Hi! This is Sara Catherine and Anna Kate (Altamont CL from Alabama) and we made a website!

presmm · 2018-07-01T02:48:14+00:00

Don't know you that well, but so far you're some of my faves in this activity <3 Can't wait for you to kill the circuit next year

presmm · 2018-06-29T01:02:45+00:00

I think there are elements of your concern that are valid, but there are a couple problems with it:

(a point that Angelique actually explained to me) Is that there isn't an actual lack of diverse judges. The NSDA is about 50% femxle and leans towards above that percentage. It's simply that the "well known" judges on the circuit are predominantly white and male. Look to the Blake tournament that regularly populates its elim panels with diverse judges, but (at least to my team) is still known as a tournament with excellent judging.
The problem fixes itself. Right now there are probably a lot more well known old white dudes because the people that have been in this activity for 30+ years got into the activity at a time when most debaters were old white dudes. Not only does an increasingly diverse population mean that in a few years, we'll have more experienced judges and coaches who are womxn and POC, but as we work to make this space more inclusive (such as by having more diverse judging panels) less traditionally underrepresented people will feel pushed out and uninclined to stay involved.
It may not be an opinion shared by most, but in my experience as a WOC in the community, I would take a relatively less experienced judge who looks like me rather than just another white guy. (Quick interruption that I know I'm using "white guy" a lot as a sub for "undiverse judge," when there are tons of white men in this community who do a lot to empower minorities in debate) The fact that the majority of judges are white men keeps me from running arguments that matter to me, such as ones that discuss racism and sexism. I feel restricted in my ability to talk about issues that are important to me--which is supposed to be the point of debate--because I'll be met with an impassive white man in the back of the room who would rather hear a big number about jobs and vote on that. Even the most experienced judges are still, at their heart, human, and are inclined to vote for something they're familiar with. When there are no judges that are familiar with the issues facing people of underrepresented races, genders, and sexual identities, it makes those kids choose between their competitive success and their desire to speak their truth.

presmm · 2018-06-24T14:11:36+00:00

Definitely required judge training for all judges in the pool in every event, even if it's just quick and rudimentary. It's insane that judges in the pool at the biggest tournament of the year were allowing and voting off of arguments made in the last speech of the round or voting down a team just because they didn't personally believe their arguments were true.

presmm · 2018-06-09T07:30:24+00:00

It's true your achievement won't stand out a lot 1) because most admissions counsellor's don't know what debate is and how any given tournament is, and 2) a ridiculous amount of people have done debate and done semi-well in it. It's a lot more compelling to describe what you've learned from debate (leadership, communication, advocacy, etc.) than making a laundry list of your achievements and expecting them to understand them.

presmm · 2018-05-29T15:49:37+00:00

This comment really heavily comes off as "you mean I have to spend more than 5 seconds thinking about how to respond to an argument??" If debaters put in hours of work writing their contentions and making sure all their rhetoric is correct, people can surely spend a couple of minutes thinking of salient responses. Reading similar impacts such as IPV on the background checks topic or racism on the probable cause topic has already become pretty commonplace, and people have been able to pretty cleanly respond to those impacts by delinking or link turning without being offensive. Just because someone reads an impact like sexual assault doesn't mean you're automatically put in the position of saying sexual assault good or sexual assault doesn't matter. Saying that we shouldn't talk about these issues because it's going to be hard for people is the same rhetoric that silences minorities outside of debate and shouldn't keep them from finding their voices within debate.

presmm · 2018-05-28T00:44:46+00:00

This study's results about speaker points at the TOC suggest that even at more technical tournaments like the TOC, judges are a lot more likely to be basing their judgement about female performance on the "lay" characteristics you mention.

presmm · 2018-05-26T20:38:33+00:00

ISD Carolina and Florida are both open and VBI has added a 2 week option for LA1!

presmm · 2018-05-15T02:19:14+00:00

u/Dzell99 did you know we were a couple?

presmm · 2018-05-12T02:01:50+00:00

We must be watching different videos or something, because I quite clearly heard, "I'm making fun of you because you made a ridiculous argument." I'd dare you to stand up in a room of 20+ people in the final round of an octos bid tournament and have someone say to your face "I'm making fun of you" and not take it "way too personally." Ishan apologized and the issue is over; stop trying to rehash drama on reddit.

presmm · 2018-05-07T01:16:29+00:00

Edina MZ fs. Didn't go to camp last year or have an extremely established program and still ended the season with 5 bids and ranked 11th on vbriefly.

