High school debate has a problem with racism and sexism, participants say, and is overdue for its own "Me Too" moment.
HuffPost senior reporter Emma Gray spoke to 11 former high school debaters who describe a community culture that tacitly empowers abusive leaders and encourages harmful behaviors. These young people are all deeply passionate about debate, and many later coached debate or competed at the collegiate level. But they say its exclusionary nature and its lack of clear, centralized governing structures have made it slow to change.
Must Reads talked to Emma about her story, and where high school debate fits in the national Me Too picture.
How did you come upon this story?
I got a tip from a friend saying that a couple of the women who had started an Instagram account collecting stories of abuse within the high school debate community were looking to speak to a reporter. The account, @speechanddebatestories, already had more than 300 anonymous accounts of sexual assault, harassment, microaggressions, overt racism, homophobia and transphobia. I reached out to the creators, and it snowballed from there.
Does debate have a more problematic environment than other similar high school activities? Why?
It’s not that debate is inherently more problematic than other intense high school activities, but it is highly insular. It is also unique in terms of the amount of travel it requires (often overnight and out-of-state travel), and how much time it takes up (multi-day a week practices until late, competitions on weekends). One of the former debaters I spoke to likened being an elite debater to being a member of a very intense, elite sports team. It’s also an inherently exclusionary activity because it requires a significant amount of financial resources to fund travel and tournament registration fees. This means that the participants tend to skew white, male and rich.
High school debate also does not have clear, central governing structures, nor does it have clear judge and debate camp accreditation processes. This means that elite debaters can graduate high school and essentially go right into coaching and judging kids who are just a couple years younger than them.
This all results in a hypercompetitive environment with very little adult oversight, and a population who has been trained to pick each other’s intellect apart. That, coupled with a lack of clear structures for reporting abuse, leaves significant room for abusive behavior to occur and go unchecked.
What impact is this climate having on young women and BIPOC who are involved in debate?
Women and people of color are severely underrepresented in the elite high school debate community, which means that the culture is largely dictated by cisgender, straight, white men. This leads to an atmosphere in which women, queer people, trans and non-binary people, and people of color face consistent microaggressions, from being told their arguments are “too emotional” or “bitchy,” to groups of kids sending racist group texts about Black and brown debaters. This is exhausting and demoralizing for the people on the receiving end of these microaggressions.
There is also a significant culture of fear cultivated around reporting incidents of assault, harassment and abuse. Young women and POCs worry about being ostracized from a community that is the backbone of their social and academic life. There is also a legitimate fear of litigation. Perpetrators in the debate community are notoriously litigious, and many of them have the family resources to be.
What's different about how young people are organizing around this?
This work isn’t new. However, the difference is that these Gen Zers and young millennials have access to massive platforms on which to do this organizing — Instagram, TikTok, etc. They also have the benefit of coming at issues of abuse within a community after the nation has undergone a massive, sustained dialogue about sexual assault, harassment, misconduct and power dynamics for nearly three years. | 
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