Green,+Perry+W

Perry W. Green, III [6 years debating – 6 years coaching] Judging Philosophy

I debated at Jones College Prep HS in Chicago for four years and at the University of Louisville for two years. During the 2008-09 academic year, I returned to the activity via coaching my brother’s debate team, Morgan Park HS. When I left debate in college, I became deeply involved in politics and “community organizing.” After college, I spent a number of years working as a political consultant. I believe that this activity is absolutely pertinent to empowering individuals and communities. Currently, I serve as the Program Director of the Bay Area Urban Debate League. This has a deep impact on the way I view debate.

First and foremost, I think civility in debate is important. BE NICE. When you are mean, rude, condescending etc, be prepared for some of the worst speaker points you have ever seen. There is a clear delineation between competitiveness and being mean.

I really do not have a predisposition towards any arguments in particular. However for all of you who are astute and aware of the college debate community, Yes, I debated at the University of Louisville, known for an “nontraditional” style of debate. What does this mean? I like critical arguments and in particular I have a keen awareness of arguments regarding race, gender, class and sexuality. Therefore, I have a very high threshold for evaluating critical arguments. I fundamentally believe that critical arguments, kritik’s in particular, question the basic assumptions of affirmative cases – therefore they are debated at pre-fiat levels. Ironically, I can understand and evaluate more traditional arguments, however I am not the judge who you can convince that a critical affirmatives or critical argumentation will destroy debate.

The particulars not covered above

Topicality – I believe topicality is a voting issue, I rarely vote on Topicality.

Theory – As the case with most arguments in debate, Theory is no exception, arguments need impact analysis. Tell me why it is important to vote on Conditionality Bad etc. Otherwise you leave me to my own devices and you probably will not be happy with that outcome.

Cross-Examination – One of the most under utilized times in a debate. People need to ask questions rather than trade evidence. It sets up links for your disads, K’s and the like. A great time to indict the other teams evidence, and a whole host of things. Everyone asks “Can we tag team cross-x?” Yes, you can however typically what ends up happening is three people end up dominating the cross-examination and the person who is supposed to be answering or asking questions is not one of the three dominating, and to quote popular culture it is not a good look...

Framework – I absolutely HATE the argument that “Policy Debate is about competing policy ideas” or “Traditional policy debate frameworks are best for evaluating debates.” It is fundamentally antithetical to everything I believe about debate. This is a very hard debate for most teams to debate – however, if you do it well I am more likely inclined to evaluate these arguments.

General points – I think its critical for teams to slow down when reading tags and cites because I think I can flow fairly well but its very difficult to flow otherwise…Evidence from a Geocities website is a bad idea, evidence quality is important to me. My interpretation of debate is that //debate is unique because we can have __debates__ __about debate__// – justify/impact your arguments. Impact analysis is absolutely critical for me in terms of evaluating debates. I cannot stress that enough.

Any questions – just ask. Finally, HAVE FUN!