Speechless

On August 2, someone posted a video of a verbal violence between the coach of the University of Pittsburgh debate team, Shanara Reid-Brinkley, and William Shanahan, the coach of the debate team at Fort Hays State University in Kansas.

According to the Post-Gazette, the melee ensued after Reid-Brinkley accused Shanahan of striking her from a judging panel because of her race. (Shanahan says that he did so because she gave low scores to his team in previous contests.) But instead of filing a protest through normal channels, Reid-Brinkley literally took it to the house.

It's unclear what is going to happen to either of these coaches. Unfortunately, the focus seems to be solely on Reid-Brinkley and not on Shanahan. (There is a viral video on YouTube calling on people to harass her and the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh, but no such campaign targeting Shanahan.) [*See Below] Still, lots of thinks occur to me as I view this video:

1. This is humiliating to the entire discipline of communication and rhetorical studies. Reid-Brinkley and Shanahan come from two of the top departments in the field (Georgia and UT Austin, respectively), and Reid-Brinkley teaches in one of the top departments in the field. Quite simply, these people are supposed to reflect the best that the field has to offer, which scares me.
   
2. The discipline of debate and argumentation is not about winning arguments and tournaments. It's about learning how to make and defend arguments—especially difficult and controversial arguments—with respect and civility. Both instructors have failed in the most categorical way possible.
   
3. Having an advanced degree is not the same as having emotional maturity. In fact, graduate education may hinder people from developing the human skills necessary to survive in the world. (Incidentally, priestly formation in Catholicism emphasizes human formation in addition to pastoral, intellectual, and spiritual formation. Perhaps graduate education should similarly add human dimensions to its educational programs.)
   
4. There's an edited book in here somewhere. Scholars in the field need to engage this issue, not to condemn it but to find ways out of it.
   

* I stand corrected. The same folks have put out a video on Shanahan as well.