Simon Fraser University, in association with the Simon Fraser Public Interest Group, will host a seminar on Tuesday asking the question, “How can math be racist?” and will answer it by “unpacking oppressive structures and bias in math and science.”
Those set to speak at the seminar are Hannah Ghaderi, Co-Directory of Research & Education of the interest group, and Chantelle Spicer, currently the Director of Engagement. Neither of these individuals appear to have any professional background in math. Mathematician James Lindsay told Human Events that it is likely better that these two DEI professionals did not have a math background.
Lindsay said: "They don't need mathematics backgrounds. They have critical consciousness, which means they know how racism and transphobia are hidden in everything, even things they don't know anything about.”
"In fact, people with mathematics backgrounds would be less suited to this work than they would because they would believe that having been socialized into mathematics culture makes these so-called problematics seem normal, which makes them invisible," he said.
Lindsay has recently been at the forefront of speaking out against diversity, equity and inclusion infiltrating mathematics, as woke leftist professors and activists have continued to insist that it's racist to say at 2+2 = 4, and claim instead that the sum of the equation is 5.
The fundamental thesis of those who suggest that 2+2=5 is not that it must equal 5, but that it can equal five. The idea behind this assertion has to do with deconstructing conventionally accepted notions in exchange for subjectivity and unstable conclusions. This cultural stratagem finds its culmination in postmodernism, where objective fact is often seen as draconian and authoritarian.
In 2021, Oregon declared that math was racist, suggesting that problem-solving and the habit of searching for the correct answer is intimately linked with white supremacy. Tucker Carlson asked Human Events Editor-in-Chief Libby Emmons how math could possibly be racist, given that it is a profession based on being “objective.”
Emmons responded: "Objectivity is now considered racist. There are several additional problems with this entire program, the first one is the idea that teachers are perpetuating racism in the classroom because they are racist, they are blind to their own biases and they don't have any control over whether or not they bring that racism with them."
"The other one is this idea that math is a 'White discipline,’ which even a modicum of research would tell you is monumentally absurd," she said.
"And the third is this concept of this soft bigotry of lowered expectations that tells people that students of color can't achieve to the given standard and so those standards need to be changed."
A recent report suggested that math proficiency in math for American eighth-graders plummeted from 34 percent in 2019 to 26 percent after the pandemic. In 2022, 31 percent of students set to graduate high school demonstrated the ability to tackle college-level math, which is down from 39 percent in 2019.
The same report noted that this decline in math-literate students is going to present challenges to future professions involving math, including actuaries and data scientists. Jobs within the math world are expected to increase by 29 percent in the next decade.Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the school as San Francisco University.
