We previously discussed the view of University of Rhode Island and Director of Graduate Studies of History Erik Loomis that “Science, statistics, and technology are all inherently racist.” Others have agreed with that view, including denouncing math as racist or a “tool of whiteness.” Now, as part of its “decolonization” efforts, Durham University is calling on professors in the math department to ask themselves if they’re citing work from “mostly white or male” mathematicians.
According to the Telegraph and The College Fix a guide instructs faculty that “decolonising the mathematical curriculum means considering the cultural origins of the mathematical concepts, focusses, and notation we most commonly use.” It adds:
“[T]he question of whether we have allowed Western mathematicians to dominate in our discipline is no less relevant than whether we have allowed western authors to dominate the field of literature. It may even be more important, if only because mathematics is rather more central to the advancement of science than is literature.”
Some professors have objected to being asked to consider the race or gender of mathematicians rather than their underlying theories or formulas.
In the Telegraph article, Exeter University Social Science Professor Doug Stokes is quoted as saying that “[t]he idea behind decolonising maths is that because everyone should be regarded as equal, the status of their beliefs must also be equal.” He denounces that view as “judgmental relativism is an inversion of science that is based on what is real rather than making everybody feel included.”
But all ideas are not equal, particularly math. Some literally do not add up. Math is inherently objective and based on provable tenets or theories. As I discussed earlier, 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.
The Durham University guide insists that academics need to not only consider what theories to apply but the race of the theoreticians to “decolonize” math. It does not state how a failure to do so will impact on a professor’s retention or advancement at the university.
It is long past time to denounce these racists as such and drum them out of academia.
I invite you to quote everything from the guide itself what you consider racist: https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/mathematical-sciences/equality-diversity–inclusion/decolonisation/
FOTroll
Contribution of Jews to math, certainly statistics matter. Lets see, 57 percent of the prison population is made up of adult African American while they represent less than 10 percent of the population. Statistics matter.
When the students completed their math assignments they were given a ticket to the testing center. The testing center gave each student a unique computer generated test. When it was completed, the student turned in the exam and the scores were posted every day. There were no names. The students were Identified only by a unique random number.
If an answer was not circled, it was wrong. If the significant digits were not correctly written, the answer was wrong. If a problem had several components and one of the answers was incorrect, the whole problem was counted as incorrect.
The only upside to this system was that if the student turned in their assignments early, they could retake the test as it was given every day. Each new exam, however did not look like the previous exam.
My professors were Chinese, Iranian, Indian, and American. The students were from every part of the earth. Numbers do not lie. This method of testing was difficult to adapt to at first, but in time, it taught the importance of precision and excellence. Mathematics is colorblind.
Durham University is calling on professors in the math department to ask themselves if they’re citing work from “mostly white or male” mathematicians.
Why are leftists always the ones that actually determine a person worth by the color of their skin? Thieu actions are the very definition of racist.
The suggestion that math is mostly white and racist is ridiculous and not worthy of comment.
I would like to know what bridge or building was erected by those who subscribe to this theory so I can stay off and out of?
“The Durham University guide insists that academics need to not only consider what theories to apply but the race of the theoreticians to “decolonize” math.”
I doubt that Turley has read this guide in its entirety. He doesn’t link to it, only to reporting about it. He says “According to the Telegraph and The College Fix a guide instructs faculty …”
Here’s a link to the university’s own discussion:
https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/mathematical-sciences/equality-diversity–inclusion/decolonisation/
If one actually reads the reference to race, one finds that Turley’s description quoted above isn’t accurate.
It’s unclear who the author of this page is.
I encourage anyone who is discussing this to read that page in its entirety, so you understand what is actually being advocated and why.
It begins:
It is sometimes argued that decolonisation is not necessary in the context of university mathematics. Isn’t mathematics a universal language? How can something universal possibly need to become more inclusive?
In truth, though, we need only look at the bitter feud between Newton and Leibniz (and their supporters) over who first developed calculus, to see that mathematics is not a subject that exists independently of debates over influence and focus. When two differing conceptions of the same idea, or two different methods aimed at achieving the same result, develop separately, which one will win out? And are we absolutely sure the winner will always be, in some sense, the “best” one? What does “best” even mean in this context?
Mathematics and culture are not always easily disentangled. An entire discipline [ethnomathematics] exists that studies the link between the two. To take an extremely simple example, the power of ten represented by the word “billion” differs from country to country. For decades the British definition differed from the American definition, but following the Second World War, the original British definition (10^12) found itself more and more replaced by the American definition (10^9, taken from the numbers definition in French), until eventually the American version won out. Does this shift in language relate in any way to the changes in relative global influence of the UK and the US following World War 2? It’s at least worth considering the question.
