Diversity alert: Winning U.S. math team flunked PC tests

by WorldTribune Staff, July 22, 2019

A group of American high school mathletes tied for first place at the 2019 International Mathematical Olympiad.

There will likely be no ticker tape parades in New York City for this team of world champions, most likely because it is not diverse enough for the politically correct mavens who decide such things.

The 2019 U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad team, from left: Edward Wan, Daniel Zhu, Brandon Wang, Colin Shanmo Tang, Luke Robitaille, Vincent Huang

You see, the American math team consists of five Asians and a white guy. All apparently identify as male.

“Quick! Call the diversity police!,” columnist Ethel C. Fenig wrote for American Thinker on July 21.

While the U.S. tied with China for first place this year, six U.S. team members also won gold medals for their individual high scores at the Olympiad, known as the world championship mathematics competition for high school students.

It was the fourth time in five years an American team of mathletes has won or tied for first at the Olympiad.

“However, this very dominating winning team does not look like America — all members are males, 5 Asians and one Caucasian, judging by appearances,” Fenig wrote.

“Race, gender, ethnicity, family income, sexual orientation or other identifiers do not factor in to qualifying for the team to attend the Olympiad,” Fenig noted.

Instead, qualifying for the team is based solely on scores in math competitions.

According to the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), students qualify for the U.S. IMO team by participating in a series of competitions provided by the MAA’s competitions program, called the MAA American Mathematics Competitions (AMC).

“Approximately 300,000 students worldwide participate in the MAA American Mathematics Competitions each year which leads the nation in strengthening the mathematical capabilities of the next generation of problem solvers,” the MAA says.

“The six U.S. team members joined 65 of their peers from the United States and seven other countries at MAA AMC’s Mathematical Olympiad Program in June to immerse themselves in problem solving and train for the IMO and other international competitions including the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad where the U.S. team, also organized by MAA, won first place in April,” the MAA stated.

Similar objective standards apply for the international competition.

“IMO scores are based on the number of points scored by individual team members on six problems. On each day of the two-day competition, the teams have 4.5 hours to work on three problems,” the MAA said.

“So, nope, again, no extra points based on race, ethnicity, family income, sexual orientation or country of origin’s standing at the UN,” Fenig wrote. “Points are apparently awarded based solely on merit.”

Fenig continued: “As these objective standards to produce winners based on merit alone do not produce diverse winners the PC diversity police must be notified to register their protest because they are obviously unfair. As for the politically correct folk who believe in merit, we offer congratulations to the winners on a job well done!”


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