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Table of Contents
Responses to Pro
A/T Improves Discourse

A/T Truth and Reconciliation Committees

A/T Pro Doesn't Need to Demonstrate Feasibility/Solvency

A/T Street Names

A/T Holidays

A/T Monuments

A/T Federal Slavery Reparations

Responses to Con
A/T Minority Coalitions Destroyed

ACDA BLOCKS September-October Topic 2015

A/T IMPROVES DISCOURSE
1. Reparation discourse will only entrench beliefs further. It wont resolve them. Madyun of
the University of Minnesota explains that instead of engaging in real discourse, opponents
consistently come up with rationalizations and become even more entrenched in their beliefs.
2. Reparations encourage backwards-looking discourse. Yamamoto of the University of Hawaii
explains that reparations cause people to focus only on past injustices, instead of current
racism today. If we want to solve racism in the long term, we must stop fixating on the past and
look to the future.
3. Reparations will fuel hate speech. Brophy of the University of Alabama explains that most
modern americans dont believe they should be held personally responsible for slavery. He
concludes reparations would result in a wave of resistance and anti-black backlash.
4. Look to the example of Holocaust reparations. Gabriel Schoenfield of the Hudson Institute
finds that German and Swiss reparations to Israel have unleashed a tide of anti-Semitic hate
unseen since before World War II [...] complete with hate mail, death threats, and physical
harassment on the streets. The Atlantic reports anti-semitic violence in Europe has so bad,
many Jews are already fleeing Europe.

A/T TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

1. Truth and Reconciliation means letting guilty actors off the hook. Look to south africa.
Stanley of Georgetown explains even after the commission, apartheid enforcers remained in
power untouched.
2. All words and no change. Stanley of Georgetown concludes that the TRC resulted in no real
change in social conditions and no clear attempt to address perceptions of injustice and
exclusion
3. Commissions absolve societal responsibility. A report from the Center for the Study of
Violence and Reconciliation explains that these Commissions fixate on specific individual
perpetrators, rather than discussing societies role in atrocity. In South Africa, 84% of exapartheid supporters placed all the blame on their leaders and claimed total innocence for
themselves. A commission will prevent American society from accept responsibility for the
horror of slavery.

September-October 2015
American Competitive Debate Association

ACDA BLOCKS September-October Topic 2015

A/T PRO DOESNT NEED TO SHOW
FEASIBILITY/SOLVENCY
1. The devils in the details. Posner of Uchicago explains that the morality reparations depends
entirely on how reparations are being paid. For example, if the PRO advocates for paying
reparations by enslaving white americans, that would obviously be immoral. We need to know
how PRO plans to pay reparations. Unless the PRO specifies what type of reparations they are
advocating for, making a moral judgement is literally impossible.
2. Reparationists have many different goals. Brophy of Alabama University explains that
proponents of reparations have many different and often contradictory goals -- from healing
historical wounds, to achieving economic equality, to dismantling white privilege. Unless pro
tells us how theyre going to try to solve the problem, it is impossible to have a meaningful
debate.
3. Look to the history of philosophy. An article from Grazyk of Minnesota state explains that
the historical philosophical consensus is that there is no moral obligation to do impossible tasks.
If Pro cant show that reparations are feasible and would benefit blacks, there cant be a moral
obligation to do so.
4. Think about it logically. If someone is drowning, and you dont know how to swim, do you
have an obligation to save that person and kill yourself in the process? Of course not.

