Getting the right answer is important in many situations, such as that; however, understanding concepts and reasoning is important so that you can know how to get the right answer (and so that you can understand math, in general). However, there may be more than one valid way to do so (and the answer will be the same). For example, there is many way to prove Pythagorean theorem, factorial duplication formula, and other stuff; and shortcuts for making some kinds of calculations, etc.
(However, this does not seem to have to do with white supremacy; it is something else.)
To make an analogy, your idea is that a runner needs to learn stride techniques, physics and biology first and doing base physical training without understanding these is pointless. This does not work in athletics, nor does it work in math. Somebody who cannot even run 100m is not going to benefit from understanding how carbs convert to ATP and how that ATP is consumed to fire muscles or how muscles and ligaments in the legs can store and release energy or how drag slows you down etc. These are all good to know for an athlete to improve further, but not for somebody who just started running. And people had been evolving to run for millions of years!
People have not evolved for math. Their innate math ability is similar to falling after making few steps in regards of running analogy. They need a whole lot of boring and painful base training to be any good. What we get with "but they need to understand!" is people who can barely walk 1km without losing their breath insisting that when children get fun carbon shoes and tasty carb gels they will run much better than children who are made to run laps until they drop.
Sure but do we want kids to just learn what's the correct sum or do we want them to learn the process to arrived at the correct sum? From my school years as a kid who enjoyed math I had a lot of fun trying to arrive at the correct answer while most of my peers just wanted to get the "correct" answer because they were being tested on it, anything else that wasn't the correct answer had no value to them.
I believe that's what you quoted refers to:
>> White supremacy culture shows up in math classrooms when... There is a greater focus on getting the "right" answer than understanding concepts and reasoning.
> When designing airplane parts, there are definitely right and wrong answers.
Focus on getting the right answer makes kids not value the process to get to the right answers, getting the right answer is a result of a process they need to learn but if they are only tested on if the answer is right or wrong they won't learn the concepts and reasoning, they will memorise a formula and apply it at wrong times/places because they don't know why the formula is what it is.
You can set up the equations many ways, but then there's "turning the crank", aka "plug and grind" and there's the correct answer, and everything else is wrong.
Yes, I know that singularities are special cases, as well as two roots for the square root, etc.
> they won't learn the concepts and reasoning
Memorizing comes first for children. Concepts and reasoning comes later. In college, concepts and reasoning come first, and memorization is unimportant.
I remember memorizing the times tables when I was 5 or 6. I'd draw out the 10*10 matrix and fill in all the boxes, using addition. Eventually I noticed that "times" meant add the number that many times, and that I didn't have to memorize it anymore. But the work memorizing it laid the groundwork for the epiphany.
(However, this does not seem to have to do with white supremacy; it is something else.)