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From your PDF: > Administrators should examine programs and policies and how white supremacy impacts student outcomes (e.g., tracking, course selectio
by rflrob 5y ago
From your PDF:
> Administrators should examine programs and policies and how white supremacy impacts student outcomes (e.g., tracking, course selection, intervention rosters).
> White supremacy culture shows up in math classrooms when... Students are tracked
I interpreted this to mean that tracking is (like course selection) a student outcome that can be impacted by "white supremacy culture", not that tracking is, inherently and unavoidably, a sign of white supremacy. If there's burglars around, unlocked doors are usually correlated with burglary; that doesn't mean you can't leave your doors unlocked, but you're going to want to be careful about it. Similarly, if you live in a society with pervasive racism (read: most societies), it's possible to track students in a way that doesn't reinforce those racist trends, but probably only if you're careful about it.
I think I probably agree with you that "white supremacy culture" is, as a term, perhaps more aggressive than it needs to be. Not being deeply embedded in this debate, I'd assume it's going to turn off more people who hear it, think "I'm not a klansman, so this isn't something I need to address" than it will engage people who think racism is bad but haven't considered how their own (probably unexamined) practices are leading to outcomes they don't want.
- dls2016 5y agoSomehow we’re supposed to believe that there’s no white supremacy, that mathematics simply lives in a platonic ideal world where it doesn’t matter that so few African America mathematics phds are awarded each year, for instance.
- andrewprock 5y agoYou are confusing racism in the world e.g. our education system, which exists and is quite impactful, with racism in mathematics, which is not at all a well defined concept. If you told me that math education professionals were a fundamental cornerstone of an oppressive culture, I would sign on immediately. But you have to be aware that it is exactly that cadre of professionals that are offering up the recommended changes.