It reads like he was talking about NPC and IFCers.

Whether or not a racist frat boy in Mississippi is "your people" is a matter of interpretation. If that racist frat boy met you in a setting where your Jewish identity and Ivy League membership weren't your primary statuses, since they probably aren't everywhere you go because they don't automatically stick out in many instances, there may be little disconnect between you and the Mississippi guy.

yeah, that is kinda wack. thats why i always check to see if teams are confirmed and which teams they are, cuz i'm tired of seeing the same old teams. like for instance...i can tell you the whole NYC Sigma, Kappa, Alpha Zeta, Delta teams routines b4 they even do their show. i've seen them that many times, and they do the same thing over again. And this is why i tend to lose interest in step shows, and my attention wanders during a show, and i cant wait to stroll during the breaks...

:) None of us are representatives for the D9 sororities that you're trying to work with. Go to them, as adults should know how to do, and figure it all out. If it doesn't work, oh well.

Good luck with your program.

I'm sorry, perhaps you could coach all of us on what we're supposed to say.

If you were sincere, I would.

duh, AlexMack, you're supposed to know already that because you're not black, you're racist just by living. If you don't spend all of your energies working against racism, then you're working for it.

For example, when the little old lady at my chuch that owns a rental property cut me a deal on rent, I should have said, "No Ms. Little Old Lady, you should give that deal to a black student you don't even know because the color of my skin is white and that means I'm priveleged and have had everything handed to me in life." I mean, obviously she gave me the deal on rent because I'm white and not because I'm an out of state student struggling to make it and I went to her Bible Study classes.

So DSTChaos of course would say that your response was typically white because your response included the sentiment "I am not a racist," which, if you're not black, is obviously not true.

I really hate to get involved in this thread, but I will cretainly think twice before I participate in this event on my campus ever again - who wants to be called pathetic for their attempts at Greek unity?

Seriously? :mad:

If you decide to not participate in an event because someone may think you look pathetic that shows how much you want to do it. PrettyBoy explained his point of view for anyone that wanted to read it. Whether or not you agree with him is on you.

That's quite an imagination you have there.

Well ignoring it perpetuates it.

But even social activists and researchers shouldn't spend all of their energies on something. You have to live.

:)

Then you should've shut up.

I changed my mind, this ain't my lane so I'm stepping out. Apologies if I offended you DSTChaos.

You didn't.

http://www.smilieshq.com/smilies/sign0019.gif

Quote:
Originally Posted by gypsyboots http://greekchat.com/gcforums/images...s/viewpost.gif
. . .I'd just like to get some involvement from D9 sororities with the NPC cervical cancer awareness program. But no luck. :(

:) None of us are representatives for the D9 sororities that you're trying to work with. Go to them, as adults should know how to do, and figure it all out. If it doesn't work, oh well.

Good luck with your program. (end quote)


I'm sure there are no representatives from the specific NPC groups noted earlier as only asking for your participation with step related events. I just wanted to let you know that there are NPC groups who try to involve historically black sororities in events other than "stepping" - in this case, something which affects all women - and minority women are more likely to die from it, probably because of lack of awareness and/or proper preventative health care. I think that especially in areas that concern all women, regardless of color, we should try and work together. My admittedly very narrow experience is that there is not much of that going on - and my personal efforts to reach out have been rebuffed. No biggie - as you say, oh well - but I did want to present an alternative option to the idea that striving for greek unity has to invovle stepping at all.
__________________

Yeah, this doesn't really bother me either---especially without knowing the context of the show. I went to the University of Memphis for undergrad and we had a free organizational stepshow every year (I think around homecoming) where NPC/NIC greeks and non-greek organizations would put on a stepshow. The NPC/NIC greeks would usually be coached by the NPHC as far as the step show was concerned. To be honest the NPHC and NPC worked together quite a bit at UofM so...this doesn't really bother me...always fun to watch:). I guess my attitude due to the culture at UofM because I have been exposed to this and don't go in with the expectation that the NPC/NIC has to "wow" me. The context for the show is unity so I just don't try to have my expectations set so high that I miss the point of why everyone is there. I was a bit bothered by the "slang" used for intro but as someone mentioned...they might have been coached to do that so I try not to go off about things I'm not sure about.

At least while I attended UofM all of the greeks worked pretty well with each other...not sure how things are now...but again attitudes regarding this may depend on your particular school's greek culture and exposure. Well, that's my $.13 so agree or disagree...that's just me.

Everybody be breezy!

Oh, we already knew that it doesn't. ;)

It just read like you were providing yet another tale of the "black groups don't want to hang with us." :)

A huge difference that is not being expressed here is that NPHC groups tend to have a multi-pronged platform (such as DST's Five Point Programmatic Thrust or the 10 nationally mandated programs that are part of Omega Psi Phi's mission) whereas many of the NPC/IFC organizations that I have encountered have ONE (or two) philanthropy through which most of their service is focused. When you look at 5 members working on at least 5 programs versus 50 members working on one, well....you do the math. :cool:

Because they weren't registered as campus organizations they weren't allowed to be included. Not my rules and they may have changed since then. You occasionally saw fliers posted for events, but not a lot on campus, everything occurred across the street at another college.

