#BlackInMathWeek

On this episode of Relatively Prime, Michole Enjoli and Noelle Sawyer take over for Black in Math Week. They talk to Brea Ratliff and José Vilson, two Black math educators, and discuss what it’s like to be Black in math, what they would say to people making common false statements about Black students in math, and better hopes and dreams for Black students.

Black in Math week is November 8th – 13th, 2020! It’s a week on Twitter to celebrate community among and uplift Black mathematicians. Check us out @BlackInMath for updates! 

Brea is currently pursuing a PhD at Auburn University in Math Education. She is the founder of and CEO Me to the Power of Three and is a past president of the Benjamin Banneker association. 

José is located in New York City and is the founder and executive director of EDUcolor. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Teachers College at Columbia University in Sociology and Education.

We talk a bit about Afrofuturism in this episode. If you’re interested in checking out more on Afrofuturism, try SpaceBox, a STEM escape room to save astronauts from a virus, and this special minizine from Bitten Magazine!

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Music:
Kirshmusic

Transcript:

Michole:

This is Relatively rime Black in Math Week in the mathematical domain. I’m one of your host, Michole Enjoli.

Noelle:

And I’m Noelle Sawyer

Noelle:

We’e here as a part of Black and Math Week to talk to some Black math educators. I’m actually an assistant professor of math at Southwestern university in Georgetown, Texas. So I, myself, am a math educator, I’m from The Bahamas and I’ve also got a few teachers in my family line there. So education has got a special place in my heart.

Michole:

And again, Michole Enjoli, I’m a mathematician, educator ,and STEM edutainment producer. I originally hailed from Atlanta, Georgia, and Seattle, Washington, but now I’m in Ann Arbor working on my PhD in math education. I also have a lot of educators in my family and I always like to make it be known that I’m an educator before mathematician.

Noelle:

I talked to Bria Ratliff for this podcast and I asked her how she introduces herself to strangers. If you’re sitting next to a stranger in the before times, right. When we did that and someone and someone asked you, like, what do you do? How do you answer them?

Brea:

Um , generally I say that I’m a mathematics educator and can we go back for a minute? Cause the before times, and the Hunger Games was reference just really gives me life right now. (laughs) Um, that that pretty much is mathematics or STEM educator, I think is probably the best collective term for all the things that I do. And I’m involved with. I have been an administrator and a coach and currently delving deeper into research and have been a research coordinator and whatnot for a while. And I have my own business also, I’m consulting on mathematics and STEM, but at the heart of what I do, I am a mathematics educator.

Noelle:

Brea is in the math education doctoral program at Auburn university. Right now. She’s also the founder of Me to the Power of Three, which specializes in curriculum development and desi