Re: FAMU wins HCASC!

rosaparks54 <*no_reply_at_yahoogroups.com*> · Fri, 08 Apr 2005 07:18:19 -0000

--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, tfmichael1 <no_reply_at_y...> wrote:
> 
> My response to these other posts on this subject can be found here:
> http://collegequizbowl.org/forum2/viewtopic.php?p=628#628 . It's
> really long, so be warned.
> 
> Tom

Dear Uncle Tom,

I see I touched a nerve.  I thought this might irk you but I had no 
idea you had this much latent guilt on the subject to be so 
flustered you had to dignify my "pathetic" (Your words, not mine) 
post with not one but two responses each more lengthy and content 
free than the last.  (As a side note, Charlie Steinhice, why can't 
you be that as quick in posting about your own tournaments as you 
are in joining a flamewar in showing what a good guy you are?  
Perhaps ACF was too hasty in its praise of you.)

Since most people won't click you link and I don't want to be 
accused of destroying context you say:
"I'm not totally sure of the timing, but I think that it was either 
just before the first season taped or just after it had been 
broadcast, that what those of us in the mainstream of academic 
competition later called "The Ban" was put in place. The Ban was 
different from the easy choice the teams initially had to make. 
HCASC schools had initially been given a choice: you can play in 
College Bowl, or HCASC, but not both. (One reason for that is some 
of the same questions from College Bowl would be used at HCASC, or 
the cost of production would go through the roof.) Since College 
Bowl didn't come with grants while HCASC came with grants for every 
school, the choice was easy. Very few people who learned about HCASC 
had a problem with the fact the HBCU's made a choice. The Ban was a 
participation rule that said teams participating in ANY other 
tournament were ineligible for HCASC."

So basically you're saying that 1) College Bowl was so lazy it 
couldn't produce an additional question set in an era when it was 
recycling its own questions freely and 2) College Bowl economically 
coerced the HBCU's into this because of their sloth.  Schools like 
Morehouse or other solid, non-poor HBCU's were never really given a 
chance to have a meaningful choice were they?   

"The financially poorer schools recognized that more opportunities 
to play produced teams that would have advantages at the NCT. These 
resource-poor schools did not have funds to pay entry fees or 
provide transportation - and, in fact, some still don't today. The 
students didn't have the money to pay for it themselves, and frankly 
they shouldn't have had to. The belief was that the wealthier 
schools (again, relatively speaking) would gain an advantage the 
financially poorest schools could not overcome. Being at a 
competitive disadvantage meant your chance of getting the champion's 
grant was lower. But if nobody went, the playing field was level; 
and it would be the students' abilities and not the size of the 
travel budget that determined the outcome. There was also the 
feeling among some, *both* within the HBCU's *and* some of the 
partners on the advisory committee, that many of these brand new 
programs were simply not aware of how competitive and both 
tactically and strategically sophisticated the mainstream teams had 
become, and that their first experiences might be a bad one that 
turned them off the game completely."

Why does CBI wave this like Toby Keith waves the American flag every 
time someone chastises them for going along with this garbage?  Many 
teams and individuals on the OH SO SOPHISTICATED CIRCUIT which in 
the early 90's had such questions which in ACF ran a whole 2 lines 
and would be rejected by tournament editors today have demonstrated 
that constant tournament play doesn't equal success.  Hard work and 
study does and did.

Moving on to CBI's former history of inclusiveness:
"The radio show writers were among the first in the nation to grasp 
the importance of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. The tv show 
had HBCU's competing early in the 1960's, and two interracial teams 
in the 1962-63 season, which were game show firsts. The first of 
those interracial teams, Kansas City, required special security when 
it received credible death threats before their match with Wake 
Forest. College Bowl has a history of discrimination dating to the 
50's and 60's? Cite your sources! Current College Bowl employees 
from the very top down are normal human beings. Which means they're 
slightly quirky and flawed, like each of us is. There's no racism 
there, and it wouldn't be tolerated if there was."

Bravo.  That was the old regime.  Nowadays CBI patronizingly asks 
q's about the first black person/woman/(fill in underrepresented 
group here) as if they're doing some grand social service and as if 
they're status in the underrepresented group defines their entire 
being.  That's not sensitivity and inclusiveness.  That's the 
language of difference.

Finally, the one that gets me:
"Then, there's the post of the man Dan referred to as "our friend" 
in the quizbowl group, the coward calling himself rosaparks54. Let's 
say, hypothetically, that you're a student who has just returned 
from a first HCASC. experience. Even if your team went 0-7, you're 
riding on a natural high you've never reached before. And, you're 
about 20 hours total below average on sleep for the last week. You 
may have been on your first airplane flight, and even your first 
trip outside of the state of your birth, as both are pretty typical 
experiences."

Oh WOW! I'ze gets to ride on a magic flying bird!  Thanks massa for 
letting me leaves the big house long enough for this blessing!  
Riiiight.  I think it's more typical that you're a patronizing 
cracker who doesn't care about any of these people and wants to 
treat them like some grand charity case to assauge your white guilt.

"The president or chancellor of your school was there (about half of 
them were), and sat next to you at the table for both banquets. 
Andrew Young, the man you've been reading about in class, the hero 
you wrote an essay about in middle school, the man who was with the 
martyred Dr. King in Memphis that horrible day in 1968, has recently 
made a special trip to tell you that he thinks what you're doing is 
worthwhile, and that he's counting on you to some day help him with 
solutions to some national and international problems he's working 
on."

Why doesn't CBI get these people for NCT?  Since when is aiding a 
noted (I'm guessing, I've never heard of this guy in my life.) civil 
rights worker only a black concern?  Why isn't this brought to all 
the players in the country?  Wouldn't that be a more effective way 
to combat Mr. Young's problems instead of the patronizing assumption 
that hmmm Young's black, these kids are black...BINGO! Problem 
solved!

"You want to see if anyone has heard about your experience, and 
someone tells you about the message fora for circuit teams. When you 
read rosaparks54's post, interest in the circuit is no longer an 
option. It's not even a consideration."

You take issue with my anonymity.  I accept that, everyone wants to 
see their enemy.  However you should remember that just because 
someone is anonymous, doesn't mean what they say is worthless.  If 
that were the case, no one would care about the Federalist Papers.  
The point is you can write lengthy, at times self-aggrandizing, at 
times trying to assuage your conscience posts but the damn spot will 
not get out my dear Lady MacBeth by shooting the messenger.

RP 