The Association of Black Students (ABS) hosted “The Great Debate,” one of the first open forums to discuss current events and fun topics as their first event for African American Celebration Month.
On Tuesday, Jan. 23, approximately 20 students gathered at Gold Room C of the Oakland Center to participate in ABS’ first event of the winter semester. The debate resembled a city council meeting, in which a topic was explained to later ask all attendees for their opinions for further conversation.
Easing into the discussion, the debate started with the controversy, “Should pineapples go on pizza?” Participants would stand up on the left side of the room to indicate “yes,” in the middle for neutrality and right for “no.”
Each participant was handed the microphone to share their opinion and reasoning, with constant ovations in support of constructive comments. With trust and support established, the event coordinators took time to introduce more complex topics.
Starting with the question “Should affirmative action be eliminated?” ABS Event Coordinator Tyliah Weathersby defined the term, gave examples and illustrated some of its implications. Once everyone had shared their thoughts, a general conversation started to explore the nuances and perspectives on the topic.
“We talked about a lot of good topics that I feel like we may not really know a lot of information about,” Weathersby said. “This was a great opportunity to be able to inform others and get others’ opinions.”
Questions regarding the end of affirmative action, lawmakers’ authority to ban books and the way slavery is taught in schools, and whether women should propose to men had almost all participants on one side of the room.
“Speaking about the current events was really good because it was informative,” ABS Secretary Chanice Petty said.
Petty added getting people to converse was a good way to start the semester.
Conversations about convicts’ right to vote, today’s usefulness of higher education, forgiving crimes through effort, and women as primary breadwinners fostered a higher diversity of opinions. Such diversity was celebrated during and after the event.
“This is the first time [we hosted the event], it was a great time,” ABS Social Media Coordinator Karmani Williams said. “It is very important that we hold events like this in order to have more people come together and have different perspectives.”
With testimonies of current events and critical questions about the state of society, the debate was balanced by casual contentions over chicken wing drums or flats and academic dress codes.
In two hours of laughter and reflection, ten questions allowed almost twenty participants to explore the complexities of African American history, gender dynamics, punitive systems and quotidian life on campus.
“I think student engagement needs to be more well-rounded and more supported on this campus,” ABS Social Media Coordinator and event host Sammi Perkins said.
“After COVID it kind of went shy almost,” Perkins added. “ABS is trying to gather all the stuff that we had before COVID back — getting people to actually share their opinions, just handing them the mic and giving them the opportunity to open up their minds.”
Weathersby said that collaboration with other student organizations and on-campus groups like the Center for Multicultural Initiatives (CMI) would be beneficial to proliferate conversations like the Great Debate.
“If we all work together, it can become a conversation without this classroom and we can kind of broaden it into a whole campus-wide conversation,” Weathersby said.
