Slow emergencies of racism in mathematics education

Abstract

This paper adopts a biopower lens to examine emergency declarations that posit race or racism as problems to be addressed through mathematics education. We argue that attending to “slow emergencies” of racism must avoid sustaining mathematics education as a self-evident cause and cure for societal problems. We analyze how declarations of emergency reanimate racializing hierarchies by reordering spaces, temporalities, and subjectivities. To explore these concerns, we compare three race-explicit emergency declarations in US mathematics education during World War II with recent emergency declarations of pandemic-related learning loss, disengagement, and a racial reckoning. We juxtapose past and present to spotlight what we outline as distinct biopolitical working arrangements. The analysis maps how emergency declarations rearrange hopes, fears, diagnostic techniques, and intervention strategies—sometimes inadvertently reracializing students in attesting to damage or demanding redress. Our purpose is to foster deliberation over paradoxes and possibilities of addressing racialization and racism in mathematics education transnationally.