We're Discontinuing Debate Rankings
We're Discontinuing Debate Rankings
Here's Why:
Since 2014, ISD has been the name sponsor of Debaterankings.com, a website that compiled results from national and regional tournaments across the country to create annual rankings of speech and debate competitors. Today, we are discontinuing Debate Rankings. Instead of just doing so quietly, we want to explain why we are making this decision.
Of late, there have been increasing discussions in the speech and debate community about the toxicity of “clout culture” and how those pestilential norms seep into all aspects of our activity, negatively impacting both students and coaches. Through the dedication of a number of organizations who work to gather personal testimony, data, and academic research, we are just now beginning to understand the scope of the harms perpetuated; harms that begin with exclusion and run headlong into racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry that haunt our activity. These discussions and research are important, and their findings are valid.
While the problems facing our community are far from new, these recent discussions should prompt all of us to evaluate our role in these subversive, detrimental norms. Above all, we should each be working to make our community a more inclusive and equitable space for all.
It is that reflection that led us to this point today. We have come to realize with no doubt that DebateRankings.com and other, similar ranking sites directly contribute to the harmful “clout culture” that is instrumental in making speech and debate a less accessible, inclusive space.
We understand and embrace that speech and debate is a fundamentally competitive activity, but that competitive aspect occurs within the bounds of educational rounds and educational tournaments. The experiences of specific rounds or tournaments, and the wins and losses associated with them, is what grounds this activity as an educational one where even students who lose gain valuable experiences and skills to help them grow into stronger speakers, critical thinkers, and better human beings. To remove the blanket of nuance that aligns education with competition is to reduce our activity to something it shouldn’t be.
In rankings alone, there is no such educational grounding. Providing a random, numerical value to a win or final placing is in no way educational, but rather just an exercise in vanity. Just look at how these rankings are utilized within our community. Whether they were used to create “threat lists” on social media or used in the increasingly toxic college admissions process as a synonym for talent, this reality we’ve created is counterproductive to our collective goal of increasing access to this life-changing activity.
Ultimately, “clout culture” places disproportionate value on a grossly simplistic view of “success;” one that perpetuates a status quo that ignores the voices of those most marginalized within speech and debate. Rankings don’t acknowledge the barriers to access in our activity and when the data increasingly shows that ‘highly qualified’ judges, who are predominantly white, male, and heteronormative, are disproportionately awarding wins or high ranks to people who look just like them, then it’s time for us to redefine how we gauge what makes a debater ‘successful’.
We are not naive enough to believe that discontinuing DebateRankings.com will solve the problem of “clout culture” or end the injustices that continue to face marginalized communities in this activity. However, we believe that this is one small step in the right direction and, that when we have the opportunity to take such a step, we should do it without hesitation. At ISD, we remain committed to creating a safe, inclusive, and just speech & debate community for ALL students and we hope that you will join us in that effort. Together, we can ensure that speech and debate can truly be positively experienced by all students, not just those that win the most trophies.
Of late, there have been increasing discussions in the speech and debate community about the toxicity of “clout culture” and how those pestilential norms seep into all aspects of our activity, negatively impacting both students and coaches. Through the dedication of a number of organizations who work to gather personal testimony, data, and academic research, we are just now beginning to understand the scope of the harms perpetuated; harms that begin with exclusion and run headlong into racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry that haunt our activity. These discussions and research are important, and their findings are valid.
While the problems facing our community are far from new, these recent discussions should prompt all of us to evaluate our role in these subversive, detrimental norms. Above all, we should each be working to make our community a more inclusive and equitable space for all.
It is that reflection that led us to this point today. We have come to realize with no doubt that DebateRankings.com and other, similar ranking sites directly contribute to the harmful “clout culture” that is instrumental in making speech and debate a less accessible, inclusive space.
We understand and embrace that speech and debate is a fundamentally competitive activity, but that competitive aspect occurs within the bounds of educational rounds and educational tournaments. The experiences of specific rounds or tournaments, and the wins and losses associated with them, is what grounds this activity as an educational one where even students who lose gain valuable experiences and skills to help them grow into stronger speakers, critical thinkers, and better human beings. To remove the blanket of nuance that aligns education with competition is to reduce our activity to something it shouldn’t be.
In rankings alone, there is no such educational grounding. Providing a random, numerical value to a win or final placing is in no way educational, but rather just an exercise in vanity. Just look at how these rankings are utilized within our community. Whether they were used to create “threat lists” on social media or used in the increasingly toxic college admissions process as a synonym for talent, this reality we’ve created is counterproductive to our collective goal of increasing access to this life-changing activity.
Ultimately, “clout culture” places disproportionate value on a grossly simplistic view of “success;” one that perpetuates a status quo that ignores the voices of those most marginalized within speech and debate. Rankings don’t acknowledge the barriers to access in our activity and when the data increasingly shows that ‘highly qualified’ judges, who are predominantly white, male, and heteronormative, are disproportionately awarding wins or high ranks to people who look just like them, then it’s time for us to redefine how we gauge what makes a debater ‘successful’.
We are not naive enough to believe that discontinuing DebateRankings.com will solve the problem of “clout culture” or end the injustices that continue to face marginalized communities in this activity. However, we believe that this is one small step in the right direction and, that when we have the opportunity to take such a step, we should do it without hesitation. At ISD, we remain committed to creating a safe, inclusive, and just speech & debate community for ALL students and we hope that you will join us in that effort. Together, we can ensure that speech and debate can truly be positively experienced by all students, not just those that win the most trophies.