Before we go into the nuts and bolts (or chips and rams) of how mathematics can be taught without the racist and sexist bias of Eurocentrism, we must be clear about the sociopolitical demographic terrain in which this curricular struggle takes place. According to the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology's report, Scientific Manpower, 1987 and Beyond: Today's Budget-Tomorrow's Work Force (pp. 10-17): * by 2010-just 20 years from now-at least one-third of the 18-year-olds in the U.S. will be Black or Latino; * by the year 2000-in 10 years-85 percent of the new members of the U.S. work force will be Blacks, Latinos, and White women-only 15 percent of the new workers will be White males; * by 2000, 75 percent of all goods manufactured in the U.S. will be produced by automation; the fewer jobs (in absolute numbers) that will be available will either be no-skills, McDonald's-type jobs or hi-tech skills jobs; * 619 U.S. citizens received the PhD in mathematics in 1978; however, by 1988 that number was down to 341-half those doctorates went to foreign citizens while only 3 went to Latinos, 2 to Native Americans, and one to an African American; * in the past 11 years, only 78 African Americans received doctorates in physics and/or astronomy, along with 97 Latinos and 11 Native Americans; * the median mathematics level of Black, Latino, and Native American high school graduates is less than sixth grade; that is, the majority of these graduates have no knowledge or only minimal knowledge of elementary algebra.
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S. E. Anderson (1990) studied this question.