Cross-X.

• Author: Hall, Brad

Cross-X. By Joe Miller. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006; pp. 480. $26.00 cloth; $16.00 paper.

Joe Miller's Cross-X explores issues of race, class, academic equality, and democratic participation through the lens of a policy debate team at an inner city high school. Miller, a reporter for The Pitch, begins his coverage of the debate team as a journalist to profile the one bright spot among an otherwise impoverished and academically deficient high school, but by the end of his experience, his views on debate and education are radically transformed.

The book is divided into four sections. Part One, "The Constructives," introduces the setting for the book: the debate team at Central High School in Kansas City, Missouri. The squad, led by coach Jane Rinehart, is composed of students at a school where metal detectors, police offers, low graduation rates, and the death of students are a normal part of life. The debate team is a rare outlet for students who desire academic stimulation and college opportunities, but frequently are denied these paths by virtue of growing up in one of the country's worst school districts. Miller focuses on two debaters throughout the book: Marcus Leach, a senior whose life goal is to be a politician, and Ebony Rose, a sophomore living with relatives while his mother tries to kick a drug habit.

Rinehart and Leach engage in several battles with the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) over travel restrictions that prevent the Central debate team from participating in the prestigious Tournament of Champions (TOC). Qualifying for the TOC requires success at several national tournaments, but the MSHSAA is reluctant to approve Rinehart's requests to participate in these tournaments. These clashes are seen by Miller as part of a larger struggle for equal access in the educational system. At the squad's first tournament Miller documents successful performances by wealthy schools from Chicago and Atlanta. At subsequent tournaments, Central debaters experience racism and discrimination because their school is a member of the Urban Debate League (UDL), an organization intended to promote minority participation in academic debate. Leach and his partner, Brandon Dial, lose a chance at a coveted TOC bid to an all-white team who uses the philosophy of Michel Foucault to defend colorblindness against Central's affirmative case that calls for an end to racial disparities in mental health access. Miller...