The world of collegiate speech and debate has been rocked since multiple Black competitors from Spelman College and Morehouse College came forward with claims of alleged racial taunting that went unchecked by tournament judges during a national debate championship in April.
The alleged taunting took place the weekend of April 16 to 17 during the virtual United States Universities Debating Championship. The competition marked not only the national championship, but also the last tournament of the debate season.
Members of both historically Black College and University teams say racially laced micro-aggressions, mocking, rolling of eyes and depictions of Black debaters as caricatures were witnessed.
Some Morehouse debaters could see others mocking their speeches with “micro-aggressive, anti-Black behaviors,” said Kenneth Newby, director of the debate program, who spoke to Atlanta Black Star. Newby told WXIA-TV 11 Alive that “cameras of some of the other debaters in the room were turned on, when they should have been off.”
By the fifth round, Newby said his team had reached a breaking point.
“They couldn’t take it anymore,“ said Newby, who is also an Atlanta-area attorney. “What they experienced in that round of the debate, for them, was so traumatizing that they didn’t want to continue debating in the competition, anymore,” Newby said of his team that has seen great success over the years as it competed nationally in debate tournaments. He said “never before has a national championship been stopped and canceled, and had anti-Blackness issues within a debate space.”
Newby told ABS that students followed “the procedures of the tournament and reported” their complaints. He also addressed the concerns of his team with the tournament’s equity team. As a result, he said tournament officials promised them “public responsibility, but public responsibility did not come.” He said he was then told “we’re working on it.” Meanwhile, Newby had a drafted statement ready to share. He posted those comments in an application controlled by the tournament, in two separate areas where questions could be posted to chief adjudicators and to the organizational committee for the tournament.
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“They weren’t doing what they said they were going to do to address the issue,” he said. “They should have made a public announcement in the general auditorium. They should have condemned” the actions, he said by stating that “the tournament was not going to accept this kind of behavior.” Those types of immediate steps should have followed, he said.
Similar acts reportedly were endured by Spelman’s team, which also made for the only Black team in each of its rounds. At one point, a member of the team alleged a white competitor alluded to “Black people being fit for hard labor,” further showing how the debate space was immune to tone deaf and racist rhetoric.
“Black competitors across the entire tournament experienced similar, if not worse, occurrences of racism and micro-aggressions,” said the team in a social media post. Both Spelman and Morehouse exited the tournament along with Vanderbilt University, Clemson University and others.
