The latest big thing in political correctness wokeness is the attack upon mathematics, claiming that it is white supremacist, since most of the advances in modern times (forget the origins, that is all basic) are by whites. So, if that is white supremacist, well, hell, suck it in.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/cant-two-plus-two-only-equal-four_3715476.html?utm_source=pushengage
“Recently, the Oregon Department of Education sent its guidance on A Pathway to Equitable Math to state math teachers. This 82-page instructional toolkit is a framework for “deconstructing racism in mathematics” and “dismantling white supremacy in math classrooms.” It’s a bit strange for me. If there is residual racism in literature, social science, and history, it is easier to understand. But what is “white supremacy” in math?
The guidance reads, “White supremacy culture infiltrates math classrooms in everyday teacher actions … we see white supremacy culture in the mathematics classroom can show up when: The focus is on getting the ‘right’ answer … Students are required to ‘show their work.’”
I don’t know if this means that when a child learns math, he should strive for the wrong answer? To be honest, I think I am very tolerant and I absolutely support racial equality but I really can’t understand what Oregon’s math teaching guidelines mean.
According to the guidance, the teachers are to “Choose problems that have complex, competing, or multiple answers” and ask students to “Come up with at least two answers that might solve this problem,” instead of putting their focus on one “right” answer.
How can a math problem have two answers? What we think is that math is a purely scientific language, because it has clear logic and no vague areas. It represents facts and objective answers. The beauty of math lies in its fairness and objectivity. Math itself has no prejudice, and the right answer will stay true no matter your skin color. But according to the guidelines of the State of Oregon, if there is only one answer to a math question, it is racism or white supremacy. This logic is a bit weird.
The guidance is to train teachers as follows: “Challenge standardized test questions by getting the ‘right’ answer, but justify other answers by unpacking the assumptions that are made in the problem.”
There was a comment online in Chinese: “In future math exams, you won’t be able to ask what one plus one equals. You will only be able to ask what could be the possible answer to one plus one and the student’s race. If it’s answered by a minority and the answer is three, the teacher will comment: ‘Very original, revolutionary, and critical. You get full grades.’”
In George Orwell’s dystopian “1984,” there is also a famous math problem. What is two plus two? After Orwell’s protagonist Winston Smith was arrested, one way to train him in jail was to repeatedly tell him that two and two makes five, and for him to repeat it. He was not released until he would say what he was trained. Of course, it doesn’t matter what two and two makes. The key goal of the system was for individuals in society cannot to challenge the powers at be, and that they must believe in it wholeheartedly. So the correct answer is that two plus two equals any number that “Big Brother” says.
This is not the first time that the Oregon Department of Education has proposed these concepts. It’s been for some time that traditional expression and teaching of math have been subject to the label of racism and white supremacy by the American math community. Of course, not all math circles but just a few people.
CNN publicly stated with a headline, “Math is racist: How data is driving inequality” in 2016.
In 2017, a joint position statement (pdf) from the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics and TODOS: Mathematics for ALL stated, “Mathematics teachers and leaders must acknowledge that the current mathematics education system is unjust and grounded in a legacy of institutional discrimination based on race, ethnicity, class, and gender.”
The standardized tests have been used as “a gatekeeping tool,” creating social injustice, and therefore, must be adjusted according to students’ ethnic backgrounds, the statement read.
The Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn also introduced its Anti-Racist Math Curriculum last year.
A Fox News article on the guidance reported, “In one section of the ‘Dismantling Racism’ workbook, the argument is made that ‘only white people can be racist in our society, because only white people as a group have that power.’” Accordingly, Chinese can be considered very lucky because they can’t be “racist.”
But American leftists don’t seem to like the Chinese. When leftists talk about how ethnic minorities encounter inequality, how they are oppressed by white supremacy and racism, the evidence they point to is that ethnic minorities have low incomes. But Chinese often falsify this statement. The Chinese, or more broadly Asians, are an ethnic minority in the United States but their income is similar to or higher than that of whites. And usually, Asians have better math scores. So I suspect that the Asian ethnic group, including the Chinese, has been categorized in the enemy group targeted by American leftists.
In fact, to leftists, race is just a tool.”
Of course, the entire game is about deconstruction and destruction. Unfortunately for them, the social breakdown they lust for will create a Darwinian world, where the Left will be the first to cash out.