Ahhh...The Greek Life

It's hilarious to me, these fraternities and sororities. White Anglo Saxon and African American kids living the "Greek" life is a massive contradiction in terms, but I'll get to that later. Now I personally see no purpose in a frat or sorority but I guess that's because I was never part of one. Had I pledged a frat and crossed over, I am sure the world would be putty in my hands thanks to the network. The network of brotherhood.

A frat or a sorority is all about networking and who you know. Two kids vying for the same job, both fresh out of college, one has a far better GPA than the other, with more letters of commendations under his/her belt means nothing in the face of brotherhood or sisterhood. If the person doing the hiring belonged to the same frat or sorority as the applicant, guess who's getting that job. It wouldn't matter if that kid was a drunken buffoon who rarely went to class sober, he or she is practically set for life once a part of a house.

I say that to say this, one of the last strongholds of segregation on college campuses are fraternities and sororities. While most colleges embrace diversity and inclusion, the "Greeks" do not and seems like they never will. Before you attack me, I am sure there are houses out there that are integrated, how could there not be, but for the most part it's "go be with your own". Case in point, the University of Alabama student newspaper did a story recently exposing four traditionally all white sororities who have reportedly blocked two Black females from crossing over.

One of the girls who pledged had a 4.3 GPA and had "family roots that link directly back to the university", and yet she was denied. The article in The Crimson and White which is entitled "The Final Barrier: 50 years later, segregation still exists" listed Alpha Gamma Delta, Tri Delta, Chi Omega, and Pi Beta Phi as the four sororities that denied the young ladies strictly based on their skin color alone. Why these young ladies decided to pledge these all white houses to begin with is mystifying to me, unless these women grew up in a world surrounded by those that look nothing like them.

Let's say these two beautiful young Black women grew up in predominantly white suburban enclaves. They had sleep overs with their white BFF's, dated white boys, dressed like their white friends, listened to the same music, read the same books, and grew up in a household where they were told there was no such thing as racism. All their lives they lived in a sheltered environment where they believed that their skin color didn't define them, that it wasn't going to stand in their way, that it didn't matter. I suppose after this, after being dropped from the lists of pledges of FOUR houses the world they thought they knew, wasn't the world they thought they knew. Hopefully they've taken off the rose colored glasses and they now see the world in a much more realistic light.

Kids pledge frats and sororities for the networking it can provide. A great career, security, power beyond the wildest of imaginations can be obtained through joining the right frat or the right sorority. Why white Anglo-Saxon and African-american kids choose to be "Greek" is beyond me, but it's an identifier, it's a badge of honor, it's something that says, "Hey, I was a drunken buffoon in my college days too, welcome aboard"