Academia, Politics, Science, Society

“Mathematics Itself Operates As Whiteness”: University of Illinois Professor Triggers Controversy In Calling For Professors To Recognize Math As Privilege

rg1University of Illinois math professor Rochelle Gutierrez has triggered a national controversy over her recent anthology for math educators entitled, “Building Support for Scholarly Practices in Mathematics Methods.” Gutierrez suggests that mathematic tends to perpetuate white privilege that must be actively addressed in classrooms.  For many, math is one subject that was viewed inherently objective and unbiased in its emphasis. Albert Einstein and others saw beauty in math.  He stated “Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.” Yet, Gutierrez appears to see the  “politics that mathematics brings” and white privilege.

Gutierrez warns that “School mathematics curricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean Theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans.”  She adds  “On many levels, mathematics itself operates as whiteness. Who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as white.”

Gutierrez raises these same views in her 2013 academic article entitled Why (Urban) Mathematics Teachers Need Political Knowledge  in the Journal of Urban Mathematics Education.  She wrote that “similar to whiteness, mathematics holds unearned privilege in society.” She emphasized that she was going beyond earlier writers who maintained that “mathematics education operates as White institutional space. I am arguing that mathematics itself operates as whiteness.”

Gutierrez seeks to inject “political knowledge” into math classes to foster a “greater awareness of the unearned privilege that mathematics holds in society,.”  She ties math to the ever-expanding notions of “microaggressions” and warns that many students “have experienced microaggressions from participating in math classrooms… [where people are] judged by whether they can reason abstractly.”

While I do not agree with much of what I read in the article, which I found hyperbolic and superficial.  However, I also disagree with some of the responses.  Critics have called for Gutierrez to be removed from her position.  Gutierrez is advancing her intellectual view of the role and barriers of mathematic education in the United States. Her voice adds to the broader debate over the influence of privilege or race on subjects.  One can disagree with those views while defending Gutierrez’ right to articulate and defend them.

Guiterrez has a stellar background that includes a Ph.D., in Curriculum and Instruction, from University of Chicago as well as a M.A. from Chicago and a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University. Her bio states that “Dr. Gutierrez’ scholarship focuses on equity issues in mathematics education, paying particular attention to how race, class, and language affect teaching and learning.”

In the end, it is a shame to see math treated as a field of privilege when many of us view it as a field of pure intellectual pursuit and bias neutrality.  Either the math is there or it is not.  The race of the mathematician will not change the outcome.  Moreover, the way to fight any bias is to leave “political knowledge” outside of the classroom.  Guiterrez has attracted some cache by calling for teachers to look beyond the numbers to find white privilege.  Yet the danger is importing extrinsic influences into an area that is wonderfully self-contained and politically neutral.  Indeed, many minorities sought math careers because it is a field premised on objective measurement.  That is why I was left unconvinced by the earlier academic article.  To use a valuable expression, “the numbers simply do not add up.”

128 thoughts on ““Mathematics Itself Operates As Whiteness”: University of Illinois Professor Triggers Controversy In Calling For Professors To Recognize Math As Privilege”

  2. Can you correct the first sentence? This woman is not a math professor. She is an education professor, and yet another example of why extant teacher training programs should be shut down en masse and replaced with apprenticeships.

    1. TSFS – we can only hope that mathematicians and historians spam the hell out her paper and drive it into the ground, where it should be buried forever. This is why academic research has such a bad name.

  3. Just another attempt to dumb down those who achieve to the level of those who wish not to or cannot.

    1. No kidding. People seem to be determined to be ignorant, ineffectual, and stuck in a vacuum of learned helplessness. There wouldn’t appear to be a whole lot of intelligence left in academia, degrees are meaningless and very expensive paper more and more with every passing week.

  4. By the Gutierrez standard almost every human on earth, except perhaps her, is a racist. Who doesn’t use math, whether it be counting change from a transaction, specs of fly poop on the ceiling or number of dogs playing poker? What a narrow minded shallow nit-wit!!

  5. One can disagree with those views while defending Gutierrez’ right to articulate and defend them.

    In other words, let the crazy, racist woman speak. Sure, why not. Once she’s finished proving the whiteness of mathematics, then we can finally close the book on the whiteness of anything. She will have proven that if you are so blindly racist, you can be convinced every one else is a racist, except you. Then we’ll begin to unwind the racist whiteness of everything craziness and get back to planet Earth where racism exists in all cultures and because of many factors; number 1: HUMAN NATURE.

  6. Professor Turley, you are too nice.

    This professor is a condescending twit.
    In High School and Universities.

    Advanced Math Classes are VOLUNTARY.

