Post by huey on Apr 10, 2008 15:08:12 GMT -5
Maybe It's Just Me: Black Greek life is ‘increasingly irrelevant’
Published: Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Last Modified: Tuesday, April 8, 2008, 11:04:57pm
Alissa Griffith / Columnist / ag180505@ohiou.edu
Exclusive, elite and with origins dating back to more than 100 years ago, black Greek life remains an integral part of black history. Otherwise known as the Divine Nine, the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) consists of predominantly black fraternities and sororities: Alpha Phi Alpha (founded in 1906), Alpha Kappa Alpha (1908), Kappa Alpha Psi (1911), Omega Psi Phi (1911), Delta Sigma Theta (1913), Phi Beta Sigma (1914), Zeta Phi Beta (1920), Sigma Gamma Rho (1922) and Iota Phi Theta (1963).
The history of Black Greek Lettered Organizations (BGLOs) tells a story of black America. It tells of young black people in the past faced with remorseless discrimination from white people on one side and a call to “cast down their buckets” on the other side, yet they still achieved incredible success. The history tells of major contributions to the community — Delta Sigma Theta marched in the national women’s suffrage movement in 1913 and Phi Beta Sigma answered a “call to arms” in 1917 as the United States entered World War I. BGLO membership rosters boast MLK Jr., Rosa Parks, Johnnie Cochran, Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Nelson Mandela, Zora Neale Hurston, Hattie McDaniels and T.C. Carson.
However, just as these BGLOs tell a story of triumph and boast notable membership, they tell a sad story of abandonment from original intent — especially at an undergraduate level. Instead of the monumental contributions to society like in the past, now the pinnacle of the undergraduate black Greek experience is the under-publicized yet still highly attended introduction to the community as a new member — otherwise known as the “pro-show” or, simply, a probate. Students wait hours for these shows to start — the same students, as one administrator pointed out, will not wait 20 minutes for a professor who is running late for class. Maybe it’s because some members are introduced, then immediately disappear from the community except for the occasional emergence at BGLO-sponsored parties. People have risked (and some have even lost) their lives in pursuit of membership, and for what?
Too many members of BGLOs have neglected community service and instead embraced self-service. For some, it is all about what joining this or that organization has done “for me” instead of what I can do (as a member of this organization) for others. Some will fight if called “paper” but shrug their shoulders at academic probation. Instead of being a support system for all black people, organizations take advantage of every opportunity to “diss” another organization. Even within organizations, some strategically stifle the advancement of their “sister or brother,” yet still wear the letters with pride. Members are supposed to be the elite — the talented tenth, as W.E.B. DuBois described, but instead are crawling across the floors of bars in a drunken stupor on Friday night — or worse, are detained to keep from physically fighting at their own parties.
What’s the point? Decades after launching, BGLOs are becoming increasingly irrelevant. The few that have a passion for the community and putting on great programs cannot expect good attendance unless it’s “pro-show” or a party (except of course the peers that want to be “picked to pledge” the next time around). As a member of a BGLO, I’m afraid that looking back in 100 years, black Greek life will be obsolete. Anything that is all about you, dies with you.
We may not be facing the same struggles as a black community that our ancestors faced in the 20th century, but we are facing new, unique problems in the black community that require attention: the prison rate, high school dropout rate, teen pregnancy and abortion rates, general apathy in college, unregistered voters, drug and alcohol abuse, fatherless homes and the dismal portrayal of black people in the media — all of these are problems that BGLOs could and should take time to address. We may not live our founders’ lives, but we can follow our founders’ dreams.
Why are we are content to step in a show, parade our “process” and worship our letters without lifting a single finger to better the community around us (or at least turn in homework)? Why aren’t we helping unite our community instead of causing division where none should exist? Why aren’t we choosing to immediately return to the original intent instead of becoming nothing more than an extraneous distraction in black Americans’ uphill climb toward total integration? It is solely up to us to reevaluate and choose to make serious changes. In the words of Winston Churchill, “We are still the masters of our fate. We are still the captains of our souls.”
