Can Math Lead to White Supremacy?

 So this story unfolds....the Oregon Department of Education came out in the past month to suggest to teachers to take seminar training that involves “ethnomathematics.” 

In this suggestion, they are suggesting that plain regular math....leads to racism, and you need a special 'toolkit' to avoid racism in mathematics.  

Ethnomathematics?  It's a term invented in the mid-1970s in Brazil.  The suggestion, as it has evolved over the past fifty years....is that math is unfairly distributed to cultural groups and some have advanced....some have fallen behind.  

In simple terms....various cultural groups don't have the wit or knowledge level to perform simple mathematical calculations, and their advancement in society is prevented (racism of course is suspected).

I sat and thought about this.

As a kid...particularly from the 5th grade to the 9th grade....I was a dismal math student.

At some point in the 9th grade, maybe six weeks into the new year.....the instructor (new guy) had a chapter which was supposed to take three weeks to cover, test through, and reach a knowledge level for the next chapter.  Roughly twenty-four students in the group, and by the 3rd week....this test business was crapped-out (maybe six people passing out of 24).

It was so bad, that he decided an additional five days would be spent (covering the same material), and re-test.  That got around eight people up to the passing level out of 24).

So another week was added....covering the same material, and another test on Friday (he managed to get nine people of the 24 to pass).  I was in this group (getting around a 65 on the test).

A 6th week was now added....a complete practice test was done on Thursday, with every one of the ten questions laid out, and he used the same test the next day....getting all twenty-four to get a minimum of 60 on the test.

In simple terms....he was a lousy math teacher.

A year later....I had a math instructor who simply handed me the book and said to progress at my own speed....I wrapped up every single test with a 90 or above, and finished the book at the half-way point of the year.  Yeah, I was mostly bored by the whole class environment and simply needed the book to explain the details, and test out through each phase.  

To be blunt....we have an enormous number of math instructors (not just in high schools) who are marginally proficient at the art of teaching math.  

These kids or 'experts' claiming racism?  No....you've got crappy instructors, and math itself does not lead to white supremacy.

The obvious attempt here?  I would suggest they intend to dumb-down math....to the level that you finish high school with a 6th grade level of math.  Somewhere down the path in twenty years....new 'experts' will arrive and be furious over the number of dumb idiots at age 20 to 30....unable to do simple math formulas.