a sign that our academic standards have bottomed out, an all-black all-female team from Towson University won the Cross Examination Debate Association 2014 national championship with a frenetic rant, laden with hyperventilation and liberal use of the n-word. “They say the n*gga’s always already queer, that’s exactly the point…the body of the n*gger is not able to survive,” says Ameena Ruffin debating the restriction of presidential war powers authority. I wish I could transcribe more of this scintillating debate, but the Google Ebonics to English translator crashed trying to decipher this mess.I don’t think it’s possible to describe how insane this debate competition is. Luckily Peter Schiff posted a video of it on YouTube. Watch it, you won’t be disappointed. I almost wet myself it’s so funny.After the first watch-through I thought this had to be a joke, but sadly it’s a real thing. Wikipedia tells us: The Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) is the largest intercollegiate policy debate association in the United States. Throughout the school year, CEDA sanctions over 60 tournaments throughout the nation, including an annual National Championship Tournament that brings together over 175 individual debate teams from across the nation to compete for a national championship. According to an article in The Atlantic, the traditional style of debate in which participants research a subject and argue the merits of the facts has been replaced by free-formrap lyrics and personal insults. In essence, it’s like those urban “Yo mama so fat” contests. This seems culturally biased against white people to me. Maybe I’m wrong. The rules are out the window as well. This year’s topic was limiting presidential war powers, but the debaters instead argued that the American government is at war with black people. Both teams explored what they have termed “nigga authenticity” whatever the hell that is. At one point during the championship showdown one of the participants was told the clock had expired to which he replied, “F*ck the time!”Stephen A. Douglas would be so proud. Last year’s winners took home the trophy by sticking it to “historically privileged straight, white, middle-class students.”Aaron Hardy, the debate coach at Northwestern University, worries this new style of debate not only betrays the academic merit of debating, but also has devolved into an anarchic street fight.“Judges have been very angry, coaches have screamed and yelled. People have given profanity-laced tirades, thrown furniture, and both sides of the ideological divide have used racial slurs,” said Hardy. Sounds more like the set of the Jerry Springer show than an academic debate.In a move that will most certainly be seen as racist, Hardy is proposing that the competition feature an alternate category in which traditional debating rules will actually be enforced. Korey Johnson, the other half of the 2014 CEDA championship team from Towson is deeply offended that a traditional style of debate is being proposed. “Segregating debate is a bad move. With the increase in minority participation came a range of different types of argument and perspectives, not just from the people who are in debate, but the kind of scholarship we bring in,” said Johnson.I don’t know about you, but I am starting to understand why the rest of the civilized world is kicking our ass in academics.