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New Math Research Group Reflects a Schism in the Field
- Bostonian 5y ago"In 2019 less than 1 percent of doctorates were awarded to Black mathematicians, and just 29 percent were awarded to women." Such statistics are often trotted out to imply discrimination, without providing context. A 2020 Brookings article "SAT math scores mirror and maintain racial inequity" https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/12/01/sat-math-scores-mirror-and-maintain-racial-inequity/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/12/01/sat-math-... says "Of those scoring above 700, 43% are Asian and 45% are white, compared to 6% Hispanic or Latino and 1% Black. Meanwhile, among those scoring between 300-390, 2% are Asian and 23% white, compared to 43% Hispanic or Latino and 26% Black." A 700 math SAT score is good but not great. The fraction of 780+ scorers who are black is probably even less than 1%, since disparities tend to be magnified in the tails of a distribution. It should not be surprising the the fraction of math PhDs who are black is so small, and this does not indicate discrimination by college math departments.