Racist Mathematics

In high school, I just about failed algebra. But was there more going on in that class than I realized? Was I being oppressed? Was I victimized? Can I recover? 

The ruinous effects of Critical Theory are personal for me. I was born in Seattle, Washington, where in recent years I have watched the transmutation of a beautiful city that I was once proud to show off to visiting friends. Today, downtown Seattle is an ugly, failing and dangerous place I don’t want to visit myself, even in the middle of the day.

To get an idea of how embedded Critical Theory is in the Seattle establishment, I invite you to examine how K-12 mathematics is approached by the Seattle Public Schools.

A school document dated August 20, 2019, describes the "Math Ethnic Studies" program for Seattle K-12 students (yes, including Kindergarten). The themes of the program come under such headings as "Power and Oppression" and "History of Resistance and Liberation." It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see Critical Theory here.

This document includes the following:

·         The students will be able to identify “how math has been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color.”

·         The students will understand how “Western” mathematics has been used as a means of power and oppression.

·         The students will explain how math “dictates economic oppression.”

·         Students will discuss essential questions such as: “Who holds power in a mathematical classroom” and, “When has math been used historically to resist and liberate?” and, "Who gets to say if an answer is right?" and, “How can we use math to measure the impact of activism?”

It's clear who the oppressors are: Western Whites. 

Public school students of all ages are a captive audience, increasingly subject to the Critical Theory agenda on many levels. 

But why aren't parents, teachers, pastors and civil leaders crying “foul?” 

Either they: 1) don’t know what’s going on, 2) are afraid to say anything, or, 3) don't know how to say what needs to be said or to whom to say it. God help us.

Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option, had a few choice words about the Seattle Public Schools math program in a recent post titled, “Woke Math In Seattle.” In this post, Dreher makes reference to a professor of education at the University of Illinois, Rochelle Gutierrez, who advocates that mathematics is "deformed by Whiteness."

Read Dreher’s post here. It includes a link to the entire racist mathematics document referenced above. (Yes, it's blatant racism.)

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman