Soror (Gina_lynn):

I think the Pan T-shirts are okay. We had a stepshow once and the shirts for the organizations in the show had all of the organizations represented in the shirt. If there is protocol around letters and symbols on the back of the shirt, I could see that being an issue. I could also see there being some dilemma if your organization's colors are not represented on the shirt. White, gold and green. Okay, that takes care of...(thinking http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif)...if you want to get "TECHNICAL" our colors are not REALLY represented in that. Many of the org's colors have white in them (REALLY), our doesn't, nor does KAPsi. I might trip but who knows...maybe they could only get three colors and those were MOST representative.

OO-OOP!!!

I have really enjoyed reading the above. Even though we are off the original topic let me add my experiences. I saw a neighbor of mine wearing an Omega Psi Phi t-shirt and she said it was her man's shirt and she had stolen it from him. I told her she obviously didn't know what she was doing and she should take it off before something serious happened to her. LETTERS ARE EARNED AND IT IS AN EARNED PRIVILEGE TO WEAR THEM.

Last month my boyfriend's mother (who I hope is my future mother-in-law) took my SGRho umbrella. I was trying not to be petty but I couldn't help it. Needless to say, I went over to her house the very next day and kindly asked for my umbrella back http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

Would that Omega man have stopped to look at the homeless BROTHER if he wasnt wearing the colors? Would he have took him shopping if what he believed to be his source of privilege wasnt at stake?

Yall have to remember ...
as highly as you think of your groups...
there are people (and yes even black people) who have never heard of them ...
or cannot differentiate one group from the other...
Until college I didnt know there was a difference between the Reds the Pinks and the Blues... or the golds, the purples etc.
Still dont see it but
in any case
SOME PEOPLE JUST DONT KNOW
Particularly in some urban neighborhoods...
where few go to college
so stop thinking someones automatically
a perp...
and get over yourselves with that beat down stuff

True?- NO ONE said that he thought the man was a perp. If you read the whole story you would see that he stopped to ask the man about the shirt because he could have been his frat brother, why is that so hard to understand?

And why was it necessary to add a superficial comment about getting over ourselves? http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/rolleyes.gif

ZetaAce

I did not say
the Omega man accused the homeless brother of being a perp...
peep my entry one mo time...
but the thread is about what happens to perps so my point is to not automatically assume someone is, but to realize some dont know and it could be an honest misunderstanding.
Which happens more than you think...
Just as the colorless rock FUBU hard now
People should make themselves aware of what they rock
but then again people are people and some pretty colors can be so inviting

the getting over part?
its true
so whats the probelm
its a universal crime of which yes even I am sometimes guilty
people too busy biggin up themselves to consider other possibilities
so
Americans get over yourselves
hampton running rappers
get over yourselves
and yall too
but if you want to get heated
Really
Ive seen more offensive things on this site posted by your fellow greeks

Still take it as you want to

read my previous post in two parts...
Part one
Im questioning if the Omega man would have recognized a brother in need if that brother wasnt wearing purple and gold. Being their whole slogan of service, manhood etc.
Are some colors what it takes to see that somebody needs help?
And the sequel
think of it as an overall response to this thread
Not meaning to patronize...
all in the interest of clarity

True?-

The beauty of the story about the frat and the homeless man is that ONCE HE KNEW FOR A FACT THE MAN WASN'T FRAT, HE STILL TOOK THE TIME TO CARE ABOUT THE MAN AS A HUMAN BEING. It appears that you simply want to be synical about the story for no (apparent) reason.

I also don't buy the idea that "some people just don't know". Why would you wear something across your body without knowing what it means? For all you know (If you don't know as you claim) my greek letters could really be the international symbols for people who like to get smacked in the back of the head by perfect strangers. You walk around in them, and you'll end up with a concussion. That goes for paying good money to be a walking, talking billboard for companies you don't own stock in, and wearing (or commenting on) colors you know nothing about.

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If you can't raise conciousness, at least raise hell!--Rita Mae Brown

My interpretation of the story: the Omega man was so set on his letters not being violated that he bought the homeless man something else to wear other than the purple and gold.

Im not saying "I dont know" is everyones excuse or is a valid excuse from everyone. But I will tell you that if you roll through where I live people will look at you and say whats that on your chest

Why would you wear something across your body without knowing what it means? People do it all the time. You've probably done it yourself. Besides my Fubu example, what about people who rock headwraps thinking theres a whole other meaning behind it when most Africans will tell you its like wearing a baseball cap.

Or calling a sista a chickenhead without thinking about what that means.

Please this list could go on and on. The point is it can happen and it does happen. Didnt alot of people mention older parents and neighbors accidentally picking stuff up? Not everyone is trying to perp

gina_lynn,
what the other person said was true, some people just don't know. once one of my cousins and i were talking about sororites and one of my other cousins that went to community college kept asking all these questions and i remeber asking my self how could she not know. i also had someone (a female)ask me to bring them back a frat shirt and when i asked why they replied that they likes the colors. i told them no, that they could not wear that shirt because it was disrespectful. i am saying all this to say that while some people play like they don't know, aloot of people really don't know.

true,

i understand what you were saying with regards to the omega incident !!

