White Math: 1 + 1 = 2

This is post 2 of 3 in the series “Math and human flourishing”

Even in the so-called Dark Ages, one plus one equaled two. But today, Critical Race Theory scorns that reality as “White Math.”

Mathematics dates its discovery and articulation as a discipline to Pythagoras of Samos (569 – 475 BC). Historians recognize Pythagoras as the father of mathematics. Princeton mathematician Sergiu Klainerman elaborates on further development in the sphere.

For historical reasons, we often discuss contributions to the field of mathematics from the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Chinese, Indians and Arabs and refer to them as distinct entities. They have all contributed through a unique cultural dialogue to the creation of a truly magnificent edifice accessible today to every man and woman on the planet.

Mathematics is a universal tool, available to anyone, female or male, in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. It is used to buy groceries, plan a budget, and solve the most exquisite science problems. Scientists and mathematicians seeking the solution to an arcane puzzle know they are nearing the answer when they find beauty, because truth and beauty dwell together. $white math is a myth$

But postmoderns, Neo-Marxists, and Critical Race theorists, grounded in an ideology that denies reason, reality and revelation, assert, with no logical basis, that only racist “White Math” insists on right, objective answers.

The New Math – Equitable Math … 1+1≠2

CRT racists are proposing instead what they call “Equitable Math.” This initiative, promoted in schools all over the country, is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This new math is captured in a PDF entitled A Pathway to Equitable Math: Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction. Sadly, rooted as it is in postmodern ideology, it will sustain or even intensify poverty.

The website of Equitable Math states:

This workbook provides teachers an opportunity to examine their actions, beliefs, and values around teaching mathematics. The framework for deconstructing racism in mathematics offers essential characteristics of antiracist math educators and critical approaches to dismantling white supremacy in math classrooms by making visible the toxic characteristics of white supremacy culture with respect to math.

Whites invented math to perpetuate slavery

The curriculum developers assume, despite historical evidence to the contrary, that mathematics was created by whites to keep people in bondage and poverty, therefore it must be exposed as racism. The people at Equitable Math believe that

White supremacy culture infiltrates math classrooms in everyday teacher actions …. Coupled with the beliefs that underlie these actions, they perpetuate educational harm on Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, denying them full access to the world of mathematics.

Again, postmodernism denies reality, reason or objective truth; there are no right answers. They continue,

The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so. Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity [sic ] as well as fear of open conflict [sic].[i]

Because objective truth “is unequivocally false,” distinguishing between right and wrong answers is racist. What’s the goal here? To eliminate the universal understanding of truth, an understanding based in reality that comprises a bridge to human flourishing. This new math will do the exact opposite: keep people in poverty and degradation.

My guess is that Bill and Melinda Gates mean well, but have bought into the assumptions of Critical Race Theory. As a result, the money from their foundation will have unintended consequences by erecting a barrier between impoverished children and a productive, satisfying life.

Darrow Miller

… to be continued

[i] https://thejewishvoice.com/2021/04/california-weighs-equitable-math-goal-of-obtaining-correct-answer-is-racist/

Read more about how a biblical worldview impacts our practice of education in a recently released book, Don’t Let Schooling Stand in the Way of Education: A Biblical Response to the Crisis in Public Education.