    I’m so tired of this absurd white privilege train everyone is trying to outdo each other. Ridiculous.

  7. This woman is the racist. I wonder if she even realizes how insulting her comments are to people of color. She is saying they are too stupid to do math. I would like to see people of color challenge her.

  9. The most significant thing about Gutierrez is that she is not a math professor; nor is she a history professor. If she were either, she would know that al-gebra is non-white, unless you consider Arabs white, that the abacus, that is, our first computer, is Chinese, also non-white, and that the Phoenicians, yet another race of Asians, probably got this whole math thing started in the first place. But, Pythagoras was, indeed, a Greek as was Euclid, although he hung out mostly in Africa, and Archimedes. So, let’s call it Greek privilege, or more broadly, eastern Mediterranean privilege.

      2. Thanks for the vid, Paul. Always been fascinated by that thing, but have only read bits and pieces about it over the years. Be good to spend a little time watching this thing.

        1. slohrss29 – I was just excited that once they decided to x-ray the original, they took the time to rebuild it and figure out what it did. It really is incredible.

  10. Professor Rochelle Guttierrez is a fake, fraud & phony. Do the math from times past.

    Guttierrez is not God. She’s just another dirty rotten sinner. Mathematical instructions from God to build an ark:

    In Genesis 6:14-6:16, God gives Noah detailed directions for the construction of the vessel: “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark 300 hundred cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks …” The length of a cubit has varied over time but calculated measurements correspond roughly to a vessel 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high, which would make the ark of Noah larger than any wooden vessel ever built.

    1. St Stephen – I have seen a model of the Ark using those math dimensions and it would actually work. 😉

  11. It appears engineers, mathematicians, technologists and scientists in China, Japan, India, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea did not get the memo math is white privilege.

    2. Mathematics is the language of the universe. Everything (except for some bizarre human states of mind–probably that too with a chaotic enough representation) can be communicated mathematically. Our basic concepts of design and beauty can be represented mathematically. Music works mathematically (my favorite–the #4th or b5th–the “devil’s interval” and a huge part of jazz). And, as we all know, mathematics is the basis of computing power (for now.). If she has any intelligence, she would reject her notion of ethnicity and realize she is a haphazard collection of particles whose behavior (for a large part) is represented by mathematics. Her’s maybe a little more so.

      Basically, this woman should be demonstrating calisthenics or something that would actually help students. And plug up her pie hole.

  12. “Gutierrez seeks to inject “political knowledge” into math classes to foster a “greater awareness of the unearned privilege that mathematics holds in society,.” … warns that many students “have experienced microaggressions from participating in math classrooms… [where people are] judged by whether they can reason abstractly.””

    I am not sure what it means to say that mathematics (the field) holds privilege whether earned or unearned. But if she is commenting on the appreciation that many have for mathematics then it seems to me that the appreciation is earned by the contribution that mathematics has made to most every field and endeavor of modern society. It is hard for me to imagine fields as diverse as transportation, energy production, or farming supporting modern society without the contribution of mathematics.

    But she has hit on a point. Students who have little ability to reason abstractly are probably not going to find high approval in math class.

    Isn’t one of the key functions of higher education to identify high achievers and help others recognize their limitations? Isn’t the sorting out of students according to their performance exactly what we want from educational institutions? I think so – so long as the sorting process is objective and free from bias.

    Further, I don’t think injecting political issues into math class can further objective and bias-free evaluation of performance in students.

    2. What it means is that the ‘college of education’ at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana is hopelessly corrupt. Fire all of the faculty there and shut it down. If you want to restart a teacher training program, hire some competent tests-and-measurements psychologists to work it.

  13. She has no knowledge of the history of the transfer of mathematical knowledge. Ms. Gutierez should be aware of the math behind the amazing Mayan Calendar. No whites involved there. Or the math involved in the Mayan cities, pre-dating whites. Plus, there is a school of thought that holds that the Greeks learned their math from the Egyptians, they were just the first to write it down and sign their name to the book. Of course, the math of the Chinese predated the whites while they were wandering around in the Dark Ages.

    Did she never take a history of math course? Her paper is seriously flawed.

    1. She’s a moderate IQ, constantly aggrieved, pseudo-intellectual. Who cares what pablum spews from her country hating mouth? Might as well worry about what Farrakhan said today.

      1. “Who cares what pablum spews from her country hating mouth?”

        That is a fair question, I think the answer is that we all ought to care because she is persuasive to a number of people, especially on college campuses.

        Her ideas will not go away simply because we ignore the ideas and her. We need to understand her arguments and point out the fallacies – else some future little red book may be required reading in math class and our children may be proving theorems with their feelings.