My point isn't that there are people who don't know about "greekdom". No dobt there are those people, my point is that you shouldn't be willing to do something that amounts to endorsement (ie wearing t-shirts, doing calls, hand signs ect) without knowing what it means.

I think people are missing this point because we are using it in reference to something as "small" and (to some) "petty" as greekhood. But if someone were to walk down the street wearing a swastika (sp?) and said that they were wearing it because it was a "pretty design" (I liked the fraternity/sorority's colors), you wouldn't buy it. You are held accountable for the things which you choose to associate yourself with. Because of this you should know what the colors and symbols that you wear on your body mean.

In terms of a lot of questions about what my letters mean, I expect that and really rather enjoy it. It gives me a chance to brag, http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif and at least I know that that person had the good sense to ASK what something means rather than just go out and get a shirt and find out the hard way.

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If you can't raise conciousness, at least raise hell!--Rita Mae Brown

I'm deviating a bit from the topic here, however it is very sad that the swastika now has such negative connotations because of the the Nazi regime. It was (and still is) used in many forms in the Hindu Indian culture to represent positive things...however, even knowing this, my own default reaction is shock, when I do see a swastika. It's a horrible example of how a symbol has become twisted to represent completely opposite of what it truly means, and the misrepresentation has so thoroughly pervaded social consciousness.

I guess the moral of the story is definitely in keeping with the point of discussion: educate yourself about the symbols you see around you, and what they mean to the symbol's originators or owners. And furthermore, don't assume that just because you see a symbol(s), you can make a blanket assumption about what/who you see associated with it.

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equeen
A Lioness has her Pride!
@>--;--
Alpha Sigma Kappa - Women in Technical Studies

[This message has been edited by equeen (edited July 14, 2000).]

Let's not pretend. First off, we KNOW some people just don't CARE what the shirt says! I know quite a few people who don't know a Greek from a Bi-State Bus. People act so haughty sometimes. If you read what true? was saying, you'd know that it DOES have some merit. As far as 'knowing what you wear on your body means', if we were heading that, then all of these clothes with Chinese symbols on them wouldn't be so popular. People wear what they like, and what something means to you may not be the same thing that it means to another person. Case in point: Erykah Badu wears a headwrap b/c she feels that it connects her with her roots. Someone else might wear one because it matches their outfit. That DOESN'T mean that they're an Erykah Badu PERP, does it? You can't assume that everyone is a PERP. Some folks don't know. As far as the situation w/the Omega and the homeless guy...my daddy always told me that Fair Exchange Ain't No Robbery. True that he may have wanted to get the shirt off the homeless guy's back, but what he did was still commendable. The bottom line is that you can't expect people to feel the way that you feel about something that they know little or nothing about. You can't TAKE the shirt off of someone's back. You don't have that right. If that was the case, then paraphrenalia shouldn't be available to the general public. And NO, I am not a perp.

One of my brothers was in Japan last summer, and he went into a pawn shop or used clothing store or something. In the shop, he saw a LCA wind jacket, and a Delta Sigma Phi Letters Jersey. He bought the jacket because he'd wanted one and it was nice and cheap. He could have bought the jersey too, come back to the states and walked around his hometown sporting it, or wreaked havok in it and Delta Sig's would have been blamed. He just left it there though. I'll bet in other countries those letters don't mean much, if anything to anyone except those who went to college in the states, and cared enough to learn what it meant.

I would assume that some Japanese person probably was in the fraternity mentioned but it didn't mean much when he got back to his homeland, or he bought the shirt here because he liked the "design" then got rid of it. Same goes for the LCA jacket.

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Steve Corbin
Lambda Chi Alpha
Theta Kappa Chapter
Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech.

I am being soooo petty here, but...where in the post did it say the man was an Omega? Perhaps I missed it. It really doesn't matter what he was...just asking.

At first I was pissed at true?'s response, but I do have to agree with some things he/she said.

There is a huge difference between people who are TRUE PERPS and family members throwing on a shirt just to go out to the garage to get something...a family member driving a car with a license plate or grabbing the keys with the keychain. PERPS are people consciously representing a frat/sorority (with nalia, calls, hand signals, etc)...and usually are knowledgable about the fact that what they are doing is WRONG. These people RUN the other way if you say "Hey, soror." Sweat if you ask them history. Not homeless people/family members. I agree that we may feel that we are "saving" certain people from embarrassment by "suggesting" they don't wear the shirt/take the umbrella. If I suggest something like this, that is usually my reasoning...NOT "You don't understand my letters...I earned them...you did not...how dare you disrespect. etc., etc.

Then again every woman in my family is a DST so we never really had to worry http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

My Zeta aunt wouldn't be caught dead with some other letters...you know what I mean.
PEACE