Counted Out: Math in America

Inequality of opportunity. Climate change. A global pandemic and its attendant economic crisis. So many of the problems Americans face are exacerbated by our math illiteracy. Counted Out is a film about math’s power in our society. Math determines who has access to higher education, fulfilling careers, and civic participation. In the algorithm-powered twenty-first century, it determines who gets to shape the very world we live in. Yet, we maintain a persistent cultural belief that not everyone can do math, and we teach it as though we hadn’t yet invented computers: as a cryptic set of calculations.

From an early age, children are sorted by presumed mathematical ability, the negative effects falling hardest on those who have already suffered under systemic racism, patriarchy, and the cycle of poverty. And as a citizenry, we are increasingly vulnerable to “those who can wave math at us.”

Through a mosaic of voices and stories, Counted Out asks what mathematical thinking really is and how we can use it to uplift us all. With particular urgency in light of our country’s current moment of reckoning with public health, political polarization, and social and racial inequality, the film shows what’s possible when we question math’s role as a gatekeeper, and what awaits when we get rid of the idea that only some of us can be “math people.”

Producer/Director Vicki Abeles, Reel Link Films

Learn more: beyondtheracetonowhere.org/counted-out