Alissa Griffith is a junior journalism major and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Send her an e-mail at ag180505@ohiou.edu.
www.thepost.ohiou.edu/Articles/Opinion/Columns/2008/04/09/23680/
Published: Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Last Modified: Tuesday, April 8, 2008, 11:04:57pm
Alissa Griffith / Columnist / ag180505@ohiou.edu
Exclusive, elite and with origins dating back to more than 100 years ago, black Greek life remains an integral part of black history. Otherwise known as the Divine Nine, the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) consists of predominantly black fraternities and sororities: Alpha Phi Alpha (founded in 1906), Alpha Kappa Alpha (1908), Kappa Alpha Psi (1911), Omega Psi Phi (1911), Delta Sigma Theta (1913), Phi Beta Sigma (1914), Zeta Phi Beta (1920), Sigma Gamma Rho (1922) and Iota Phi Theta (1963).
The history of Black Greek Lettered Organizations (BGLOs) tells a story of black America. It tells of young black people in the past faced with remorseless discrimination from white people on one side and a call to “cast down their buckets” on the other side, yet they still achieved incredible success. The history tells of major contributions to the community — Delta Sigma Theta marched in the national women’s suffrage movement in 1913 and Phi Beta Sigma answered a “call to arms” in 1917 as the United States entered World War I. BGLO membership rosters boast MLK Jr., Rosa Parks, Johnnie Cochran, Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Nelson Mandela, Zora Neale Hurston, Hattie McDaniels and T.C. Carson.
However, just as these BGLOs tell a story of triumph and boast notable membership, they tell a sad story of abandonment from original intent — especially at an undergraduate level. Instead of the monumental contributions to society like in the past, now the pinnacle of the undergraduate black Greek experience is the under-publicized yet still highly attended introduction to the community as a new member — otherwise known as the “pro-show” or, simply, a probate. Students wait hours for these shows to start — the same students, as one administrator pointed out, will not wait 20 minutes for a professor who is running late for class. Maybe it’s because some members are introduced, then immediately disappear from the community except for the occasional emergence at BGLO-sponsored parties. People have risked (and some have even lost) their lives in pursuit of membership, and for what?
Too many members of BGLOs have neglected community service and instead embraced self-service. For some, it is all about what joining this or that organization has done “for me” instead of what I can do (as a member of this organization) for others. Some will fight if called “paper” but shrug their shoulders at academic probation. Instead of being a support system for all black people, organizations take advantage of every opportunity to “diss” another organization. Even within organizations, some strategically stifle the advancement of their “sister or brother,” yet still wear the letters with pride. Members are supposed to be the elite — the talented tenth, as W.E.B. DuBois described, but instead are crawling across the floors of bars in a drunken stupor on Friday night — or worse, are detained to keep from physically fighting at their own parties.
What’s the point? Decades after launching, BGLOs are becoming increasingly irrelevant. The few that have a passion for the community and putting on great programs cannot expect good attendance unless it’s “pro-show” or a party (except of course the peers that want to be “picked to pledge” the next time around). As a member of a BGLO, I’m afraid that looking back in 100 years, black Greek life will be obsolete. Anything that is all about you, dies with you.
We may not be facing the same struggles as a black community that our ancestors faced in the 20th century, but we are facing new, unique problems in the black community that require attention: the prison rate, high school dropout rate, teen pregnancy and abortion rates, general apathy in college, unregistered voters, drug and alcohol abuse, fatherless homes and the dismal portrayal of black people in the media — all of these are problems that BGLOs could and should take time to address. We may not live our founders’ lives, but we can follow our founders’ dreams.
Why are we are content to step in a show, parade our “process” and worship our letters without lifting a single finger to better the community around us (or at least turn in homework)? Why aren’t we helping unite our community instead of causing division where none should exist? Why aren’t we choosing to immediately return to the original intent instead of becoming nothing more than an extraneous distraction in black Americans’ uphill climb toward total integration? It is solely up to us to reevaluate and choose to make serious changes. In the words of Winston Churchill, “We are still the masters of our fate. We are still the captains of our souls.”
Alissa Griffith is a junior journalism major and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Send her an e-mail at ag180505@ohiou.edu.
www.thepost.ohiou.edu/Articles/Opinion/Columns/2008/04/09/23680/
"They get two Roos and a snap." ~ perroloco{=}http://s2.images.proboards.com/tongue.gif{/=}{=}http://s2.images.proboards.com/tongue.gif{/=}
COLD! Cut that out...