Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 03:2 (Fall 2021)
Article: Does Mathematics = Western Imperialism?
Author: Nancy Pearcey

Eikon 3.2 (Fall 2021) p. 84

Does Mathematics = Western Imperialism?

Nancy Pearcey

Nancy Pearcey is a professor and scholar in residence at Houston Baptist University and the author of several books, including Total Truth and Love Thy Body.

Eikon 3.2 (Fall 2021) p. 85

Is mathematics next on the chopping block to be deconstructed as a form of “Western imperialism”?

A young woman describing herself as a teacher, PhD student, and “social justice change agent,” recently gained notoriety for tweeting, “The idea of 2+2 equaling 4 is cultural,” a product of “western imperialism/colonialism.”1

Yes, even mathematics, held up as the most objective and neutral of disciplines, is being reshaped by critical theory, which claims that all ideas are social constructions by groups using their power to advance their own interests.

This is not just the inflammatory language of young social justice warriors. Alan Bishop, who teaches at Cambridge University, wrote an article titled “Western Mathematics: The Secret Weapon of Cultural Imperialism,” in which he deplores “the process of cultural invasion in colonised countries by western mathematics.”2

In Educational Studies in Mathematics, two math educators at Georgia State University write, “Dominant mathematics is a system established as right and True by the White men who have historically controlled and constructed the game.” The authors call for “critical mathematics” to expose “the power dynamic between the oppressor — White, male mathematicians — and the oppressed — the marginalized Other.”3

Eikon 3.2 (Fall 2021) p. 86

Rochelle Gutiérrez, an education professor at the University of Illinois, writes that “mathematics itself operates as Whiteness. Who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as the mathematical community is generally viewed as White.”4 Gutiérrez charges that algebra and geometry perpetuate white privilege because the textbook version of math history is Eurocentric: “[c]urricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans.”

I’m not sure which history textbooks she’s talking about. We all use Arabic numerals, and in my college math class, we learned that the conce...