Oh, my fellow liberal white people. Let’s be honest. We’re not protesting Starbucks because they have racist employees. We’re protesting them because they got caught. They had racist employees last week, last month, last year. We didn’t protest them then. And they’re not alone. Just about every business we walk into has some racist employees….
Author: Clio
What Would YOU Do? Real Life Edition
This week, two black men were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks for “loitering.” According to GMP’s Christopher Norris, who spoke to the management, the men weren’t given any warning prior to the police showing up. Two videos have surfaced so far showing the altercation. The shorter one, posted on Twitter by Melissa DePino, shows a…
The Abuse of Lorena Bobbitt and the Twisting of a Narrative
When I was a child, I was afraid of public restrooms. I regularly avoided them. The biggest reason was a racist urban legend. I’d lived for a few years in Pontiac, Michigan, and I was told about something that had supposedly happened in a local shopping mall. A white boy had gone into the restroom…
How to Be Respectful of a Trans Person
Every year, March 31 is Trans Day of Visibility. This day “aims to bring attention to the accomplishments of trans people everywhere while fighting cissexism and transphobia.” If you’re still struggling with understanding transgender, nonbinary, and other gender identity topics, I get it: Like most people, I was raised to think that boys were boys,…
Deriving Euler’s Identity
Euler’s Identity has been called “the most beautiful equation” in mathematics. It neatly encapsulates five key values and three operators into a true equation: \[e^{\pi i} – 1 = 0\] But why is it true? In this entry, I’m going to take it apart. Fully understanding the equation involves looking at various parts of algebra…
Man Caves and Toxic Masculinity
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Not all masculinity is toxic. I’ve been seeing a lot of men suggesting that manhood is under attack. That everything to do with men is considered toxic. That the only “non-toxic” form of manhood is some sort of feminized masculinity, stripped of everything that traditionally made men,…
The Natural Base \(e\): Thoughts on Teaching
In “Burn Math Class”, Jason Wilkes spends quite a few pages deriving the value of \(e\). I did not notice him at any point mentioning compound interest. Since we’re currently wrapping up the chapter on exponential functions and logarithms in the Algebra II classes I’m teaching, I was already thinking about the best way to…
Two Shootings, Two Standards
On March 7, 2018, a student at Huffman High School in Birmingham, AL, fired a gun, killing a girl and injuring himself. On March 20, 2018, a student at Great Mills High School in Lexington Park, MD, fired a gun, killing a girl and injuring another student. He was killed in the incident. We can,…
The Problem with Problems
I’m currently reading “Burn Math Class,” and it’s got me thinking about language. Yesterday, I saw an item about teaching students why cancelling works in this case: \[5 + 3 – 3\] but not in this case: \[5 + 3 = 5 – 3\] The conclusion that the students were led to is that the…
Why “Not All Men” is a Poor Response
“Not all men.” There was a time, years ago, when I used to start many responses with those three words. “Men commit rape.”: “Not all men.” “Men are violent.”: “Not all men.” “Men hide their feelings.”: “Not all men.” This is a defensive response that refocuses the discussion. It’s also highly patronizing: Few people who…