When the Starships Arrived: Toward New Discourses on Black Futurity in the Mathematical Sciences

• In Event: Expanding the Use of Critical Race Theory in Mathematics Education Research for the Public Good

Abstract

In this paper, I use science fiction story to make salient the use of critical race theory (CRT) and afrofuturism in mathematics education. In particular, I explore the basis to a three-pronged argument. This argument focuses broadly on (1) the importance of critical race storytelling in mathematics education, which includes (2) a centering of the mathematical futures of Black children and youth and (3) a renewed or transformed conceptions of Black social and material realities, in response to “disciplinary practices aimed at decentering Black life and experience for more inclusive, racially blind approaches,” such as the use of the term students of color (p. 58). This original argument was situated around two core ideas: the permanence of racism as prescribed by Bell (1992) and the space time continuum as described by Minkowski (1952).

In this current discussion, I focus more acutely in on the idea of the space time continuum, which I use in part to construct the original focus on mathematical futurity. Namely, where CRT captures the essence and permanence of racism in U.S. laws and public policy, and where Black critical theory (BlackCrit, Dumas & ross, 2016) in education challenges our own understanding and conceptions of CRT, afrofuturism allows us to capture important themes and ideals for attending to mathematical lives and specifically Black mathematical futures. I argue that our current focus on identity and achievement, and the socio-political nature of education research, must extend beyond students simply knowing or doing mathematics – towards even a Black speculative thought relating to, for example, applications of mathematics for radical liberation.

Author

• Nathan Alexander, Morehouse College