Scott and everyone else,
Had no idea that you didn't have access to the CEDA Listserv. I wasn't
trying to hide my words about you anymore than you try to insult me to
discredit the things I say. But I guess our backchannel discussion
didn't resolve this sufficiently for you, but it would have been wise to
offer some accurate context to our discussion. When you sent me a
backchannel note saying people were telling you I called you a "racist"
did I, I replied with the following:
Ede's reply: "I believe that everyone, including myself is a racist.
We are support structures that create institutional oppression on
minorities, through decision making that disproportionately hurts those
minorities. But I suspect that isn't how you are defining racist. And
because my definition doesn't agree with most of white America, I choose
not to call anyone a racist. It is very likely I said that you like
saying racially offensive comments, especially when I post. I likely
said that you are more likely to crawl out of your hole to engage when I
post, for reasons that only you would know. But trust, you are not the
only one, and in spite of those choices, I can still respect and value
the content of what you have to say because that is the life I've been
given and I'm used to it."
Next you sent a note upset with a comment I made about you crawling out
of a hole, and then you went on a rant about my choice to attend Wake
Forest and not supporting more regional tournaments. Demanding that I
name the names of the real people, who I assume you mean to be my
friends like Ross, Sherry, Dallas, Scotty D., Ken,, Will, Gordon
Stables, Melissa, and Bill (can't think of who else you'd put in that
list, but I'm probably friends with them too.) My reply was:
Ede's reply: It's you because you don't listen. You unable or
unwilling to believe there is another solution outside of yours. I just
told you that I believe institutions are a problem and we all contribute
to it. Your solution is to go somewhere else and call out someone,
although the reality is that we all play the same game, even if we play
it a two locations ninety miles apart. Driving 90 miles for me doesn't
eliminate the problem. I believe the problem then recurs somewhere
else. I believe that Goliath has to be taken down or you produce a real
change. You believe avoid Goliath I guess. Problem is, we wholly
disagree on who Goliath is and you 1) won't accept my difference; 2)
don't respect it. But continue to push on as you see fit.
My reference to crawling out of the hole is that you attempt to engage
through personal offense. So now, I choose to engage you back the same
way so perhaps you can see that you do this. But then you reduce the
engagement to only my offense so you and your arguments can play the
victim. Oh well, that sounds like a personal problem.
I'm okay with you having an opinion about the effectiveness of my
tactics. And I'm okay with disagreeing with that opinion. But I won't
change my tactics because you say that your arguments are better. I'll
change when you produce evidence that persuades me. So far, you
haven't. You produced a list as did I, and I'm okay with where I
stand.
Take care man,
Ede
Then you said something about having to disagree and told me that my
choices over the last seven years did nothing to change the community.
You said 1) I'm deceiving my students; 2) I'm exploiting them for my
personal agenda; and 3) You were going to stop engaging me.
Ede's last note to Scott: 1) Nope- they know going in, eyes open what
the challenges are. Did the students sitting at the lunch counter know
the challenges and potential consequences?
2) My agenda, whether you can understand this or not, is OUR agenda.
Their futures, their lives, as well as my children, and inextricably
linked from this struggle that you want to reduce to "my issue". Race,
understanding difference, in America is far from my issue.
3) Cool
Our discussions aren't very productive, but I suspect they
could be. I believe I have the power to change the world. This last
seven year's of my life was training for other struggles, other ideas.
I move forward optimistic that these years have given both myself, as
well as my student's the tools to fight better, towards an ultimate goal
of success. Cuz if I give up, what is left?
Anyway, as you wrote this note, I was writing a passage of the book I'm
writing, and I thought I would share it with you. Seemed timely to what
we were talking about. Anyway, take care.
Excerpt from upcoming book: Debate What!- Choosing David to Slay
Goliath.
"I could feel the gaze staring at us from all points around the donut
and coffee table. Surprise, shock, I don’t know. It was that awkward
moment of many firsts: never in the history of NDT/CEDA debate had a
debate team entered with seven of the eight participants, including the
coaches, being African American at one of the top elite tournaments, at
one of the most prestigious campuses on a par with the most exclusive
private golf clubs. Never, not even close. In over 40 years since the
end of segregation, with all of the past Black colleges that debated
during segregation but stopped during integration because to compete
with white schools, they would have to adopt the fast specialized form
of debate. In the almost decade of urban debate leagues, with the
failed promise of bringing large numbers of Black and Brown children to
the top ranks of college debate, we stood only miles from the MLK
museum, as a new history in the making. A predominately Black varsity
nationally competitive debate team standing on the Emory campus in the
fall of 2003, stood ready to compete, albeit differently than any squad
had during the 40 year history of speed debate. But we were ready for
the challenge, or at least we thought we were.
As part of our cultural connection to days of Civil rights
struggles of the past, we dressed alike, wearing a black and red
University of Louisville Debate Society shirt with our names on it.
Tomorrow we would wear all Black, and even on elimination day, we all
dress how we wanted, but your attire had to represent the University.
We wanted to visual demonstrate our resolve, our collectivity, and that
we chose to be different, we chose to be David facing the Goliaths of
intercollegiate policy debate."
Preempt and last thoughts:
Ironically, the difference between you and I and many of my friends is
that not only do I think I have and can change the debate community, I
think it is my destiny to try and I won't stop because you disagree.
