Round 1 Motion: This House believes that parents should raise their kids to be technology-averse.

Round Start: 9:09 AM

Round 2 Info Slide: Both Afro-futurism and Afro-pessimism refer to approaches in exploring Black experiences through different cultural aesthetics. Afro-futurism evaluates the past and future to create better conditions for the present generation of Black people through the use of advanced technology, often presented through art, music, and literature. Some examples of Afro-futurist works are Black Panther (Marvel) and Janelle Monae’s The ArchAndroid (2010). Alternatively, Afro-pessimism is a lens of interpretation that accounts for, and focuses on the ongoing effects of racism, colonialism, and historical processes of enslavement and their impact on structural conditions as well as the lived experience and embodied reality of African Americans. Some examples of Afro-pessimist works are Twelve Years A Slave by Solomon Northup (1853) and Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly (2015). 

Round 2 Topic: This House supports Black authors writing fiction through a lens of Afro-futurism over Afro-pessimism.

Round Start: 11:28 AM.

Round 3 Info Slide: The Dodd-Frank act is the most far-reaching Wall Street reform in history. It is a 2010 piece of legislation in response to the 2008 financial crisis that increases restrictions on lending and investment and heavily increasing oversight and stress testing. It is designed to limit risk-taking and safeguard institutions against unforeseen shocks. Credit unions and smaller regional banks were granted exemption from this in 2018 with the intention of increasing their competitiveness with larger financial institutions.

Round 3 Motion: This House would re-implement the Dodd Frank banking regulations on all banking institutions including community banks and credit unions

Round Start: 3:09

Round 4 Info Slide: On December 7, 2022, Ukrainian culture secretary Oleksandr Tkachenko published an op-ed in The Guardian calling on western nations to boycott Russian culture (literature, music, dance, theater, etc) until Russia’s war against Ukraine ends.

Round 4 Motion: This House opposes the Ukrainian government’s call for a boycott on Russian culture.

Round Start: 5:20

Round 5 Info Slide: In Ursula K. LeGuin's story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, she describes a utopian city whose prosperity relies on the perpetual suffering of a single child. For all citizens to live in happiness and peace, one child lives in filth, darkness, and pain forever. If this were to change the prosperity of the city would end. When they are old enough to know the truth, most citizens accept this, but some choose to leave the city and walk away from Omelas.

Round 5 Topic: 

This House would walk away from Omelas.

Round Start: 8:45 am

Elim 1 Topic: This House regrets Hollywood.

Round Start: 11:27 AM

Elim 2 motion: In authoritarian regimes, This House Prefers martyrdom over grassroots organizing as a means of effective protest.

Round Start: 3:27 PM

Finals Motion: Given the technology to reproduce with a push of a button, This House Prefers a world without sex or sexual desire.

Round Start: 5:38 PM