September-October 2015
American Competitive Debate Association

ACDA BLOCKS September-October Topic 2015

A/T STREET NAMES
1. Street names send the wrong message. James E Young of the University of Sanat Cruz
explains street names send the message that the struggle is over. He concludes that the more
monuments almost always results in less contemplation, reflection, and discussion over the
issues at stake. Street names relegate the civil rights movement to the history books, rather
than acknowledging the struggle that continue to this day.
2. Dont let them advocate for only renaming streets and nothing else. Mia Swart of the
University of Johannesburg explains that Street naming in itself can not achieve rehabilitation.
The Pro team must advocate other types of reparations if they want street names to mean
anything whatsoever.
3. Repainting a sign and changing some street maps doesnt make it a reparation. Westley of
Tulane University provides two criteria for determining what is a reparations to african
americans. First, Westley explains reparations must have a significant monetary cost in order to
show that the United States truly wishes to make blacks whole for the losses they have
endured. Second, Westley says reparations must provide real benefit to the black economic
situation, they can not merely be symbolic. Changing the n ames of street signs fails both these
criteria it costs us nothing and its purely symbolic. Its not a reparation.
4. Resist meaningless symbolism. Savali of the Root argues that symbolic gestures by the
federal government conceal the fact that there is no real change, there is no action being taken.
As Savali concludes, symbolism isnt progress, its hush money.
5. Street names are not topical not reparations to african americans. They serve the whole
community not just a single race. Alderman of the University of Tennessee explains that street
names serve as public memorials for the entire local community to reflect and develop a local
historical consciousness.
6. The Federal Government doesnt name streets cities do. Court cases Hagerty v. Chicago,
Bacon v. Miller, and Brown V. Topeka all clearly establish that city governments are responsible
for naming streets, not the federal government.
7. Cities are the best actor not the federal government. Catherine Nicholas of the CADO
Real Estate Group explains that changing a street name is a logistical nightmare and requires
advocates to reconcile the city-level interests of residents, officials, and the police and fire
departments. The federal government doesnt have the time to dabble in local politics in every
city across the United States.
8. A federal policy to change street names doesnt make sense. Street names are meant to
memorialize local history. But according to the World Atlas, 14 US states didnt even enter the
union until after slavery had been abolished. These states have no local slavery history. Street
naming should be on a city by city basis, not a federal mandate.
9. Empirically, a local approach to changing street names is what works. A 2013 Article from
the NY Times explains that in Germany, activists have succeeded in increasing the number of
streets named after women. The article explains these activists concentrated on local city
authorities, not national authorities.

September-October 2015
American Competitive Debate Association

ACDA BLOCKS September-October Topic 2015

A/T HOLIDAYS
1. Renaming a day on a calendar doesnt make it a reparation. Westley of Tulane University
provides two criteria for determining what is a reparations to african americans. First, Westley
explains reparations must have a significant monetary cost in order to show that the United
States truly wishes to make blacks whole for the losses they have endured. Second, Westley
says reparations must provide real benefit to the black economic situation, they can not merely
be symbolic. Federal holidays fail both criteria. They have minimal monetary cost and are purely
symbolic. They are not reparations.
2. Holidays whitewash the legacy of black leaders. Look to the example of Martin Luther King
day. Cornell West of Princeton University reminds us that the FBI once called MLK the most
dangerous man in America. He was a radical leader, a militant activist who was arrested 30
times, who believed in nonviolence but was no pacifist. But this image has been totally
whitewashed by MLK Day. Bianco of Hunter college explains MLK has been converted into a
kind of white "dream" of nonviolence that makes white people comfortable. Dont insult the
legacy of black americans by creating whitewashed federal holidays in their name.
3. Federal holidays are hush money. Savali of the Root argues that symbolic gestures by the
federal government only serve to conceal the fact that there is no real change, there is no real
action being taken. As Savali concludes, more symbolism isnt progress, its hush money.
4. Federal holidays send the wrong message. James E Young of the University of Sanat Cruz
explains Monuments send the message that the struggle is over. He concludes that the more
monuments almost always results in less contemplation, reflection, and discussion over the
issues at stake. Federal holidays relegate the civil rights movement to the history books, rather
than acknowledging the struggle that continue to this day.

