ABSTRACT
Given the history of African-Americans in the United States, a bigpicture explanation might suggest that these outcomes are the legacies of mathematical experiences characterized by differential treatment and denied opportunity in socioeconomic and educational contexts. Woodson (1933/1990), an African-American historian and educator, discussed this historical-legacy point of view as early as 1933:
Negroes, then learned from their oppressors to say to their children that there were certain spheres into which they should not go because they would have no chance therein for development. In a number of places young men and women were discouraged or frightened away from certain professions by the poor showing made by those trying to function in them…. In the same way, the Negro was once discouraged and dissuaded from taking up designing, drafting, architecture, engineering and chemistry, (pp. 50-51)
Contemporary scholars (e.g., Jones, 1993; Ladson-Billings, 1994, 1995; Oakes, 1990a, 1990b; Tate, 1994, 1995) also raised this issue in discussions of mathematics achievement and persistence among African-Americans. A counterargument to claims by Woodson and others, and one that I believe is far too simple, would suggest that societal changes have led to increased economic and educational opportunities for everyone, including African-Americans, in all aspects
of life. This argument continues by suggesting that because members of other cultural groups have managed to excel in areas like mathematics, problematic outcomes in mathematics achievement and persistence among African-Americans must, in part, reflect lack of ability and effort or some other pathology.
