Thread by @Laurie_Rubel

I don't know who needs to hear this, but math is about as political as it gets. #takebackmath

here are some examples of what I mean (and h/t to @RG1gal for her lead)

Political decisions are those that involve power and its distribution. When a society decides, for example, to privilege one way of doing things over another, that's a power move. The systems we use, how we teach them, and who gets to decide are all political decisions.

If anything, math is all about power. You want to see people riled up and freaking out? Check out reactions to the Common Core. That's not political? You really think that's passion for subtraction? Come on, please. That's conservative pushback to federal involvement in education

🖐️ #math is regularly used to wield, conserve, and hoard power. Nothing intimidates others like bringing out the math. Haven't we seen great examples of all of that through this COVID crisis?

At same time, our society uses math as its primary sorter. Social hierarchies of ALL KINDS are inherently based on math. Math works like the sorting hat and with significant consequences for people (and ultimately for us all)

I tweeted this earlier this year. The conservative news circuit made a NEWS story about it (this is like the opposite of news, right?) All of this ruckus and how they staunchly defend math as objective might be best evidence #takebackmath

https://twitter.com/Laurie_Rubel/status/1290317557686308865?s=20