University of Michigan Prof Claims Math and Science Classes Are Racist
“dominated by Whiteness and racism”
Do you think this is a concern in China, where students score significantly higher in science and math? I’m guessing it’s not something they’re worried about.
Campus Reform reports:
UMich prof says math and science classes are racist
Deborah Ball, a mathematics professor at the University of Michigan, argued in a podcast that the discipline inflicts racism against Black and Latino students.
On Jul 21, Ball appeared on an episode of the Ed Fix Podcast titled “Fighting Racism with Mathematics” to make her case.
Ball said on the podcast that mathematics is “dominated by Whiteness and racism.” She also expressed frustration at her mathematics and science colleagues. whom she described as resistant to her ideas that the disciplines are just as subjective in interpretation and analysis as the humanities.
“It’s difficult to figure out how to surface and unpack the ways that mathematics, for example is a harbor for whiteness,” Ball stated.
Last week, the University of Michigan’s shared the podcast episode on its Twitter account.
According to Ball, “Whiteness” plays an integral role in explaining the racial and ethnic disparities that exist in mathematics performance. She claimed that since White and Asian students are overrepresented in high-level mathematics, new pedagogy is required to increase access to underrepresented minority students.
“Mathematics, despite the way we represent it, is something that many cultures and communities have created and there are people, scholars in our country, and teachers who have exploited opportunities to broaden kids’ views of mathematics,” Ball said in the podcast.
More broadly, Ball views racial injustice as an issue that permeates the educational system. Writing for the Detroit Free Press on March 21, Ball stated, “As districts emerge from the quarantine of the last year, the plans for a safe return to school must take a fuller view of the safety needed to dismantle anti-Blackness and white supremacy in our educational systems.”
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“Mzzz Ball went on to state that because with everyone knowing that all blacks and Latinos are too stupid to learn, every other student must be dragged down to their level.
“She further stated that because she is a teacher of such racist courses, she must, in good conscience, resign her position immediately.”
AS IF.
Take her logic further..
Asian students are better in chemistry so it is racist against whites. Cancel chemistry.
Blacks are better in basketball so it is racist against whites, cancel the university team.
Whites are more gifted in the fine arts, cancel art
What about English, European History, cancel them all.
Statistically speaking, she is an idiot. How’s that for subjective?
She is not a mathematics professor:
As an undergraduate at Michigan State University, Ball majored in French and then taught elementary school for seventeen[4] years in East Lansing, Michigan.[5] Ball only started serious study of mathematics when she saw her students struggling in math.[5] In 1988 she received her Ph.D. from Michigan State University from the department of teacher education.
Figures that this complete idiot is an EdD … just like “Dr” Jill.
Daniel Ream’s comment says she has a PhD. Where did you see she has an EdD instead?
Her PhD is in Education and Teaching Curriculum…so yah…pretty much just an EdD. And she teaches mathematics to elementary students part time so NOT a mathmatics professor. At the Univ basically just social justice crap…just another white virtue signaling harpie.
You are correct. Search for “Deborah Ball umich”.
“Deborah Loewenberg Ball is the William H. Payne Collegiate Professor of education at the University of Michigan”
This is why we need to eliminate the “ed school” requirement for teachers.
The Campus Reform article is incorrect when it says, “Deborah Ball, a mathematics professor at the University of Michigan”.
In 1992, Barbie said, “Math class is tough,” implying that her inability to master it was her deficiency and she needed to work harder.
In 2021, Barbie says, “Math class is racist,” implying that her inability to master it is your deficiency, and she shouldn’t need to work at all.
henrybowman, I think you are confusing Barbie with Karen.
This sort of indoctrination tells black and brown people that they can’t ever succeed in math or science unless the subjects are watered down, as the governments are doing in several states.
Unfortunately, these woke idiots will cause the numbers of minorities in real, challenging, math and science to drop. And the same woke idiots will scream “Racism!!!”
Imagine there were people who really wanted minorities to succeed. They would tell them “Math and science are equally hard for everyone, and you have just as much chance to succeed as anyone else.”
But that’s not what the woke idiots on the left want. If minorities succeed, then they’ve lost their ability to scream “Racism!!!” So to keep minorities dependent on left-wing largess, they need to give them an expectation and excuses for failing, and get the states to stop using any standardized tests that might document their failure.
Deborah Ball … what a bunch or horse s**t …
She is a fool and should be fired for such stupid remarks.
I rarely studied math in high school so my grades sucked. But I never thought to blame my poor performance on someone else- genius! Now, I just need to see if my 11th grade teacher is still alive to get that C- fixed.
Two thirds of her minority students felt a sense of alienation by white dominated math while the other half didn’t even care.
And, the rest?
Does this kind of “reasoning” mean I can claim basketball is racist because I can’t jump?
Did she ever stop to perhaps consider that she is just a lousy teacher?
Alternative: Some students of all races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic levels decide they don’t need to study and get good grades to be passed along to graduation. Math and STEM sciences are harder to fake than, say, a language arts paper where incomplete sentences, poor grammar and spelling, and coherent thought are excused these days. Ergo, the teaching of math and science is at fault, not the students.
zennyfan: please take a hard look at the specific controversies of Evergreen State University, where a senior dean tried to intervene in an poor evaluation given to a minority student for Spring 2017 course work in a science class. (We are talking about a school that had abolished letter grades!)
Toilets are clearly have a racist history. So the woke have to make sure that they remove them from general access, since they are dominated by whiteness and racism. In fact, their very color further emphasizes this point. DOWN WITH TOILETS!! Flush them out of our lives (and who I am referring to is up to the reader).
I am very confused by BLM’s view of math and calculus: Is integration now bad, but differential equations now good? When I was an undergraduate, you could tell which students were studying partial differential equations, because they walked across campus with a glazed look in their eyes. Today, are we supposed to assume that they look that way from doing their required anti-racism readings?