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Comment by jgwil2 | Hacker News Reader

From the first paragraph of the FAQ:

> For decades, America’s schools have tried and failed to close gaps on math test scores between White students and students of color. That’s not because math discriminates by race, and it’s not because some groups of students are inherently more suited to math. It’s because we give students of color and students from lower-income families the least access to critical resources, from the most qualified teachers to the best technology to the most advanced courses. And it’s because instructional materials and practices—even good ones—are influenced by culture and perspective.

Is it just me, or does that sound pretty reasonable?

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Sure, but it has nothing to do with race.

Addressing challenges faced by children who grow up with poorer or less educated parents is fine. I do not see why race is brought into the discussion, other than to grab attention, at which I guess it was successful.

A lot of the systemic issues that have caused people of certain races to be poorer and less educated have either a historical or direct basis in race. And then if you look then at the poverty rates by race, it's clear that certain policies (esp. with regards to educational funding) often have a far worse impact on members of a certain race than others.

It's not hard to make a connection between, say, an actually racist issue like redlining and how it affected the development of neighborhoods, and the subsequent lack of local funding for educational programs in the affected neighborhoods.

Sure - but none of this implies that changes are required to math education itself, or that there is anything racist about how math is taught. It just means missing resources should be provided.

It’s a reasonable problem to address. Agreeing with that has nothing to do with critiquing the absurdity of the ‘solution’.

I don't understand what is so absurd about the proposed solutions. Can you provide a citation, in context, of something particularly outrageous?

This doesn’t come off as an honest inquiry.

Well I didn't read the entire website, but from what I saw, the quote I cited above seemed representative of the general attitude, so I'm wondering where the outrage is coming from. As a matter of fact they seem to go to a lot of trouble to make it clear that they aren't attacking the field of math or math pedagogy, but merely are trying to add resources that could help the teaching of math. Of course it's possible I missed something, hence the inquiry. But thanks for your observation.

There doesn’t have to be an easily quotable outrageous comment for something to be absurd. A drawn out explanation can be equally so.

It sounds like you are claiming that everything in the linked article is false.

Don't Asians have higher math scores than whites? Or do Asians not count as people of color anymore?

No. Thus the coining of "BIPOC".

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