Debate Coach, Caught Conspiring to Blacklist Critic, Feels “Violated”

By Nicholas Stix

Tammi Peters feels “violated”—by me. After all, she was only conspiring with some students and debate coaches to destroy me professionally, by getting me blacklisted from ever being published again. And then I had the nerve to go and write about it! In her mind, that makes Peters, a debate teacher at Golden (CO) High School, the victim of the piece.

So, conspiring to get someone professionally blacklisted is fine, but the target had better keep his mouth shut, should he find out about it. Moreover, Peters thinks it is immoral for the target (whom folks who are not members of a pseudo-intellectual cult would call “the intended victim”) even to check up, through perfectly lawful and ethical means, on what his enemies are publicly saying about him.

This whole business started when I wrote an article for VDARE.com on the scandalous final of the Cross Examination Debate Association national tournament in Wichita, Kansas last spring. Towson (MD) University’s Deven Cooper and Dayvon Love were pitted against the University of Kansas’ Nate Johnson and Chris Stone: “Towson U. ‘Great Debaters’ Mau Mau Liberal Judges”.

Cooper and Love, who are black, refused to debate the assigned topic, which required that teams argue “affirmative” or “negative,” regarding a proposed American policy of “constructive engagement” with Moslem governments and societies in the Mideast, Iran, and Afghanistan. Instead, they excoriated—they don’t trade in arguments—the “debate community” as being guilty of “racism, sexism, and homophobia.”

As I showed in “It Ain’t Over ‘Til the Black Team Wins: Race, Corruption, and the Academic Debate Community,” Nate Johnson, of the white KU team, decimated Cooper and Love. And yet, the eleven white judges gave Towson the victory, 7-4, with some of them leaving no doubt that they had acted out of racial loyalty to Cooper and Love.
The title of the conspiracy thread is, “White Supremacist Website Makes [sic] Cheapshots [sic] at Towson, Community.”

The “White Supremacist Website” would be VDARE.com. As far as these characters are concerned, any media operation not devoted to the destruction of the white race is “white supremacist.” On a thread begun on allied message board, net-benefits, by influential University of Wyoming debate coach Matt Stannard (see 06-30-08, 03:23 PM), “White Supremacist Journal attacks Towson Debaters,” academic debaters also made up a story, promoted by Stannard, according to which I have “ties to the KKK.” Stannard & Co. are so far left that if Lenin were reincarnated, they’d call him a “white supremacist.”

In my July 28 follow-up story at VDARE, “‘Debate Community” Organizes to Silence Critic—Me!,” I recount the so-called debate community’s frenzied reaction to my first story, though without their gutter language.

Initially, Tammi Peters was my biggest defender, making four major points variously supporting me, and contradicting Towson’s assertions: 1. Contradicting the assertions that debate is racist; the financial strains of debate are not limited to black students; 3. The language of debate is no more a hurdle for black than for white kids; and 4. Making “arguments about the state of debate [that] have no connection (and don’t even try to create a link) to the topic at hand” is unacceptable.

But Peters was also nervous about sounding supportive of me, and so she sandwiched her support within specious criticisms of me (e.g., charging me with “vitriolic rhetoric,” and suggesting I was uncivilized, criticisms that were much more appropo regarding the Towson team and most of the debate posters attacking me, including the coaches). Then, in order to assure the totalitarians on the board that she’s one of the good guys, she hunted down and posted the e-mail addresses of several outlets that have published my work, along with a supportive cheer, “Perhaps these sites will help with the revolution.”

Tammi Peters initially posted her complaint within the CEDA board’s response to my July 28 VDARE story, “White Supremacist Posts Response to Community” (leftists use the epithets “white supremacist” and “neo-Nazi” interchangeably), on Thursday, July 31, at 11:26 a.m. The following is her complete post, which she had edited before I saw it:

This response by Mr. Stix really bothers me -- mostly because I believed the posts I was making on this forum were for the eyes of members of our community: coaches, competitors and those who have been actively involved in what we do in other capacities. Folks who have a sense of who I am and the broader context of the issues within our community. I wanted to work through some issues that had been perplexing me and I wanted some feedback from those within the community. What I would say to insiders is VERY different from how I would make similar points to outsiders (I probably wouldn’t make such points to outsiders as I want to promote forensics in all possible forms). I’m angry, I’m hurt, I feel violated (somehow). I fell like someone spied on a semi-private conversation (after all, what casual observer would want to read posts on a debate forum?). I chose not to email Mr Stix; my role in this issue was limited to providing a list of Mr. Stix’s publishers. But now my comments on this forum are out there for whomever to see. My name as a coward. And just when I am hoping to have credibility linked with my study.

And I do try to make peace -- that’s part of my personality. Mr. Stix makes that seem so . . . dirty. I’m not sure how I “triangulated.”

Also, I’m not part of CEDA. CEDA isn’t at the high school level. Of course, folks who are IN this community know that.

I’d like to be able to laugh at this article -- maybe the next time I read it.
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Last edited by tpeters; Yesterday at 11:39 AM.

Only one poster on the entire thread, Tom Ferguson, had the character to put things in perspective.

does anyone else find this amusing.

Whenever a debater tells a project team in a debate round that they should focus on the resolution and maintain a policy-orinted round, they are associated with just maintaining old-school policy, “ill read more cards than you” debaters.

when somoene outside our social circle calls those projects out, they become KKK, racist pigs.

Golden High School has a grand tradition (please forgive me for linking to Wikipedia!). Thus, it is a shame that Tammi Peters should sully its reputation. But then, nowadays all sorts of famous institutions of learning daily see their reputations dragged through the mud.

I happen to believe that conspiring to professionally destroy someone, not only for disagreeing with him, but in Peters’ case, for agreeing with him but seeking to cover up that fact and thereby appease potential enemies, makes Tammi Peters unfit to teach debate. If you think the same, you might consider contacting the Jefferson County (CO) Public Schools. (Golden High School is re-opening in a new building on August 12, and its Web site is currently down. I found a telephone number of (303) 982-4258, but don’t know if that is the old or the new number.)

Jefferson County Public Schools
1829 Denver West Drive | Golden, CO 80401 | Phone: (303)982-6500

Peters’ lack of self-awareness, let alone of irony, is typical of her “community.” Of course, she thought she was posting in private, “for the eyes of members of our community.” She thought she was part of a conspiracy! Her conversation, however, was neither private nor “semi-private”—whatever that means—but on a public message board. I didn’t spy on her; I simply caught her compromising any professional integrity she might ever have had. But instead of being mortified, she’s “angry” at me! Of course, she’s a coward, and she should feel dirty.