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Is it perhaps best to approach science as something which is able to generate ideology, rather than something which should be subjected to it? I understand that Marx and Engels seemed to regard Darwinian Theory as significant in generating an understanding of the world as a dynamic and immediate conditions as impermanent.
Theories aren't "reactionary."
But, theoreticians are.
No, but real talk, science doesn't behave that way. Not in my experience of it. It might aim to be completly objective and free of ideological influence, but it exists within the society it occurs in. As a result, scientific inquiry (which I guess you could separate from the Science itself) is tied into the economic mode it occurs in.
As to your prior point, exactly. That's why "anti-racist mathematics" exist, to shine a light on the broader mechanical processes behind mathematics existing in ALL cultures.
1 racist + 1 anti-racist = 1 dead racist.
10 racists + 1 car bomb = 9 dead racists + 1 severely wounded racist.
Amidoingitrite?
Never say, you weren't warned
When they come to drag you away
To silence the dissident hiding in us all
They clench the fist of ordained might
From which side of the barbed wire
Do you want to see your life pass by?
1 racist + 1 clear, concise campaign detailing the evils of racism = 1 penitent ex-racist
1 penitent ex-racist > 9 dead racists
.'. 1 clear, concise campaign > 1 car bomb
And the anti-racist ceased to exist?
This is ridiculous fodder for conservatives to invoke as an example when dismissing multiculturalism. I cannot imagine any other possible reason for such an absurd idea.
The only eurocentrism in mathematics is when really old discoveries are named after the ancient Greek thinker that first wrote them down, even though now we know many of these discoveries were independently discovered by eastern (Chinese or Indian usually) ancient mathematicians at an earlier point.
Maybe this is some clever way for "anti-racist" liberals to justify sucking at math.
Von Neumann described himself as "violently anti-communist" and "militaristic" (this was, of course, in front of the HUAC at the height of McCarthyism -- so perhaps this is a slight exaggeration). So his politics kind of sucked, but his mathematics were rock solid and he was without question one of the greatest scientific thinkers to ever live.
the title of this thread is misleading. the cited Wikipedia bit is not about mathematics. It's about the teaching of mathematics.
Now, there is in fact an element of truth to the claim that the teaching of math can be more or less elitist. This happens when it is not organized to allow slow, incremental attainment of additional skills. This is how math is taught in Korea and Japan. Those countries have among the highest average attainment by students in math.
In the USA standardized tests are used to sort the student population. These tests are well known to be class (and to some extent race) biased. That's because of the different circumstances related to learning in the critical 2 to 4 year old period, and in general various situations of more affluent households that favor quicker development of cognitive abilities, such as more books, larger vocabularies of the parents and other things.
Now, the result of sorting is that working class students & students of color tend to be dumped into very rote classes that teach to the standardized tests, so they do not have the opportunity to gradually advance in math, to things like trigonometry and so on.
the upshot is that the USA has very low average proficiency among students in math (at the same level as Latvia and Malaysia) but the very highest level of proficiency among students from the elite classes, who get the special high track educations thru high school, admission to relatively more elite universities, etc.
The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the workers themselves.
All of the above are very valid points, and actually could apply to most if not all subjects taught, not just mathematics. Racist stereotypes can be very damaging to students in that if you're expected to do badly, the teacher may have less confidence in you and not push you to reach your potential, or the opposite might happen and they might put so much pressure on you to do well that you end up not doing so well because of the stress of trying to live up to that expectation.
When I was at school, I actually didn't learn much, if anything, about the history of maths. At university I'm doing a module at the moment which focuses a lot on European maths, although there is a section about ancient Egyptian and Babylonian maths. The book the course is based on covers other parts of the world, but the course doesn't mention any of their achievements.
"Her development, her freedom, her independence must come from and through herself. First, by asserting herself as a personality, and not as a sex commodity. Second, by refusing the right to anyone over her body; by refusing to bear children unless she wants them; by refusing to become a servant to God, the State, society, the husband, the family, etc. ... by freeing herself from the fear of public opinion and public condemnation. Only that, and not the ballot, will set woman free, will make her a force hitherto unknown in the world, a force for real love, for peace, for harmony; a force of divine fire, of life-giving; a creator of free men and women."~ Emma Goldman
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