Hi all! Bronx Science PF leadership is back to host Debate for Change 2021!

This is a completely student-run online tournament that we created to benefit organizations that support Black Lives Matter. We wanted to use our platform, as members of the Speech and Debate community, to spread awareness and support the movement in the fight against police brutality and institutionalized racism. Debate is meant as a forum for engaged and educated discussions about current events, and we thought that hosting a tournament dedicated to supporting BLM is a great way of making our voices heard. 

The massive success of last year’s first-ever Debate for Change Tournament— which raised over $2,500 in just two weeks for We the Protesters— inspired us to make the tournament an annual event. We are aware of the ways that structural racism manifests in the debate community, and we know how crucial it is to raise awareness not just about racism outside the debate space, but within our debate community as well. We are so grateful for all the support we received last year and hope that we can expand that support even more this year, with your team’s help and participation.

Here is the link on Tabroom: https://www.tabroom.com/index/tourn/index.mhtml?tourn_id=18958 

This tournament will cost $10 per person ($20 per team— if you’re a maverick, it’s still 10, though). Judges are expected to donate, too. If you can donate more, please feel free to! The point of this tournament is to raise as much money as possible, so if you feel you are able to donate more, we encourage it. 

At the same time, the tournament fee is also not intended to be a barrier to accessibility; if you are unable to afford the fee but still want to compete, please get in touch with us. We will accommodate you! Even if you are unavailable the weekend of the tournament but still want to contribute, feel free to! Donations are not just restricted to people attending/judging at the tournament and we welcome support from everyone.

To compete, we are having a completely open tournament, meaning any age group can compete (from novice to graduating debaters). Judging is open to current/graduated seniors, but if you have any questions feel free to reach out. We plan on holding only Public Forum this year.

100% of the proceeds will go to the organization The Black Trans National Advocacy Coalition, a nonprofit charity dedicated to fighting for racial justice and the Black Trans community. Students entering the tournament as competitors or judges can donate to the gofundme with the name of the team they are entering under as well. This is the best way to collect money because the finances go directly into the pockets of the organization rather than one of the students. You can check out their awesome work here: https://blacktrans.org. This is the link to the gofund me: https://gofund.me/0bc0036d

UPDATE: The tournament itself will run for just Saturday, 5/8. The original date was 5/1, we pushed it back a week! For PF, there will be 3 prelims (super tentative). It will be held on Discord (the Discord link will be posted on this site by Friday morning so you can join). The topic for PF will be the February topic (urbanization in West Africa).  

HERE IS THE DISCORD LINK FOR DFC 2021: https://discord.gg/grCfzVT2xT

Hope to see you there!!! Feel free to email us or reach out with any questions!

Debate for Change Staff