September-October 2015
American Competitive Debate Association

ACDA BLOCKS September-October Topic 2015

A/T MONUMENTS
1. Spending a couple million on a pretty statue doesnt make it a reparation. Westley of
Tulane University provides two criteria for determining what is a reparations to african
americans. First, Westley explains reparations must have a significant monetary cost in order to
show that the United States truly wishes to make blacks whole for the losses they have
endured. Second, Westley says reparations must provide real benefit to the black economic
situation, they can not merely be symbolic. Building a monument fails both these criteria. CNN
explains the MLK monument cost 120 million, or .0003% of the federal budget. It cost nothing
and is purely symbolic. Its not a reparation.
2. Monuments send the wrong message. James E Young of the University of Sanat Cruz
explains Monuments send the message that the struggle is over. He concludes that the more
monuments almost always results in less contemplation, reflection, and discussion over the
issues at stake. Monuments relegate the civil rights movement to the history books, rather than
acknowledging the struggle that continue to this day.
3. Monuments whitewash black legacies. Look to the example of the Martin Luther King
statue. Cornell West of Princeton University reminds us that the FBI once called MLK the most
dangerous man in America. He was a radical leader, a militant activist who was arrested 30
times, who believed in nonviolence but was no pacifist. But this image has been totally
whitewashed. Bianco of Hunter college explains the monument converts MLK into a kind of
white "dream" of nonviolence that makes white people comfortable. Dont insult the legacy
of black leaders by creating whitewashed statues in their name.
4. Monuments are hush money. Savali of the Root argues that symbolic gestures by the
federal government only serve to conceal the fact that there is no real change, there is no real
action being taken. As Savali concludes, more symbolism isnt progress, its hush money.
5. Monuments perpetuate the problem they try to solve. Mia Swart of the University of
Johannasburg explains that the idea of historical monuments is purely a Western tradition.
There is no history of monument building in african cultures. Forcing african american to
remember their leaders through monuments only serves to reinforce the cultural and
ideological oppression that defined slavery and Jim Crow.

September-October 2015
American Competitive Debate Association

ACDA BLOCKS September-October Topic 2015

A/T FEDERAL SLAVERY REPARATIONS (obviously there are
other more stock responses. But you already have all of
those. Here are three that use an implicit punish the
states counterplan)
1. Focus on the real culprits. Oakes of Princeton explains that the real culprits were the
southern state governments that refused to abolish slavery even as the federal government put
pressure on them to do so. Thats why Smithsonian Magazine finds slavery was heavily
concentrated in states like Virginia, South carolina, and Georgia. Punish these guilty southern
state governments, but not the innocent ones.
2. No guilt by association. Punishing innocent states makes no sense. The Constitutional Rights
Foundation explains that when the constitution was signed, ten states had already outlawed
the slave trade. World Atlas says that 14 US states didnt even enter the union until after
slavery had been abolished. Why should we punish native Hawaiians for the crimes of 19th
century white southerners?
3. Dont punish a good deed. Oakes of Princeton explains that the federal government made
huge sacrifices to force southern states to abolish slavery and was the number one cause of
emancipation. Oakes explains the Federal government initiated a civil war and gave millions of
american lives all to force states to abolish slavery. Dont punish the Federal Government for
doing the right thing.

September-October 2015
American Competitive Debate Association

ACDA BLOCKS September-October Topic 2015

A/T Minority Coalitions Destroyed
1. Reparations strengthen minority coalitions. Look to Japanese internment reparations as an
example. Yamamoto of the University of Hawaii explains that the reparations process
developed political and legal networks in the Japanese community that were later used in four
different ways. First to assist Vietnamese American leaders in discrimination lawsuits. Second,
to assist African American leaders in pushing for Civil Rights legislation. Third, to assist Chinese
American leaders in pursuing justice for a murdered Vincent Chin. And fourth to assist Hawaiian
american leaders in pursuing reparations. Reparations strengthen minority
coalitions.Empirically, reparations strengthen coalitions.
2. Reparations strengthen international coalitions. Biondi of Northwestern University explains
the reparations push in the UN has fostered ties between African, Asian, Latin American, and
Caribbean activist groups. Biondi explains international coalitions are the key to putting
pressure on western nations and ending racial inequality.
3. There's nothing to lose. Coalitions between minority groups are rarely effective. Yamamoto
of the University of Hawaii explains that in the past, minority coalitions have consistently
collapsed due to unresolved historical grievances between minority groups and leadership
struggles between different groups. He concludes these coalitions are unlikely to create any
change whatsoever.
4. Instead of coalitions between minority groups, focus on coalitions within minority groups.
Yamamoto furthers, the most effective political force is not coalitions between minorities, but
coalitions within a minority that have a unified voice and can create real political change.
5. Reparations empirically strengthens coalitions within minority groups. Biondi further
explains the reparations process has connected political groups from all across the black activist
diaspora, unifying the black political coalition behind a single cause.

September-October 2015
American Competitive Debate Association