Seattle Public Schools Say Math Is Racist

The Seattle Public Schools Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee (ESAC) released a rough draft of notes for its Math Ethnic Studies framework in late September, which attempts to connects math to a history of oppression.

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The committee suggests that math is subjective and racist, saying under one section, “Who gets to say if an answer is right,” and under another, “how is math manipulated to allow inequality and oppression to persist?”

Jason Rantz of KTTH in Seattle noted that, “ESAC is made up of a number of educators and was created due to a legislature mandate to ‘advise, assist, and make recommendations to the office of the superintendent of public instruction regarding the identification of ethnic studies materials.’”

It is also stated in the document that Western mathematics is “used to disenfranchise people and communities of color.”

Under this framework students will be able to “construct & decode mathematical knowledge, truth, and beauty” so that they can contribute to their communities.

Furthermore, under this criteria students will {snip} “identify how math has been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color.”

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Tracy Castro-Gill, Seattle’s ethnic studies director, told King 5 in Seattle, “The goal is to disrupt the status quo and do something different.”

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