        1. BFM:
          She’s persuasive to her ivory tower choir and to students still too wet behind the ears to question somebody with “Professor” in front of her name. If it takes you more than a nanosecond to recognize this stupidity of this argument, you’re undereducated or oversensitive. It’s akin to feeling the need to challenge someone promoting the Stork Theory of human reproduction — you can but why bother.

          1. Mespo, I agree with you, but I think BFM is right. IMO, the problem is that most people will suffer from the same thing JT suffers from, an admiration of the reputation of the schools which conferred degrees on Dr, Gutierrez, with no consideration of the actual areas of study. Her B.S. Is in Human Biology, her M.S. In Social Sciences, and her Ph.D. In Education. No math expertise required. The educator is talking about algebra and geometry being math classes of white privilege. Some of her positions are no doubt in response to the abysmal percentages of minority students who are able to pass exit exams in these subjects in many states (CA had that issue when my kids were in public schools there). The uninformed masses wowed by this woman’s CV will believe her statements have merit, not understanding they’re contributing to the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” Criticism of her ideas will be analyzed through an “intersectional” lens. Detractors will be labeled as “raysiss”. I’d like to believe we’ve peaked on the postmodern lunacy in the US, but I don’t think we’re quite there.

            1. “Mespo, I agree with you, but I think BFM is right.”

              Yeah, I’m with you CCS. In this strange day and age, the attacks on the pillars of civilization are constant. Heck, this could be the cover of a new “rap” album or something. 20 minutes of tirade against learning math because you just “empower the man.” Couple of year ago, I would have said this kind of remark was stupid, but not today. Heck, it’s enough for a platform for Democrats these days. “Divide, divide, divide…” (Sorry for the extra math there…)

              1. I actually found this ridiculous story on Gutierrez on twitchy last night when I was looking for something else online. And then saw this video from Roaming Millenial during my workout. I don’t tend to ChickenLittle-ism, but it’s hard to be encouraged when youtube is pulling their demonitization crap and all these other alternate sources of info (Vox, Fluffington Post, etc.) are outright lying to the public (the apple is not a banana—FFS). I’m thankful my last kid is almost done with college.

                1. Thanks for the vid. Yes, been watching all this carefully since my son is just starting. We crossed off northern schools and went with a good engineering school south. Glad we crossed off Penn State, which would have been a lot closer, and the MIC school nearby.

                  1. slohrss29, we urged #2 son to go to a Midwest school, as we thought he needed a different perspective. It was a good decision, but there is still quite a lot of SJW activity on campus. Luckily, appeals to the Prez for a minority-only student union were rebuffed immediately. The women’s studies program is infecting many impressionable minds, though. Son just ignores them and does his own thing. Best of luck to your own undergrad!

                    1. The women’s studies program is infecting many impressionable minds, though.

                      The women’s studies program is consuming resources that might be used to hire real professors. American colleges and universities handed out 1.8 million baccalaureate degrees in 2014, of which fewer than 1,500 were awarded in women’s studies. Student demand for these programs is close to nil. The programs are patronage for a privileged political interest.

                    2. I agree that statistically, women’s studies majors are few. But many (if not most) universities require core classes in social sciences, and freshmen often get stuck taking classes they would not normally choose because upperclassmen get first choice and the classes fill up. Just because a student isn’t majoring in women’s studies doesn’t mean they won’t be in a class that is taught by their faculty. Their toxic viewpoints bleed over. And students taking these classes have friends whom they endeavor to influence…..misery loves company, you know.

              1. I think Ruth Westheimer was also the issue of a teachers’ college, something that bothered Lee Salk (who once had a pop psychology gig with CBS Radio). Not sure what was her precise specialty as a graduate student. Given her age, she was likely in school ca. 1960, antedating much of the corruption in teacher training.. P.J. O’Rourke having interviewed her reviewed some of her radio transcripts concluded she was benign and commonsensical Jewish mother, not a problem for the world. She struck me at her peak as an amiable and unpretentious publicity entrepreneur, rather like Shaun Cassidy at his peak (“I’m not the first to capitalize on this and I certainly won’t be the last”).

          2. “She’s persuasive to her ivory tower choir and to students still too wet behind the ears to question somebody with “Professor” in front of her name.”

            That is the key point.

            The issue is not whether people like you can see through her arguments.

            The issue is whether she has the power to convince large numbers of influential individuals.

            By your own admission she does. Many students, wet behind the ears now, will be in positions of power in a few years. Many institutions and communities look to academics for advice and leadership.

            We should all be concerned with the Gutierrez of the world and their arguments no matter how ludicrous.

            It is her influence that should concern us and motivate our response – not the quality of her arguments.