It might then be inaccurate to suggest mathematics is a universal language, so much as different cultural approaches to mathematics are always translatable from one form into another. …
Perhaps if Turley had read and understood this, he would have written an article that engages with the actual argument. Instead, as he often does, his goal seems to feed the “age of rage” that he complains about elsewhere.
Perhaps if Turley had read and understood this,
The good Prof explained things correctly. Nothing you post contradicts anything.
No, actually, he’s mistaken that the author “Asks Professors to Consider the Race of Mathematicians Before Relying on their Work.” The author simply said “Consider giving short biographies of the mathematicians whose work you present in your modules. If in doing so you realise that they are almost entirely (or even completely) white and/or male, ask yourself why this is. See if you can find contributions to the field from mathematicians of other genders/ethnicities.” Turley’s substitution is a subtle twisting of what the author is actually advocating.
More to the point, he has not engaged in any way with the argument that I quoted. He ignores it entirely, even though it’s much more central to the page than the part that he focuses on.
Here’s another example of how Turley twists a document he may not have even read in its entirety. He claims “Some professors have objected to being asked to consider the race or gender of mathematicians rather than their underlying theories or formulas.” But the guide neve suggests that professors “consider the race or gender of mathematicians rather than their underlying theories or formulas.” Rather, the guide suggests sometimes considering race and gender in addition to their mathematical contributions, in order to help students understand that men and women throughout the world have contributed to the development of mathematics.
REGARDING ABOVE
He recently posted as “Sammy”, got busted as an Act Blue troll, and now continues his twisting and lying using DNC talking points, contorting his arguments into Woke Religion and maligning Professor Turley
Beware of trolls who copy/paste WOKE speak. No matter which sock puppet account they use, you can spot their distorted Woke Speak in less than 3 seconds…if that
I have never posted as “Sammy.” Perhaps you wish to delude yourself to the contrary.
That is a problem of your own making. You prefer to be a trickster instead of a normal commenter. You lost all your credibility.
“Rather, the guide suggests sometimes considering race and gender in addition to their mathematical contributions, in order to help students understand that men and women throughout the world have contributed to the development of mathematics.”
Is this guy a pretzel. He twists himself so much that it is hard to believe he can breathe.
Mathematics in math class
English in English class
History in history class
Do you get the point or is the flow of information prevented by so many twists and turns?.
You are such a racist person. Did you learn it from your parents or from school? Race baiters are disgusting people.
perhaps reading all of the below will give a more complete picture than the comment above….
Suggestions & Resources
Consider giving short biographies of the mathematicians whose work you present in your modules. If in doing so you realise that they are almost entirely (or even completely) white and/or male, ask yourself why this is. See if you can find contributions to the field from mathematicians of other genders/ethnicities.
see the rest of this section; Turley’s comments are not so far off.
Thanks for the link to the guide. In reading though it, it seems the argument and objective aren’t really to change math, but rather to 1) make sure credit is given to where credit is due, especially in regard to how various mathematical systems were developed and 2) to increase the awareness and appreciation of different mathematical systems being used in different cultures. So I agree that Turley is misrepresenting the guide to some extent and in the process feeding the “age of rage” as you put it. However, I also believe the guide does that to some extent as well when the authors introduce it and frame it as a decolonization, inclusion and equity issue? Instead why not, put forward their message as important factual information that should be considered as ways of improving on and/or expanding on what and how mathematics is being taught.
ATS, your goals in life are to tear Professor Turley down to your level, the sewer, and promote your heinous ideology that strips humans of their dignity, freedom, and standard of living.
In the present case, this is what we are seeing: ATS —>political activist —> ethnic chauvinism —>
Next stop Stalin and Hitlerville
Wellllll, Tax Day is right around the corner. What to do about using racist math to calculate, by extension, our racist tax code?
SMH
I do ask myself if a poster on this blog is a lefty.
If the answer is yes, then the odds that the poster is a troll, stupid, or wrong, go up dramatically.
“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”
Internet trolls are a very unique breed of irrational intolerant imbeciles and when you combine that breed of mentality with a “lefty” ideological viewpoint their Cranial Power Generation Potential (CPGP) approaches infinity.
Obviously the people at Durham University did not do their research. Simple quick reading in Encyclopedia Brittanica gives a very comprehensive look at the origins of math. Much of what we have today, especially in Algebra, comes from Muslim scholars and their developments during the Golden Era of Islam. That in turn was based on their access to Indian and ancient Babylonian texts on math as well as those of the Greeks, Jewish Sages and others. If anything Math is of very diverse origins throughout the world. I would say also the Egyptians had a tremendous contribution to math just simply by their ability to construct their pyramids and other monuments which have lasted 5000 years. Engineering is math personified. Our numbering system today comes to us from India by way of Muslim scholars. Imagine doing calculus with Roman numerals instead.
Yup. I have made this point before myself, but because the woke are utterly ignorant of history paired with administrative thugs that value salary and privilege above all else, I have always been immediately shut down. Amazing how these people will cancel the cultures they purport to defend if something interferes with their reality bubble.
