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Comment by esrauch | Hacker News Reader

You're referencing one weird out of context quote (which sounds like it was since clarified) from one nonprofit who got funding from the Gates Foundation.

It seems somewhat disingenuous to make the claim that the Gates Foundation thinks Math is White Supremacy based on that.

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The Gates Foundation is responsible for doing due diligence of those it invests in. Investing one million dollars is endorsing the organization's ideals.

Out of context? Do you realize how many times the phrase "White supremacy" shows up in their manifesto "A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction"? They reference "white supremacy" a total of FIFTY TWO times[0].

[0] https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11...

I skimmed the workbook and while I wouldn't subscribe to every idea in there or the inflammatory phrasing, it looks like overall like it would be a useful tool for teachers. Lots of the sections that mention white supremacy seem to make fairly reasonable points about how eg if a student doesn't speak English well that doesn't mean they aren't able to communicate through mathematical ideas and it might be easy for teachers to discount their ESL students too quickly.

I don't think that the workbook is saying "math is white supremacist" but instead "it is possible for a math teacher to accidentally not serve their nonwhite students well if they aren't careful".

So I'm unconvinced it is reasonable to make the claim that "the Gates Foundation thinks math is white supremacist".

I actually also don't subscribe to "if you give an organization money they you are a proponent of every idea they have", pretty clearly since the big tech companies donate to politicians across the aisle they can't possible be said to be advocating for both a belief and it's opposite.

The workbook is a month-by-month guide for teachers. Each month has a theme. Each theme begins with "White supremacy culture shows up in math classrooms when... <theme of the month>".

For example, one theme is "Contrived word problems are valued over the math in students' lived experiences".

The themes for each month - from my perspective - are not necessarily bad ideas. My concern here is how everything is attributed to white supremacy, when these pedagogical suggestions are widely applicable all over the world. This exact document could be distributed to a teacher in China. Is a Chinese teacher, in China, teaching mathematics to a classroom full of Chinese students perpetuating white supremacy? I would like to see the contortions someone goes through to explain such a thing.

Also their thesis is complicated by the fact that Asians have the highest educational achievement in California, despite being non-white.

Regarding donations, I think intent matters. Does big tech donate because they believe in the entire platform, or are they trying to buy politicians to achieve a more advantageous regulatory environment? I would argue the latter. All the social issues are an irrelevant side show from their goal of increasing their bottom line.

Now what is the Gates Foundation intent here? When donating to a single issue non-profit, what can it be other than to support the mission?

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