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Re: JASON JARVIS/racist discourse and debate

>Hey look over there, its my soapbox.....well i haven't entered the thread
>on racism and debate, and having not heard the arguments of SWest Texas i
>can honestly say i will wait and judge them if and when i judge them.
>However, I do think the comments below hint at something that TOTALLY
>ANGERS ME ABOUT DEBATE. Debaters are the most intelligent and well
>informed group of competitive intellectual geeks (no offense, geeks are
>good :)) walking around on the planet. I have never met a group of people
>that seem to know so much about so many different things.  That being
>said it is a crying shame that so many of us do so little with this
>information.  Our activity is basically a training ground for lawyers and
>politicians to prepare for their future as good arguers. While i do think
>that most people involved in this activity are open minded, i think it is
>high time that our community become actively involved in applying the
>knowledge that we have. Too often it seems like our discussions almost
>trivialize the issues themselves. At best we are dissociated from the
>things we discuss.  Unless you are a person of color, what the hell do
>you know about racism? If you have experienced it or seen friends go
>through it then what are you doing about it? Is it something that you
>just run as a critique to get the big W, or are you really striving to
>make change? It strikes me that things like the Urban Debate
>League at Emory and the environmental education program at Pittsburgh are
>few and far between. While I will openly admit that I am the typical
>white male who originally thought that debate was just a game, it seems
>to me that it is time to change.  When do we wake up and realize that
>when we discuss homelessness or racism that we are talking about real
>people, whose lives really are affected by the things our authors are
>talking about.  Tuna Snider gives an amazing speech at the end of the
>Vermont workshop, and it is my hope to eventually embody his sentiments,
>in which he implores each and every student to go out into the world and
>"not be a link, but to be a link turn".  I think we as a community have a
>responsibility to start putting all of this theory and knowledge into
>practice. In reality wins and losses don't mean a thing, but the issues
>we discuss really do.
>
>Thanks for listening,
>
>Jason Jarvis
>Wake Forest University
>
>
>
Jason- thank you. I was starting to feel very much like a lone figure in
this debate.  I don't think alot of debaters realize how this discussion
affects those who are affected directly by the issue.  It is not simply
theory for many of us.  To be chided because I'm not open to voting on this
position hurts in awy that is hard to explain.  It is like telling me taht
as a minority membert I should throw off that which I am to make the
tellers of an old story feel good.  It is dehumanizing, in that I am asked
to listen and judge that which affects my psyche directly.  It does have a
very uninviting effect, and note that if I am not open to the argument that
to many there is something wrong with me.  What a joke!  Once again thanks
for the support.

Al Madrid
UMSL DEBATE

>
>
>On Tue, 4 Feb 1997, Jonathan J Vedamuthu wrote:
>
>> mr. madrid is correct.  intercollegiate debate, however, remains an
>> alarmingingly white (and male) dominated activity.  i think that this
>> thread on racism in debate has gone on for far too long with far too
>> little outrage over the implications of the naive and silly (more
>> accurately, ignorant and arrogant) contention that "residual racism" is
>> necessary to end racism proper.  doyle srader has been one of the lone
>> voices of reason.  as a person of color i am appalled that doyle has not
>> received overwhelming support for his objections to that argument.  as a
>> person of color, i have experienced far too much "residual racism".
>> would some nice white person who thinks it is necessary explain how it
>> will help me in the end?  could you do it if you had to look me in the
>> eye?  it is sad commentary on how little the REAL WORLD implications of
>> arguments actually impact debate practice that this discussion is even
>> necessary.  bear is right:  this GARBAGE needs to be kritiked right out
>> of the activity.  i guess when you are NOT a part of the group being
>> lynched, excluded, persecuted, or simply looked down upon it is pretty
>> easy to justify using a rhetorical strategy which implicitly supports all
>> of the above.
>>
>> VEDA
>>
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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