Nothing about the modern DNC and its associates has anything to do with intelligence, fairness, logic, or even basic decency anymore. That dem party, which was shaky anyway, died for good with Obama’s ascendance. Their only hope is to fracture and try something else with the shards.
There’s no hard evidence the people now living in Egypt were the people who built the Great Pyramids in Giza. No plans were found, no tools capable of achieving such a feet have been found, and all attempts to move those huge stones in modern times failed. Just saying.
Aliens?
Why do you assume “the people at Durham University did not do their research”?
Did you do *your* research and read the Durham U. statement in its entirety? I doubt it.
Putting your fingers in your ears and screamming Nuh Uh!!!! is not a discussion.
I didn’t put my fingers in my ears. I asked two questions of GEB that you cannot answer.
ATS, you are constantly asking people if they read lengthy papers, why? Could it be for the same reason you tried to tear Turley down? The appearance of you being the highest person on the ladder isn’t scholarship when you get there by pulling everyone else down.
Of course, from following your history, most of us know that you generally haven’t read the links you talk about. Generally, if you did, you didn’t understand them past the point of view furnished by the leftist talking points you imbibe regularly.
“ATS, you are constantly asking people if they read lengthy papers, why?”
Because, as you alluded to, it uses its “intelligence” to feed two pathological desires: 1) To impress others, and 2) To bully others.
In psychological parlance, it’s intelligence is a defense-value. And it’s a shameful waste of intelligence.
Actually, Sam, if you’d bothered to read the guide, you’d have found that I did not ask anyone to read a “long paper” here. The Durham guide is a single page. Moreover, the reason I asked GEB if s/he had read the guide was that s/he’d made the false claim “Obviously the people at Durham University did not do their research,” when it appeared that s/he hadn’t done the basic research of reading what s/he was commenting on, and instead relied on Turley’s mischaracterization of the page. I asked GEB if s/he’d read it because it makes sense to read things before commenting on them.
Truly bizarre that you believe the totally reasonable comment “Why do you assume “the people at Durham University did not do their research”? Did you do *your* research and read the Durham U. statement in its entirety? I doubt it.” is an attempt to “impress” and “bully.” According to you, what would have been a non-bullying and non-impression-seeking way to point out to GEB that his/her claim “Obviously the people at Durham University did not do their research” was false?
Anonymous the Stupid, your response shows a complete lack of understanding of what Sam said. I don’t think your brain is attuned to deep analysis.
Fairly clear Democrats ignore the Constitution “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Because many very capable people are being DENIED their rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That’s a strange response to a story about a British university.
Totalitarians across the globe seem to have one hive mind. The totalitarians in England and the totalitarians here in the USA are all of one mind.
I don’t understand how your comment to me is related to what I said to guyventner or to the Durham U. guide. If you think it’s related, please say how.
guyventner said “Fairly clear Democrats ignore the Constitution ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident …,'” confusing the Declaration of Independence with the Constitution, neither of which have anything to do with the Durham U. guide: https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/mathematical-sciences/equality-diversity–inclusion/decolonisation/
I encourage you to read that entire guide, and if — after reading everything in context — you reject something it says, make an argument for what it got wrong.
guyventner wrote, “Fairly clear Democrats ignore the Constitution“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” “
That’s not a quote from the Constitution, that’s a quote from the Declaration of Independence. but yes the extreme Democrats (“progressives”) ignore and demonize anything that doesn’t jive with letting them get away with pushing their totalitarian agenda and destroying our culture.
Will The USA Survive The 21st Century Cultural Shift?
It is time to outlaw the use of race or gender for job or college applications. Only economic information should be used to help those in need!
Cultural management should be a crime. If people of Jewish or Chinese or Indian decent want to focus on excel at math while people of African ancestry wish to focus on basketball, spiriting, rap singing…well that is FINE…let the former get all the top spots at math studies at Harvard, MIT, Stanford…and the latter get the jobs in the NBA and Olympic.
Just like women are attracted to the nursing and men to the engineer sciences and may the BETTER PERSON get the BETTER Positions!.
Time to stop the cultural management! Or should we require 4 ft white women get forward position on the Lakers?
guyventner wrote, “It is time to outlaw the use of race or gender for job or college applications.”
I completely agree and have been making that same argument for many years.
I think it is time to take race off the census.
This seems to rise to the level of ‘crazy train’ thinking. Are we going to call running races ‘inherently racist’ now too? There are sports with a subjective element, like gymnastics where you could possibly accuse judges of scoring in a racist way. But there are sports that it’s laughable to say the results are tainted by racism. In the same way, it is laughable to say that math can be racist!
