Debate

A part of Wise's book that particularly resonated with me was Wise's recount of his experience on the debate team in high school. While the terminology and references he makes to debate may have been lost on the typical reader, I found myself immediately reminiscing on my debate team days.

I was captain of the debate team in my high school and the team exclusively focused on the type of policy debate that Wise refers to. Thinking about the team I captained, everyone was white with the exception of one Indian boy. Thinking about the league my high school was a part of, I remember almost every single team being completely white with the exception of one black and a few Asian debaters.

But what makes the practice of debate such an obvious sign of white privilege is not the racial composition of participants necessarily, but the subject matter. Debaters take major world events like terrorism, food shortages, and energy initiatives and prepare an affirmative action plan along with an arsenal of research to negate any alternative plan that comes their way. However, as Wise states, teaching people to make a game out of real life situations is dangerous. Serious world issues are turned into abstractions in which debaters pull apart the details and formulate irrational cause and effect events in order to simply win the game. Debaters are only able to speak freely on the topics of poverty and economics because it is an issue that does not affect them. They can hover above from their position of power and turn policy into game. It is a privilege to have this perspective.

The debate topic I remember most clearly had to do with welfare in the United States. The affirmative plan my team had developed was one in which welfare was slowly phased out and all funds would be reallocated to government approved private charities. In practice, this plan would have disastrous and disgusting effects on society. In debate theory, this was a bullet proof plan that very few teams had evidence against and we had enough biased sources to make ourselves sound right.

What's even worse? I grew up on welfare. And the fact that my family worked itself out of poverty to the point where I now live in a nice suburb and attend a private college can be at least partially attributed to white privilege. There was a tinge of disgust in my voice when I read the ultra-conservative sources which supported our plan by describing how the welfare system is ineffective and is just taken advantage of. But at the same time, there I was, elevated by white privilege playing a game with a social issue that had even directly affected my life.

It's kind of sad to think about. I enjoyed the thrill and excitement of debate, but in the end, it's all just kind of a sad game that prepares people to go on to play the sad game of politics. Whether it's out of touch high school students making a game out of policy or out of touch politicians making a game out of policy, the clouding of perspective that white privilege offers detracts from real understanding.