Academics Proclaim Numbers, Math, and Statistics to Be Racist, Propose Alternative

Reality is racist. Consequently, numbers are racist.

British professors bark that statistics “serve white racial interests” and are therefore bad:

Led by David Gillborn, a professor at the University of Birmingham, the professors argue that math serves white interests because it can “frequently encode racist perspectives beneath the facade of supposed quantitative objectivity.”

“Contrary to popular belief, and the assertions of many quantitative researchers, numbers are neither objective nor color-blind,” Gillborn and his team assert in their article for the journal Race, Ethnicity, and Education.

Because “data is often used to shut down, silence, and belittle equity work,” we need to replace statistics with “QuantCrit” (“quantitative analysis” + “critical race theory”).

[K]ey tenets of QuantCrit theory include realizing that math tends to legitimate existing racial inequalities, acknowledging that numerical analyses disadvantage minorities, and understanding how numbers play to the benefit of white interests.

Do you think 2 + 2 really does equal 4? Then you are a white supremacist, and as Oprah Winfrey would say, just have to die.

“Numbers are social constructs and likely to embody the dominant (racist) assumptions that shape contemporary society,” they write. As a consequence, they assert that “in many cases, numbers speak for White racial interests.”

The professors aspire to “expose and delegitimize the racist (and sexist, classist, hetero-normative, and ableist) assumptions, policies, and practices that are currently supported by the uncritical use of quantitative data,” presumably by replacing numbers, math, and statistics with QuantCrit.

Liberal academia is at war with sanity.