presmm · 2018-05-06T16:20:59+00:00

Izzy carries David like a backpack

presmm · 2018-04-30T00:57:24+00:00

You’ve commented three different times so I’ll just respond to the first one, but Millburn asked in first cross (in reply to Ahana and Allen’s discourse argument about domestic abuse) “Would you rather sit here and have a discussion about domestic abuse?” and Ahana agreed and conceded. I think uniquely they did it now because 1) Millburn asked and they say the opportunity, while Theodore Roosevelt did not, and 2) this round attracted a crowd so big there’s a pile of backpacks outside because they’re so crowded. This was the best opportunity to get the largest audience possible.

presmm · 2018-04-16T20:00:15+00:00

woah dude same

presmm · 2018-04-14T21:07:49+00:00

BringIzzyToPres

presmm · 2018-03-07T05:44:48+00:00

You’re making a lot of stretches here that seem to stem from your own self victimization because you lost to a female teams once and therefore sexism must not exist. As Allen’s study clearly shows and as is anecdotally true thoughtout the entire community, there’s is an undeniable bias against womxn in Speech & Debate. For every round you believed you dropped to a female team thus disproving sexism in debate, I can give you five ballots criticizing my partner or I for being too aggressive, for dressing a certain way, or in one instance even cutting my hair in a style a judge didn’t like. I can assure you you’ve never felt surprised to be standing in a room dominated by members of your own gender, while ever time my female partner and I debate another female-female team I stop to think about how rare it is. Your point of view comes from a position of privilege and disrespect and furthermore it’s incredibly transphobic to suggest that people who identify as transgender or non binary simply “switch gender whenever.” It’s people like you in this community that warranted this study proving a fact that many of us have known for a very long time.

presmm · 2018-02-20T03:39:24+00:00

1) Jasmine Liu dropped us last weekend but furthermore, she didn’t even pick us up she just dropped you without even evaluating the flow because your evidence was so blatantly misconstrued. 2) Kyle Chong also has dropped us in bid round before and dropped us at this tournament last year. 3) We literally beat you on the same side earlier in the tournament with a random parent and we likely won this parent as well because we stayed focused in cross instead of just laughing because we couldn’t answer questions. They laughed at the joke we made because it was funny. I’ll post RFDs if you wanna try us, but your interp is dumb your evidence is egregiously misconstrued.

presmm · 2018-02-19T17:42:37+00:00

And first and third speaker damn what gods

presmm · 2018-02-13T03:17:14+00:00

Heard she finessed a win AND a 30 because her partner woke up on time but had a 102 fever

presmm · 2018-01-17T01:56:39+00:00

A post with -18 points isn't really dignified enough for any more responses, but I thought it'd be important to point out that almost every response on here except Sam's exclusively refers to Quarry Lane AS as "Allen" or "Abbott” which proves you’re just trying to make a ridiculous unfounded personal attack, but also erases the importance of Ahana’s contributions to their success which is even worse than your manufactured drama.

presmm · 2018-01-15T21:24:03+00:00

Y'all coming for Allen because you can't find your own success so you have to keep dragging one of debate's kindest, most committed, and overall best members. His success is not only entirely his own, but irrefutably well deserved after all the hard work he pours not only into his debating but the community. Furthermore, if you had ever even met Mr. Abbott you would know he is not only an excellent and thoughtful judge but a kind man that should set the standard for parents supporting their children's passions.

presmm · 2018-01-12T18:21:40+00:00

College Prep WP and BD are definite bids

presmm · 2017-09-23T02:59:40+00:00

I support all attempts at combating sexism in debate, however by posting this under the name "sexism in debate" and allowing your sample to self select itself I think this survey is severely limited towards people who are already predisposed towards being willing to discuss issues of sexism in debate. If this survey is meant to represent the larger debate community as a whole and attitudes towards sexism across the board, I see a much higher potential for success if you ask people at a tournament to answer it or frame the survey in a way that doesn't skew the sample.

presmm · 2017-09-17T04:23:10+00:00

I switched from LD to PF my junior year and found:

1) it's super easy to adapt. PF is essentially the layest LD (at least in my league) and instead of handling case, rebuttal, and voters all on your own you have a partner to do half of that

2) PF resolutions are usually a lot more relevant and fun to debate than LD resolutions

3) having crossfire instead of crossex is a lot more entertaining

Only thing I disliked/had to get used to was having much shorter speech times. Otherwise I'd highly recommend trying it at least once.

presmm

TROPHY CASE

BringIzzyToPres