Maybe not....

I'm not saying that all MCGLOs have underground pledging. But if they were to have it, we all know they didn't get that idea from the NIC/NPC orgs.

How would we really know if it's "underground," though?

Here's a little secret: Long ago in a far away land, there were non-NPHC fraternities and sororities (including IFC fraternities) that wanted to "cross-pledge" with NPHC sororities and fraternities.

Everywhere this has occurred, who knows, but one account states that the NPHCers who arrived found the IFC fraternity, for example, to be doing some similar things that the NPHCers do. Not the same but similar...one's imagination should kick in here.

So...aside from traditions that are allowed "above ground," it is difficult to say what people are doing behind closed doors (which has been said in this thread, too) unless people are talking too darn much. And that happens sometimes, of course.

who?????

Certainly.

As I've said in other places around GC (but I of course am not so puffed up that I expect people to remember), I am a brother of Alpha Phi Omega as well as Alpha Phi Alpha.

I pledged APO first, and much to my surprise, I was lined up according to height and pledged on a pledge line. I earned a "nickname" but I would later learn that there was no distinguishable difference between a nickname and a line name. (I pledged Alpha four years after APO.)

I neither pledged at an HBCU nor to a chapter which at any point in its history was influenced by BGLOs, in case you were wondering. I also pledged at a school which, at that time, had no NIC or similar fraternities.

When I attended grad school, I saw that the gentlemen in the NIC fraternities also had nicknames. As I got older, I saw that men in NIC fraternities were pledged in ways similar to my APO and Alpha experiences.

I peeked at DSTCHAOS' post and can cosign it -- everybody does things differently and we might not know unless we're there. Sometimes these things have different names, but are essentially the same things. Sometimes these things are VASTLY different but have the same name.

Even though each NPHC org has MIP, some people's MIP still includes lining up and being pledged. Others don't. The name has changed (pledging) but some traditions endure.

I guess what I am wondering is what NIC or NPC people feel is the fundamental difference between a line and a pledge class?

Gotcha gotcha gotcha :)

The second line of your other post just made me smirk so I was wondering where you were headed.

^^^ OH yeah.....lol..... I just mean that by reading the NPC posts on GC over the years, other than their new member exam (if they have one), they don't seem to have a need to line up and be pledged.

I agree with you.

I think that our organizations may have more in common "behind closed doors" than we like to think. Which is why it bothers me when people assume that "white orgs" aren't "tough" because we don't "pledge" hard.

Either way, I was more referring to the fact that some cultural orgs make their pledges keep their pledgeship a secret, as opposed to NIC/NPC orgs.

And to Senusret I, there is no fundamental difference between a "line" and a "pledge class." Its just different terms.

But my point was that the fact that these cultural orgs use the terms that NPHC orgs use proves that they "borrow" a lot from the NPHC.

The name.

ETA: What PANTHERTEKE said.

This needs to go somewhere ... I don't know where, but somewhere. Can we get a GC "Exceptionally Good Quotes" thread or something? :D

Uh...well...okay....

I laughed.


Well, you were talking about "underground pledging." Although you will find NPHC, IFC, NIC/NPCers who speak openly about their "pledgeship" as it pertains to "underground pledging," this doesn't mean that NPHCers are told to keep it secret whereas NIC/NPCers are not told to do the same.

I agree that cultural orgs borrow a lot from the NPHC because many of them were founded during a time when activities were made more public and therefore more easily copied (without needing an NPHC "mentor" to assist in the building of traditions and practices). But I think there are certain aspects of "underground" that the NPHC perhaps can not (and should not because some of them aren't proud accomplishments) lay claim to that we've been given credit for.

Exactly. LOL.

I feel some kinda way about the direction of this thread.

Such as?

lol

Such as when some NPHCers line their pledges up and have them bake chocolate cream cakes for baking competitions.

We all know that strawberry cream cake is better.

ETA: Plus, baking competitions clearly originated with the NIC/NPC/IFC.

why have them bake the cake when they can walk miles in the cold for cheesecake?

-tld221
--waits for the day that i can request such with a straight face