Sure. People of some races are supposedly better at running fast; therefore any sport where you do better if you run fast is racist. Or, well, it would be if it was the canonically Evil race that happened to be better at running, in which case the inherent racism would also be intentional rather than accidental and would be the entire point of having made that a sport in the first place.
When I first read this I thought that Professor Turley had taken the day off and imported a column from Babylon Bee. Then after some brief research I discovered that Durham University is not the product of a satirical mind at the Bee but is instead a real university in England that charges students a fee for attending. In fairness, although it claims to be a “top 100” university, its mathematics program ranks between 200-250. I also read a report that very few students from Durham travel outside England for fear they will fall off the edge of the earth.
Turley wrote…
I’ve had it with the totalitarian horde of blithering lunatics that are intentionally trying to undermine everything that our culture is built upon, these totalitarians have lost their collective f’ing minds.
From the Heritage Foundation: Critical Race Theory (CRT) makes race the prism through which its proponents analyze all aspects of society—and do so with a degree of persistence that has helped CRT impact all of American life.
CRT underpins identity politics, an ongoing effort to reimagine the United States as a nation riven by groups, each with specific claims on victimization. In entertainment, as well as the education and workforce sectors of American life, CRT is well-established, driving decision-making according to skin color—not individual value and talent.
As Critical Theory ideas become more familiar to the general public, CRT’s intolerance becomes “normalized,” along with the idea of systemic racism for Americans, dividing Americans based on immutable characteristics, weakening hard-fought gains made between people of all races and breaking private bonds that create trust and allow for civic engagement.
To RACISTS everything is about RACE!
These 21st century racist’s have turned Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech upside down! You can read my blog titled “The 21st Century’s B-a-s-t-a-r-d-i-z-a-t-i-o-n of “I Have A Dream” ” Sorry I can’t post a direct link to the blog post because the ridiculous artificial intelligence scanning the comments submitted on Turley’s blog thinks the word B-a-s-t-a-r-d-i-z-a-t-i-o-n is a bad word and won’t allow any to be posted in any form without me adding the “-” between each letter. Here is a link that will get you within one click of the post.
Obviously “morals, abiding to the law, and intelligence are all inherently racist.”
Jewish mathematicians made major contributions throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, as is evidenced by their high representation among the winners of major mathematics awards: 27% for the Fields Medal, 30% for the Abel Prize, and 40% for the Wolf Prize.
There may be more to this notion than we would otherwise think!
jeffsilberman wrote…
That deflection from jeffsilberman is anti-cultural, anti-science, racist anti-semitism and pure trolling.
Don’t feed this racist f’ing troll anymore!
but is it true?
guyventner wrote, “but is it true?”
It’s completely irrelevant to anyone that’s not an anti-Semitic racist/bigot.
Don’t go down jeffsilberman’s trolling rabbit hole.
guyventer, the Ashkenazi are highly over-represented in sciences and mathematics. About as anti-anti-semitic statement as can possibly be found. Steve Witherspoon is completely confused.
it is time to make EVERYTHING to have a race and equality…so the NBA should be only 13% black, as well as TV should only contain 13% blacks, etc
I don’t see how the math would change, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to change what the math means. Inflation? Majority? 1 person 1 vote? Can’t pack the court? No problem. Just increase the weight of a minority justice’s vote.
People can come up with all kinds of stuff about racist this and racist that. However, you’d have to get up pretty early in the morning to make an argument that math is racist.
Deadarmadillo wrote, “People can come up with all kinds of stuff about racist this and racist that. However, you’d have to get up pretty early in the morning to make an argument that math is racist.”
Really?
Maybe you’re not aware of what’s been going on in our society, it appears that anything that can be remotely linked to “whiteness” is now considered to be racist…
“Whiteness” Culture? as dictated by the The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) at the Smithsonian.
Yes, these racist and race enabling totalitarian fools have lost their f’ing minds.
I always check on the race and gender of a mathematician before assessing the value of their work.
Turley says:
“Some professors have objected to being asked to consider the race or gender of mathematicians rather than their underlying theories or formulas.”
The voluminous Wikipedia entry, “List of Jewish Nobel laureates,” states that “as of 2017, Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 902 individuals, of whom 203 or 22.5% were Jews, although the total Jewish population comprises less than 0.2% of the world’s population.
It may not be a bad idea, therefore, to ask whether the mathematician is Jewish. If so, as a mathematician, the odds are that the equation is true!
That deflection from jeffsilberman is anti-cultural, anti-science, racist anti-semitism and pure trolling.
Don’t feed this racist f’ing troll anymore!
Whatever Jeff may be, he is not racist. Judaism is a religion and subsets of Jews (e.g., Ashkenazim) are an ethnicity.
Jeff is Jewish. Nothing he wrote is “anti-cultural, anti-science, racist anti-semitism.” Whether one considers it trolling is a matter of opinion.
Steve,
Lighten up. Get a sense of humor.