so I was never fond of math I found it
limiting restricting in heart see math
had these derivatives these fractions
these division symbols and
multiplications X’s and these little
asterisks that were upside down and
curves that made a problem almost
impossible to solve but when I got to
Denison my perception on math changed
see math became a vital part of my life
here at Denison especially with
declining see the thing about math was
it was simple there will always be one
solution for every answer two plus two
it will always equal four or so I
thought see so at three plus one so at
four plus zero why does this matter I’m
so glad that you asked well I was
studying in bright in London I had a
teacher asked me Breanna explains to the
class the woes of being a black woman
from America see I was the common
denominator you know the the black kid
that probably went to a title in high
school that was from poverty was
probably struggling to maintain at
Denison but I didn’t quite fit that
equation see I was from the suburbs and
while I did attend a title in high
school and I did like to listen to track
music just a little bit I also like to
study the Latin language so I became an
outlier I began to complicate this
equation
I began for complicated this equation
complicating it by not being able to be
confined within this box and see it
wasn’t just a London problem it wasn’t
just the international problem it was a
problem right here in my home right here
in America
I came back to Denison and in my
literate literary theory class we were
reading the known world by Edward P
Jones in this book we had a protagonist
who was african-american who also owned
african-american slaves throughout the
class the words diverse problematic
integration
we’re thrown around like a hot football
but that’s all they ever were words to
be thrown a work around words that were
only paid lip service but no action see
the class will bring up gender and I
will talk about race they will talk
about economics I will talk about
educational inequalities we never agree
and I became a problem within the
problem so what do you do with variables
that don’t fit you throw them out you
plug them in and you plug them out you
put them in when they’re beneficial for
you but when they were getting too
complicated equation add those exponents
and those derivatives that I was talking
about earlier
you cancel them out you get rid of them
but see that was the issue we continued
to cancel out equations and never really
solved them so I started to think and I
started to think historically about what
could we do to solve these equations and
I had to think of it in terms outside of
math like I said I am an English major
so I started to think back and what I
noticed was every issue every
controversy ever every problem that we
had ever had in the world stemmed from
difference see the Germans disliked the
Jews because they were different
American settlers gentrified Native
Americans because they were different
English settlers colonized India because
they were different and me I was at
Denison because of my difference see my
difference was supposed to add to the
school make it more diverse yeah those
words that we were throwing around again
but did it really do that so I remember
I went to a professor’s office and I
started bringing up these concerns to
him and telling him how I never really
fit in the equation I was tired of being
canceled out I was tired of being the
outlier I wanted to figure out how could
I get plugged back in how could I get
solved and I started thinking and I
found an answer from Mohammed Gandhi he
once said our ability to reach unity and
diversity would be the beauty and test
of our civilization our differences
would be what was strengthen us lead us
to progress lead us to true diversity
and then I began to ask myself questions
so what does that mean for students here
at Denison and I begin to think of a
series of rhetorical questions that I
now ask you how many times have you went
to the Black Student Union how many
times have you taken a conversation of
race outside of the academic setting
outside of those four walls of a
classroom how many times have you walked
into huffman or Kurtis or Slater and sat
with someone who didn’t look like you
see the thing about it was what kept
talking about diversity we kept finding
people these variables that they were
supposed to use to fit into our
equations but we never really gave them
a space to exist as outliers and be
multiplied and factored in on their own
so I came up with a four-step plan it’s
quite brilliant and I named it embracing
the spirit of math what does that mean
I’m so glad you keep asking all these
questions
so embracing the spirit of math means
although I think math is hard and
complicated
that’s fair math is diverse because yes
two plus two will always equal four no
matter how you flip it divide it
multiply it and try to make it equal
five like me it’s going to equal four
but so will three plus one and so a four
plus zero so that means there are
several avenues to reach the same
destination so get to the same solution
why is this important it’s important
because just like problems people have
several different avenues that they’ve
used and that they’ve traveled to end up
at the same destination just think about
yourself sitting in your seats the
person on your left and the person on
your right
they’ve taken very different journeys
than yourselves to get to where you are
but somehow you all made it to sit in
front of me so I started thinking what
do we need to do first one we needed to
evaluate the entire equation what does
that mean that means that we needed to
look at people holistically you know
when you apply to a college and they
don’t just look at your GPA or your SAT
scores or I probably wouldn’t be here
you know how they look at those
extracurriculars that you were involved
in they look at that summer job that you
had we need to look at people like that
holistically too we need to accept
diverse variables diverse variables
sometimes we’re gonna meet outliers like
myself people that don’t fit that
stereotypical assumption so what do we
do with them instead of throwing them
out can’t sling them out deeming them as
the outliers that are unsolvable we
factored them in we complicate our
equations yes they will become harder to
solve but they’ll be more complete Moho
more holistic problems that give a more
accurate description of what we’re
trying to paint Bert we get rid of the
plug in plug out method meaning we stop
using people when it’s easy for us we
stop
using people for their convenience you
fit this stereotype you fit this
equation I’m going to use you now I no
longer need you you don’t work in this
problem let’s throw you out for this one
that doesn’t work we have to create
problems that are going to holistically
evaluate people every time and fourth
you don’t remember anything else from
this long talk I need you to remember
there’s one thing yes 2+2 will always
equal 4 always well so will 3 plus 1 and
so will 4 plus 0 and so 6 minus 2 and so
will 8 divided by 2 and I say that to
say this no one can tell you how you
reach your solution and your solution is
just as valuable as everyone else’s the
way that you end it to where you are is
just as important thank you
[Applause]
