Access to Mathematics: “A Possessive Investment in Whiteness”¹

Abstract

While mathematics education gives access to elite universities, higher‐paying jobs, and the accumulation of wealth, it continues to be framed as a neutral curricular domain. However, data continually show differential access provided to students of color and their White peers through tracking, the availability of Advance Placement courses, and counselor referrals. This article frames mathematics education within a broader racial context to show how it functions along the same dominant racial ideologies within society. I analyze national data sets in the United States to calculate the wage‐earning differential attributable to differences in mathematics coursework by ethnic/racial groups across three time points: 1982, 1992, and 2004. This analysis projects advantages for Whites due to differential access to mathematics that total in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The article explores one way to see how color‐blind ideology and whiteness produce material stratification through the institution of mathematics education. Drawing on the constructs of interest convergence and divergence, the article ends with envisioning ways to enact a more race conscious mathematics curriculum.

Notes

Notes

1. The phrase “A Possessive Investment in Whiteness“ is taken from George Lipsitz’s (1995) seminal paper. Here I use it as a way to discuss mathematics education’s role in perpetually advantaging whiteness.

2. Advanced Placement courses are classes taken in high school that when completed, students receive college credit. For example, in mathematics, courses in AP Calculus and Statistics can receive college credit. There is also an AP exam aligned with the classes that when passed, some universities recognize as completion of college coursework.

3. Perlo () calculates racial exploitation as wage differentials against people of color multiplied by the number of employed workers. In this way, the difference in wages between the average Latino worker and average White worker is the exploitation of the Latino worker. Multiplying that differential across the population of workers would give the advantaging of the population of White workers or alternatively the exploitation of the population of Latino workers.

4. While racial segregation was initially due to law (considered de jure segregation), racial segregation is now due to housing prices, loan practices, and neighborhood choices (considered de facto segregation). De facto segregation is not by law, but this means that the current racial separation of schools is similar to that of the 1960s in the United States.

5. Of course, issues such as SES, gender, and geographic location are important, but for the purposes of this article on racial differences, and not having access to the entire national data sets, these are not calculated here. This limits the calculations shared in the article because intersections such as SES would allow for a more nuanced consideration of how these constructs affect racial differences rather than attributing differences solely to race.

6. The data sets cover a random sampling of the 3.6–4.5 million high school students depending on the year. High School and Beyond collected data on sophomores in 1980 and high school graduates in 1982. This is a longitudinal study of a cohort of students from sophomore to senior year of high school and continued studying the students long after high school until 1992. Similarly the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 and the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 follow students from sophomore year in high school and beyond.