Modern bigotry in Canada: Simon Fraser University declares math “racist”
One of many such workshops at Simon Fraser University
The modern dark age: Simon Fraser University in Canada (SFU) has an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion learning group in its math office, and it appears that this office is today running a seminar, in partnership with the Simon Fraser Public Interest Group (SFPIRG), asking the important question, “How can math be racist?”, led by two modern “scholars” with no training in math at all.
Those set to speak at the seminar are Hannah Ghaderi, Co-Directory of Research & Education of the interest group, and Chantelle Spicer, currently the Director of Engagement [of SFU’s math Equity, Diversity and Inclusion learning group]. Neither of these individuals appear to have any professional background in math. Mathematician James Lindsay told Human Events that it is likely better that these two DEI professionals did not have a math background.
Lindsay said: “They don’t need mathematics backgrounds. They have critical consciousness, which means they know how racism and transphobia are hidden in everything, even things they don’t know anything about.”
No, actual math has nothing to do with this seminar. SFPIRG makes a big deal on its website about how it isn’t partisan, but yet its mission is “to engage students in social and environmental justice.” Or as it states in great length one paragraph later:
SFPIRG brings together a diverse range of people and our work is all centred on a shared set of values. This includes a commitment to inclusive and accessible space, intersectional anti-oppression, decolonization and Indigenous sovereignties; self-representation, self-determination, and empowering student and community leadership; accountability, integrity, wholeness and healing; sustainability; and respectful communication.
Meanwhile, SFU’s math EDI learning group says on its website that its goal “is to provide a safe, structured place for members to discuss and grow in their understanding of how [Equity, Diversity and Inclusion] impacts our department.” It runs workshops almost every month like today’s, with other workshops for example titled like “Power, Oppression, & Mathematics,” and “Power and Privlege in Academia.”
I guarantee that if a conservative student of this university showed up and dared to ask some pointed questions, inclusion will be the last thing on the minds of these fake scholars. They will either get that individual removed, or begin a riot to shut him or her up. They would then institute a show-trial to get that student expelled for disturbing their “safe space.”
It is even more important to recognize how deeply embedded in this university this Marxist and racist agenda is. As I said, these seminars are regular events. This learning group is part of the math department but that is only one such group in the university, run apparently by the university’s EDI department. Spend just a little time reviewing that website. It is filled with bigoted statements like this:
Universities like SFU originate from eurocentrism, colonialism and bureaucracies that reinforce systems of power and privilege and leave many on the margins. These systemic barriers prevent individuals from feeling accepted, from being their true selves and from accessing the resources and privileges that can make the university experience such a transformative one.
Essentially, the garbage philosophies spouted for years in ethnic studies programs, based on no facts and a hatred of western civilization, have now been accepted as fact and permeate all levels of teaching at this college, which obtains about half of its revenue from the Canadian government.
Worse, this Canadian college is simply a good example of many established colleges in the United States, especially those run by state or federal finances. Academia in the west is bankrupt, and now spends its time teaching hate and bigotry, in all things.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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One of many such workshops at Simon Fraser University
The modern dark age: Simon Fraser University in Canada (SFU) has an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion learning group in its math office, and it appears that this office is today running a seminar, in partnership with the Simon Fraser Public Interest Group (SFPIRG), asking the important question, “How can math be racist?”, led by two modern “scholars” with no training in math at all.
Those set to speak at the seminar are Hannah Ghaderi, Co-Directory of Research & Education of the interest group, and Chantelle Spicer, currently the Director of Engagement [of SFU’s math Equity, Diversity and Inclusion learning group]. Neither of these individuals appear to have any professional background in math. Mathematician James Lindsay told Human Events that it is likely better that these two DEI professionals did not have a math background.
Lindsay said: “They don’t need mathematics backgrounds. They have critical consciousness, which means they know how racism and transphobia are hidden in everything, even things they don’t know anything about.”
No, actual math has nothing to do with this seminar. SFPIRG makes a big deal on its website about how it isn’t partisan, but yet its mission is “to engage students in social and environmental justice.” Or as it states in great length one paragraph later:
SFPIRG brings together a diverse range of people and our work is all centred on a shared set of values. This includes a commitment to inclusive and accessible space, intersectional anti-oppression, decolonization and Indigenous sovereignties; self-representation, self-determination, and empowering student and community leadership; accountability, integrity, wholeness and healing; sustainability; and respectful communication.
Meanwhile, SFU’s math EDI learning group says on its website that its goal “is to provide a safe, structured place for members to discuss and grow in their understanding of how [Equity, Diversity and Inclusion] impacts our department.” It runs workshops almost every month like today’s, with other workshops for example titled like “Power, Oppression, & Mathematics,” and “Power and Privlege in Academia.”
I guarantee that if a conservative student of this university showed up and dared to ask some pointed questions, inclusion will be the last thing on the minds of these fake scholars. They will either get that individual removed, or begin a riot to shut him or her up. They would then institute a show-trial to get that student expelled for disturbing their “safe space.”
It is even more important to recognize how deeply embedded in this university this Marxist and racist agenda is. As I said, these seminars are regular events. This learning group is part of the math department but that is only one such group in the university, run apparently by the university’s EDI department. Spend just a little time reviewing that website. It is filled with bigoted statements like this:
Universities like SFU originate from eurocentrism, colonialism and bureaucracies that reinforce systems of power and privilege and leave many on the margins. These systemic barriers prevent individuals from feeling accepted, from being their true selves and from accessing the resources and privileges that can make the university experience such a transformative one.
