Lately, there have been many people who say that mathematics itself is racist, that it is simply a creation of dead white Greek men. As a mathematician, I strongly disagree, and believe that mathematics transcends any particular culture or political system. For example, while the Arabs invented a...
"Lately, there have been many people who say that mathematics itself is racist, that it is simply a creation of dead white Greek men." This is incoherent; an argument of the form "X was created by white men, therefore X is racist" is a non-sequitur and, quite obviously, a racially prejudiced statement itself. I suspect it is not really a claim made by anyone notable, it sounds more like a grossly inaccurate paraphrasing of a more arguable claim; but without any quotation or citation it is hard to know where to begin.
National Review and Reason.com are both conservative outlets which (not unexpectedly) take a negative view of anti-racism efforts; if you want an accurate summary of what anti-racist campaigners are actually saying about mathematics and mathematics education, I suggest getting that information from those people themselves, rather than inaccurate summaries of their views given by their political opponents.
Reading through the transcript that the National Review opinion piece links to, I don't see any argument with more than a tenuous resemblance to the one proposed in the question. For example, the transcript says "Mathematics, despite the way we represent it, is actually something that many cultures and communities have created" which is the exact opposite of the idea that mathematics is just what long-dead Greek men invented. Mostly the discussion in this transcript is about racialised notions of what kinds of people are "good at mathematics", not about the nature of mathematics itself.
Likewise, another person mentioned in the National Review piece is quoted as saying “curricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans” - this means they see it as a mistake to think of only what long-dead Greek men invented as "mathematics", again the opposite of the claim the OP wants to discuss.
@kaya3 I can see that, as a leftist, you reject out of hand anything that's not a leftist source or conforms to your leftist views. That's not a valid argument, however.
@kaya3 Also, why did you avoid pinging me?
@kaya3 Reason is a libertarian outlet. I suppose a leftist like you is eager to mischaracterize everything that isn't leftist as "conservative", however.
@user76284, your opinions are your own, and you are entitled to them. But only one ideology has any candidates seriously suggesting that history and social studies be removed from the basic K-12 curriculum. I am a product of the Texas public system from the eighties, and I can tell you it was lacking then and it is lacking moreso now than ever before.
And don't go waving the libertarian distinction until they have some kind of answer for dealing with bears. (See how easy it is to cherry pick a dismissal?)
@kaya3, this comment is a slander: "National Review and Reason.com are both conservative outlets which (not unexpectedly) take a negative view of anti-racism efforts;" conservatives and libertarians are the only true anti-racists. They believe that all people should be judged based on their own actions rather than on the actions of others who happen to be of the same race or share other characteristics. Also, Reason.com is not conservative; it is libertarian.
Discussion between user76284 and kaya3
Discussion between user76284 and kaya3