Via Tongue Tied:
A devoted chess player named Bill Ware believe chess as it is currently played is racist and wants to change the rules to eliminate it, according to the Southern Digest, the student newspaper at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La.Ware says the fact that white moves first and black is forced to play defense "states that white is better than black" and represents a form of racism.
His solution is Algebra Chess, in which the white and black pieces are replaced by pieces of different colors and the determining factor on who moves first depends on what square the queen sits on.
I gather this "devoted chess player" is unacquainted with the numerous Black counter-gambits that can be played to neutralize White's slight tempo advantage.
And what this has to do with "algebra" is beyond me. By the way, Mr. Racial Sensitivity, didn't you know that "algebra" is . . . sexist? (Huh-huh, he said "bra.")
How did that go again? Ah, yes, it's all coming back to me now.
It may seem to innocent readers, if any such remain, that we are putting words in the authors' mouths; but no: they disapprove of a particular problem in which a girl and her boyfriend run toward each other (even though the girl's slower speed is carefully explained by the fact that she is carrying luggage) because it portrays a heterosexual involvement. They object to a problem about a contractor and the contractor's workers (sex undeclared), because they assume that the student will envision the workers as male. On the other hand, they offer for our approval a problem about Sue and Debbie, "a couple financing their $70,000 home."" Their general maxims call for problems "presenting female heroes and breaking gender stereotypes" and "analyzing sex similarities and differences intentionally" and "affirming women's experiences." All this, mind, is to be done in an algebra class.