Essentially, the garbage philosophies spouted for years in ethnic studies programs, based on no facts and a hatred of western civilization, have now been accepted as fact and permeate all levels of teaching at this college, which obtains about half of its revenue from the Canadian government.
Worse, this Canadian college is simply a good example of many established colleges in the United States, especially those run by state or federal finances. Academia in the west is bankrupt, and now spends its time teaching hate and bigotry, in all things.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
“They have critical consciousness, . . .”
Obtained, no doubt, from Critical Race Theory.
There is an old Doonesbury cartoon, featuring a student and a professor:
“My culture holds that the square root of 144 is 15.”
“Would this be an advanced culture?”
I’ve heard the ‘Math is Racist’ trope for thirty years. Yep, whenever something is difficult, it must be racism. Or, in the case of “Math is hard!” Barbie, sexism. The Scientific Method, along with critical and logical thinking, become Tools of Oppression. Ever notice how ‘critical thinking’; once the darling of Education, has fairly well disappeared as a desirable quality?
Tim Pool: The Culture War #8
(April 15, 2023)
Alex Jones, Luke Rudkowski
https://youtu.be/dfOnfs54SnM
2:07:10
“2+2=5, You Bigot”
SFPIRG
Ralph Nader started the PIRG (Public Interest “Research” Group) phenomenon back in the 70’s. They had nothing to do with actual research, of course, but were instead purely for the dissemination of lies, the demonization of good people, and the subversion of valuable institutions. Nader’s entire life was a waste.
Follow the money. Those pushing the left’s agenda are all about money.
— — Lindsay said: “They don’t need mathematics backgrounds. They have critical consciousness, which means they know how racism and transphobia are hidden in everything, even things they don’t know anything about.” — —
“Critical consciousness.”
When all is said and done the Marxists foundation of their claim to have knowledge of reality is based on the primitive mystical claim of being endowed with a divine means of perception that others do not have – and therefor we must take their word as gospel.
The Left are extremely primitive people.
I want to know what sort of math is racist. Not all math is “math”, imho. Not to mention that we need new notation for the computer era; this stuff is way too hard to type.
1+1 = 2 isn’t very “mathy”.
y = mx+b is getting there.
e^(i*pi) = 1 is definitely not racist, it’s Swiss, not German (and Euler is Yuler not Oiler).
derivatives are racist because they break wholes into infinitesimal parts and only wholes matter.
integrals are very SJW compatible because they consider wholes, not parts.
linear algebra seems very compatible with deconstruction because it redefines common operations to suit its own needs. If a^2+b^2=c^2 was a good enough distance metric for Pythagoras (replace with desired African or Islamic scholar of your choice), it should be good enough for anyone.
non-Ecludian geometry is Justice. That dead white (yes, I know) guy was wrong!
Can we just not care and avoid Canadian bridges?
Oh, and let’s not forget Chaos Theory. One activist flaps his gums and the world changes. It doesn’t get any more SJW than that.
SFU has always been a loony bin. Public Interest Research Groups gather up the weird and concentrate it.
If I say math itself cannot be racist, because it is universal, it’s the same for everyone, then what is their rebuttal?
Bud Norton: You make the fatal assumption that this Marxist movement has any interest in rational debate. It does not. If you try to ask such questions it will simply gather a mob to silence you.
I’ve heard this doggeral about math and science before. I am a utility engineer and I see math (and a variety of other hard skills) used every day to keep the lights on. Does that mean by extension electric power is racist? Actually, I’m pretty sure I know the answer to that…
This falls into a collection of flawed logic that had our ancestors followed, we would not be better off. We would all just be shivering in a cave taking turns holding down anyone that dares to try and control fire.
Bud, universals are of a piece with objective reason. CRT says objective truth and reason are white. They will tell you that is purely a white race thing.
I just reread my comment. It comes off a little angrier that intended. it was meant to be said with humor. :)
I wonder with what kind of decolonized math those deconstructed alien intelliwhatevers would come up with.
“Instead of listening for signs of alien intelligence, we should first be listening to Indigenous people here on Earth, or, as she put it, taking into account “marginalized and historically excluded perspectives.” (…) Speaking at a large SETI meeting in Pennsylvania last year, she reiterated her claims that racism might underlie much of the current SETI mission. Charbonneau was not alone. Another observer at the meeting reported that many of the “scientific talks” were about forbidding the language of “colonization” and discussing “indigenous” issues, non-binary sexuality, and transphobia. Ultimately, the meeting resolved that it was appropriate to forbid the use of the word “intelligence” in the name “Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” as it is a “white construct.”
https://quillette.com/2023/04/06/astrobiology-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-nascent-science/
Constitutionally protected free speech exists in the U.S. to make it easier to know who to avoid and resist.
Canada has earned our disrespect.
Canadian Bacon (1995)
I had a math prof (Func Analysis and either linear algebra or topology… It has been a couple of years) at Oregon State from Simon Fraser. Oddly, I can’t recall his lady name, but I remember his accent, and what he drove. The guy was large, 6’2, and drove a Fiat X1/9. Watching him get into that was line watching a practical demonstration of advanced concepts in topology.
As far as I know, he was neither black nor racist