And by the way, you'll probably use the fact that I'm posting the
backchannel notes as some ethical violation, but guess what, your
decision to make your first public post in a tone that ignores the
developed, and nuanced discussion that already happened, a more serious
ethical breech. Just consider my posting as a preempts of where this
public argument would have ended, so I don't have to waste my time
reanswering questions already asked and answered. I kind of think your
only purpose now is to try and discredit me so I don't upset the world
you live in, and you are willing to do so by any means necessary. Good
luck...
>>>
From: Gordon Stables <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 11/14/2007 10:30 AM
Subject: [CEDA-L] FW: Stop the hypocrisy NOW! Don't include race!
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 11:45 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [CEDA-L] Stop the hypocrisy NOW! Don't include race!
Gordon, Please re-post the following to CEDA-L because I am not a
member of
this
list-serve:
Ede is calling me out on a listserve that I do not currently subscribe
to,
but I
want my position know given that he is using my name on a coaches
website.
Point-blank, I CANNOT be the basis of Ede's and Louisville's
complaints
abou
t
policy debate for the past five years. Why? Because I have not been an
active
coach of a policy program for the past five years. I have only been
recently
coaching. I resent being the only person identified as part of some
conception
of "racism in debate." If you are going to name names Ede, I suggest
you
name
people that actually are in control of the activity. But, I don't think
you
will because your desire to maintain friendships overwhelms your
so-called
revolution. Yeah, that's right, I said it--it ain't a revolution until
you
piss
off the people you grew up with. Hanging with you friends at a
tournament
that
stands for everything you supposedly oppose while ignoring a tournament
that
was just an hour away smacks to me of a form of deletentism, rather
than
true
activism.
Ironically, the same week I am being accused of some form of racism by
Ede,
I
was too busy judging Ede's teams at Appalachian State's tournament to
read;
or
respond. Where was Ede? Was he supporting regional debate tournaments?
No,
he
and his "top teams" [elitism]were buying into the NDT-myth and engaging
in
the
same NDT
death march that every other wannabe "first round bid" team went
through
this
weekend.
All I got to say on this is issue of being insensitive to his
complaints is
that
Ede's teams can speak to whether I gave them a fair judgment in the
round I
judged and whether or not I spent at least forty or more minutes
explaining
to
them how to make their criticism of current debate practices more
effective.
We
had a great discussion on why the current state of policy debate sucks
and
what
needs to be done to solve the problem. Where were you, Ede, to be
involved
in
THAT discussion? Where were YOU when I was wanting to talk about how
to
REALLY
break this system down?
So, Ede, I don't know how I have been sucked into being some poster-boy
for
racism
in debate--especially when I am simply a small school coach, making a
point
to
go to traditonal regional tournaments, and actively recruiting
minorities
and
underrepresented groups into his program. If you would have been at
the
local
tournament, you would have seen the results--the "put my money where
my
mouth
is results"--of my efforts to recruit women and minorities. But, oh, I
forgot,
you were too busy playing poker with dem good ol' boyz at Wake.
If pointing out hypocrisy is a crime, then I guess I am guilty and I
will
take
my
lumps. But I think that Ede personally attending Wake, complaining that
the
system is racist and unfair, etc., smacks of the ultimate form of
hypocrisy.
Ede, you say "...Elliot, where he repeatedly makes a claim that all
Louisville
does is cry foul on race in debates." Well, based on my personal
experience,
I
agree with that statement. I won't back away from that assessment. I
found
it
quite ironic that I judged a round in
which there was an
African-American male, one white female, and TWO African-American
females
debating, only to have Ede's team make the same EXACT arguments in the
round
as
if they were debating two redneck guys from Ku Klux Klan University. Am
I
the
only person who see a problem with a team of minority students pointing
the
finger at another group of minority students and making the same claims
they
would make against two white males from prvileged backgrounds? It was
quite a twilight-zone moment then watching a speaker spread in the 2NC
in
order to extend his partner's "speed is bad" kritik. I wonder whether
this
is
a true form of revolutionary rhetoric, or just a one trick pony
strategy
that
has lost its shine. Is the Louisville project a real revolutionary
movement
anymore, or has it been reduced to merely another strategy to win a
few
rounds,
on par with a team reading the same Focault or Derrida critique, every
round,
on the affirmative and the negative, for five years straight? Why not
cut
some
cards on the topic and then bust out the "racism in debate " kritiks
when
they
actually apply?
Ede, if you a
re going to call me out on such a personal level, why not
publicly call out the Directors of programs that you think are the
true
causes
of the issues you raise. It CANNOT BE ME, because I have not been
around for
the past five years as a coach. I was not, and have never been a member
of
the
CEDA Executive Committee. I was not, and will never be, and member of
the
AFA
NDT Board. I damn sure am not on this CEDA TOPIC COmmitte that is
geared to
meet
the needs of the top twenty varsity NDT teams--at the exculsion of
other
college
students who never had access to high school debate, or have to work
in
order to
stay in school! So maybe you should sling some mud their way. Or am I
just a
convienent scapegoat because I am not part of your old-school, elitist,
NDT
clich?
I would have loved to have talked to you personally, Ede, about the
state of
policy debate, but you were too busy
sleeping with the enemy and giving into the same racist system that you
so
often criticize. I support your ideas more than most, but I think you
unfairly
single me out
simply because I am willing to engage you an a painfully open
discussion of
your
ideas and tactics toward changing college policy debate in America. Why
not
call
out those who silently control the system that you claim to want to
change.
You
know who they are better than I do. Please share.
Scott Elliott
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