On Oct. 21, University of Miami debaters Delphine Djomo and Iman Sami advanced into the semifinal debates at the Social Justice Debates Fall Opener, hosted online by The George Washington University. The two debaters qualified for the semifinals in impressive fashion, winning all four of their preliminary debates against outstanding competition including The University of Vermont, Morehouse College, Howard University, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and The George Washington University, among others. In semifinals, the debating duo lost the decision to the eventual tournament champions from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
In the words of the debate organizers, “the Social Justice Debates aspire to promote productive and rigorous debates challenging current and future thought leaders to consider issues of justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunity, and privilege in U.S. society.”
Rather than professional debate coaches, many of the judges are activists, professionals, and scholars whose work centers around the debate topic. The topic for this year’s Social Justice debates is “The adoption of a mandatory racial desegregation policy for K-12 public schools is desirable.” In addition to competition, the event generates increased education, dialogue and involvement in issues, activities, and scholarship promoting social justice.
On Nov. 5, the UM Debate Team will travel to Burlington, Vermont to compete in the second Social Justice Debates event of the year. This will be the first UM Debate travel since February 2020.
For more information, contact UM Debate Director David Steinberg at dave@miami.edu.
To learn more about the Social Justice Debates, visit https://www.civicdebateconference.org/socialjusticedebates.
