks well, people remark they are "well spoken" with surprise. When a women goes into a tech field people say, wow, good for you and your hard work. The same doesn't happen for white men. Why is that? Society has a unconscious bias that elevates white men.

Anyway, when you show actual proof to you claims, I'll engage again. Otherwise, you are basically like every white male conservative crying foul and claiming to be either oppressed or that the field is level. The reality is, white men have been given privilege for so long, equal treatment feels like oppression. Well, too bad.

Also, grades are not a meaningful way to prove that the field is level. Studies have repeatedly demonstrated how pre text expectations and biases affect outcomes.

Other fun reads for you. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ci...-the-hard-truths-of-an-uphill-battle.amp.html




I can match you 100 to 1 for anything you could post as proof to your claims.
 
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pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
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I went to the University of Oregon for a visit before I got discharged from the Navy. Took a tour of the engineering department to help me decide if I wanted to enroll. They had a hallway filled with photos of previous engineering classes. There was one woman who graduated in 1949. After that, nothing, until about 1974 then the school was full of graduating women. Good only knows how many females applied and got abused and quit before finishing.


Only recently did I hear about this pioneer of "women in engineering"


Note the name that got attached to her significant contribution to winning the Battle of Britain. Feels like it simultaneously acknowledges her contribution, and also demonstrates the 'everyday sexism' that the few women in that profession had to endure.
 

mindless1

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
8,756
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Countless studies by people qualified to make these states says there is a systemic double standard.

Wrong. More like "several studies by people trying to suggest this, managed to do so". You don't really understand do you, that there are other factors at play that determine educational performance and when whites living in the same environment have the same educational deficiencies, it shows it is not race but other factors at play.

Do you have evidence about your claims? Are you using your own anecdotal experience? Or are you just making claims that make you feel good about yourself.

You don't have evidence about your claims. Pretty poor attempt to make vague statements that don't consider the real problems.

As a white man I know that I've had a leg up my entire life. I know that women and minorities are treated differently.

Complete nonsense. If anything women and minorities have it easier, can perform equally and are given preference. If anything white males are held to a higher standard, with one exception, in the legal system.

When a black athlete speaks well, people remark they are "well spoken" with surprise. When a women goes into a tech field people say, wow, good for you and your hard work. The same doesn't happen for white men. Why is that? Society has a unconscious bias that elevates white men.

This is all in your imagination or else you're just observing a pat on the head by the SJWs. Women have been in the tech field for quite a long time, at the rate which the % of them chose to pursue it. This is a subjective decision, women often preferring different fields of work, and the same could be said about other fields of work that men less often pursue, as a % of workers in society.

The reality is, white men have been given privilege for so long, equal treatment feels like oppression. Well, too bad.

Another fun read for you. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ci...-the-hard-truths-of-an-uphill-battle.amp.html
[/QUOTE]

Oh, a female blogger post. Could it get more biased and irrational?
 
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