            1. Yep, that’s how this lunacy has spread so far and wide in the last 20-30 years.

            2. BFM,
              Your post reminds of this quote by Lincoln:

              The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

            3. bfm – that is why historians and mathematicians have to hammer her paper to death before it gains credence.

      2. What he said. I don’t think anyone of consequence subscribes to the inanities coming out of the mouths of second-rate adjunct professors of gender studies. I almost think that republishing these vapid, nonsensical mouth-burps of stupidity gives them more attention than they deserve.

        1. Mark M – the problem is she has gained national traction with her article which has appeared on at least 3 websites I follow. She needs to have to defend it because it is indefensible. However, some other idiots are going to buy into her idiocy and carry her torch if her paper is not completely discredited.

    2. Sub-atomic particles.

      Ack, I forgot, gluons and quarks have color charge. Quantum chromodynamics is racist.

        1. “How about the entire color spectrum? Notice who left out ebony?”

          Now you’ve started it, in transmissive color, black is the absence of color… so it is being left out…

          Remember–you started it! (Or, we can look at the bright side, in reflective color, black is the presence of all colors. So there’s a positive! What a novel thing, positive and negative coexisting… sounds kind of like life…)

          1. slohrss29 – black is the absence of color or all-colors combined, depending on which definition you accept.

          2. I like a good ying-yang story. As for ebony being a color, my art teacher said it wasn’t in 1969. And nobody disputes Sister Margaret. Nobody.

            1. mespo – I would be happy to take on Sister Margaret. 🙂 I was at my happiest unnerving teachers. In fact, in my junior year in high school, I ran out of English teachers. They had all kicked me out. Luckily, they got an exchange teacher from Norway for my senior year (Honors Eng Lit) and although we went head to head several times, I learned a lot from him. It was the first time I was challenged intellectually in high school. Our little tiffs were over interpretation. However, he did throw me out of class for smiling impudently. The vice principal said if it was anybody else he wouldn’t believe it and to wipe that smile off my face. 😉

                1. mespo – if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime. Bring her on. 😉

            2. mespo, I’m not better at suffering fools, I’ve just learned the painful lesson that you don’t persuade people of your reasoned position when you are outright dismissive of their claims (based on convos with friends and family who think HRC is intelligent b/c she is a Wellesley grad and SPLC is awesome b/c of Confed statue pull-downs). Listening with courtesy (even when faked) and pretending you see the other person’s point of view allows the fool to save face so that hopefully she walks away with actual facts, and not just her feelz.

                    1. mespo – I am not sure Jefferson is a good role model, after all, if the stories are true, he was bonking Sally Hemmings.

                    3. mespo – I tend to blame it on his brother who lived nearby, but we know it was one of the two. We know that neither is responsible for her first child, who had a black father. Still, Jefferson freed them all on his death, including the oldest son. Whether he felt he was freeing his children or his brother’s children, it is hard to say. I do know the Jefferson society has come to grips with this problem and invited them all into the family for the annual reunion at Monticello with very open arms.

      2. Discrimination is the first step of freedom.

        If Americans cannot discriminate,

        Americans cannot be free.

        People must adapt to the outcome of freedom.

        Freedom does not adapt to people…

        dictatorship does.

    1. We’re quickly getting there. But, as well our government seems to be operating, I’m surely open to replacing some of our heads of state with horses. If they just eat expensive hay and run around, they’ll certainly do less damage to our country–and the rest of the world–then the lot we have in there right now. I like appaloosas though, can we appoint one of those first?

      What kind of land is Illinois turning into anyway? I’m afraid they’ll listen to Darren and start ratting out subatomic particles next.

  17. In very ancient times the Babylonians and the Egyptians. Then the Greeks. While Europe was still in the Middle Ages the Indians and then the Persians made important contributions; indeed the source of what are called Arabic numerals and the concept of an algorithm.

    I don’t know the early Chinese contributions to mathematics but during the 20th century Chern did important work in topology. Don’t forget the Japanese contributions from last century as well; I and others use the Yoneda Lemma daily, well, weekly now that I am retired.

    Sorry, she is flat out plain wrong.

    1. Oh, and I just thought of a very nice thesis written by a Tunisian for his PhD from a British university.

      She doesn’t know what she is talking about.

  18. It is kind of hard to do math well when a group (American Blacks) has an average IQ of 87.

    I know what to do. Let’s just lower the standards for math just like we do for everything else in our society.

  19. If/when a black person accurately counts their change (when purchasing something), does that make them a self-hating black? Hmmmmmmmmm……….

  20. Math is the most pure embodiment of white supremacy.

    /sarc off

    I suspect Isaac and Natacha co-authored Guitierrez’ comment Re. math.

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