limiting restricting in heart see math
had these derivatives these fractions
these division symbols and
multiplications X’s and these little
asterisks that were upside down and
curves that made a problem almost
impossible to solve but when I got to
Denison my perception on math changed
see math became a vital part of my life
here at Denison especially with
declining see the thing about math was
it was simple there will always be one
solution for every answer two plus two
it will always equal four or so I
thought see so at three plus one so at
four plus zero why does this matter I’m
so glad that you asked well I was
studying in bright in London I had a
teacher asked me Breanna explains to the
class the woes of being a black woman
from America see I was the common
denominator you know the the black kid
that probably went to a title in high
school that was from poverty was
probably struggling to maintain at
Denison but I didn’t quite fit that
equation see I was from the suburbs and
while I did attend a title in high
school and I did like to listen to track
music just a little bit I also like to
study the Latin language so I became an
outlier I began to complicate this
equation
I began for complicated this equation
complicating it by not being able to be
confined within this box and see it
wasn’t just a London problem it wasn’t
just the international problem it was a
problem right here in my home right here
in America
I came back to Denison and in my
literate literary theory class we were
reading the known world by Edward P
Jones in this book we had a protagonist
who was african-american who also owned
african-american slaves throughout the
class the words diverse problematic
integration
we’re thrown around like a hot football
but that’s all they ever were words to
be thrown a work around words that were
only paid lip service but no action see
the class will bring up gender and I
will talk about race they will talk
about economics I will talk about
educational inequalities we never agree
and I became a problem within the
problem so what do you do with variables
that don’t fit you throw them out you
plug them in and you plug them out you
put them in when they’re beneficial for
you but when they were getting too
complicated equation add those exponents
and those derivatives that I was talking
about earlier
you cancel them out you get rid of them
but see that was the issue we continued
to cancel out equations and never really
solved them so I started to think and I
started to think historically about what
could we do to solve these equations and
I had to think of it in terms outside of
math like I said I am an English major
so I started to think back and what I
noticed was every issue every
controversy ever every problem that we
had ever had in the world stemmed from
difference see the Germans disliked the
Jews because they were different
American settlers gentrified Native
Americans because they were different
English settlers colonized India because
they were different and me I was at
Denison because of my difference see my
difference was supposed to add to the
school make it more diverse yeah those
words that we were throwing around again
but did it really do that so I remember
I went to a professor’s office and I
started bringing up these concerns to
him and telling him how I never really
fit in the equation I was tired of being
canceled out I was tired of being the
outlier I wanted to figure out how could
I get plugged back in how could I get
solved and I started thinking and I
found an answer from Mohammed Gandhi he
once said our ability to reach unity and
diversity would be the beauty and test
of our civilization our differences
would be what was strengthen us lead us
to progress lead us to true diversity
and then I began to ask myself questions
so what does that mean for students here
at Denison and I begin to think of a
series of rhetorical questions that I
now ask you how many times have you went
to the Black Student Union how many
times have you taken a conversation of
race outside of the academic setting
outside of those four walls of a
classroom how many times have you walked
into huffman or Kurtis or Slater and sat
with someone who didn’t look like you
see the thing about it was what kept
talking about diversity we kept finding
people these variables that they were
supposed to use to fit into our
equations but we never really gave them
a space to exist as outliers and be
multiplied and factored in on their own
so I came up with a four-step plan it’s
quite brilliant and I named it embracing
the spirit of math what does that mean
I’m so glad you keep asking all these
questions
so embracing the spirit of math means
although I think math is hard and
complicated
that’s fair math is diverse because yes
two plus two will always equal four no
matter how you flip it divide it
multiply it and try to make it equal
five like me it’s going to equal four
but so will three plus one and so a four
plus zero so that means there are
several avenues to reach the same
destination so get to the same solution
why is this important it’s important
because just like problems people have
several different avenues that they’ve
used and that they’ve traveled to end up
at the same destination just think about
yourself sitting in your seats the
person on your left and the person on
your right
they’ve taken very different journeys
than yourselves to get to where you are
but somehow you all made it to sit in
front of me so I started thinking what
do we need to do first one we needed to
evaluate the entire equation what does
that mean that means that we needed to
look at people holistically you know
when you apply to a college and they
don’t just look at your GPA or your SAT
scores or I probably wouldn’t be here
you know how they look at those
extracurriculars that you were involved
in they look at that summer job that you
had we need to look at people like that
holistically too we need to accept
diverse variables diverse variables
sometimes we’re gonna meet outliers like
myself people that don’t fit that
stereotypical assumption so what do we
do with them instead of throwing them
out can’t sling them out deeming them as
the outliers that are unsolvable we
factored them in we complicate our
equations yes they will become harder to
solve but they’ll be more complete Moho
more holistic problems that give a more
accurate description of what we’re
trying to paint Bert we get rid of the
plug in plug out method meaning we stop
using people when it’s easy for us we
stop
using people for their convenience you
fit this stereotype you fit this
equation I’m going to use you now I no
longer need you you don’t work in this
problem let’s throw you out for this one
that doesn’t work we have to create
problems that are going to holistically
evaluate people every time and fourth
you don’t remember anything else from
this long talk I need you to remember
there’s one thing yes 2+2 will always
equal 4 always well so will 3 plus 1 and
so will 4 plus 0 and so 6 minus 2 and so
will 8 divided by 2 and I say that to
say this no one can tell you how you
reach your solution and your solution is
just as valuable as everyone else’s the
way that you end it to where you are is
just as important thank you
[Applause]
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