I never said it HAD to be "our" Greek Week on "our" terms. I just mentioned that the rules even allow us to do that. I wasn't ever on panhellenic so I don't know what else was done or proposed. It's not that XYZ didn't participate, it's that there wasn't communication. Our campus' situation was different. My sister's campus has a much more visible NPHC presence, although it's still small. But there's no communication even though I know her chapter has tried (I do not know what any of the NPHC chapters have tried. I'm not knocking them.) I'm proposing opening the channels of communication.

That also happened to core chapters at some schools.

This is a good hijack
 

Continuing with what Gypsyboots said - why can't NPC and NPHC sponsor a speaker - on any of a variety of women's issues - cervical and breast cancer, self-defense, STDs, abusive relationships, etc. - and make sure all the groups are encouraged to attend? That way, you are providing a service to the community which doesn't rely on numbers (so both groups would get equal credit, and no group would feel slighted) and provide a positive opportunity to present ALL greeks as united in a common cause? I'm not currently involved on a college campus, or I would be on this!

Good idea.

This happens on some campuses. For the record, no one said it was a hopeless cause and that there's always a great divide on every campus. :)

We did joint programs on my campus but only after befriending people who so happened to be in the NPC or IFC. The befriending part is important because it requires people talking and relating to each other on a people level, Greek level, and then learning and understanding the NPHC and NPC or IFC similarities and differences. Not just orgs joining forces to fill some diversity quota or to say "we tried/did it," which I think happens in too many instances.

Core what? I'm not following... if you mean that NPHC groups were excluded even though they're on campus.... that sucks and is wrong. That never happened at my school nor at my sister's so I can't speak to it.

I agree with SWTXBelle and others... I think there should be co-sponsored events, but no one's talking to each other so it never comes up. I think all many NPC/IFC greeks know is to invite the D9 to their events since that's all they do with each other...

ETA: And as you said later it's not every campus that's like this clearly. My experiences were even more different because of the D9's specific status and overall lack of visibility on my campus.

:p You know you love me . . .

Core chapters are chapters that are located on more than one college campus. There are often not enough people to charter a chapter at a particular school so they will become part of another school's chapter. The problem arises when there are so few people on a campus who are interested in an organization, the only person from that chapter on that campus has graduated, etc.. Some schools will petition to have the core status removed and not allow the organization to be recognized on the campus. They sometimes won't allow the chapter to have programs on the campus to get the core charter back or even walk around campus in 'nalia.

Maybe I live in a cave, but . . .
 

How do you dictate what people wear ??? Do the colleges police who is wearing what greek letters? ( other than dress codes - yes, I read with interest the thread on that!)

Well I will just say this and I will be done:). At my school, the philosophy was very simple...if you wanted people to show support for your events you had to show support for theirs. I don't think that any organization has to be asked (all of the time) before they take the initiative to be supportive. I am not saying that talking is not good but as the saying goes...actions do speak louder than words. At least that works for organizations at the UofM. At least to me, that is an alternative way to get to know people within other GLOs which can lead to working together on various projects in the future.

Just a thought...

/hijack

The conversation that has taken place in this thread, among others, is why I went to an HBCU. Sure, we had other divisive issues--class being one of the main ones--but we did not have this to contend with.

/end hijack

Right. We have mandated programs from our national board. If raising awareness of cervical cancer is not among them, we would not have the time to do such a project. For example, our health initiative right now is obesity. So that is on what our chapters are focusing.

Then sponsor a speaker on obesity - while NPC groups have a primary philanthrophy, they are also encouraged to do local projects. And they also are encouraged to support other GLO's philanthropic projects.
So kill two birds with one stone - meet the goals of your NGLO, and provide an opportunity for Greeks to work together. (Not to mention that sponsoring a speaker would not require much in the way of group effort - if, for whatever reason, the NPHC group is not a campus group, having the NPC co-sponsor it would enable campus facilities to be used.)
Like I said earlier, women's issues are women's issues - they concern all of us.

So they are campus organizations on multiple campuses? Using St. Louis as an example, they'd be a campus organization at Harris Stowe, SLU, and Wash U, instead of being a city-wide St. Louis chapter. I think I follow. Then the last SLU XYZ graduates and *poof* no more XYZ at SLU so they're removed from the roster. Then as non-campus organizations they can't advertise, etc. Holy Death Spiral Batman!

On one hand I can see the school's point, how is this a campus organization if there are no students involved in it? On the other hand I see how the chapter is getting shafted by the policy. And it's almost certainly not a scenario the institution or the student government envisioned when they set the policies in the first place. (And those tend to be focused on liability issues more than anything else).

Thanks for the info. Just when I think I'm getting to know this Greek business, I learn more

Soror... we're ::here::

Don't generalize. AST has both a national philanthropy and a national service project, and my chapter is affiliated with four local places that we volunteer at too. Just because we don't nationally mandate it doesn't mean we don't volunteer. We just don't have to be told exactly what to volunteer at by Nationals.

And neither do we. :cool:

It's still a matter of 5 members working on 5 programs rather than 50 working on five...

I was respondind to a common them in this thread that the NPC has asked NPHC to partner with them on a parricular topic. The example given was cervical cancer. I was merely explaining a most likely reason why there was not participation.

Plus I don't see NPHCers complaining about being able to get NPCers to work with them--just the opposite. So my point is to the NPCers understand our structure amd our programming (just visit our websites) and then ask to partner on a topic that is within our national thrusts.

No one is saying you don't volunteer. And we are not told exactly either. We are given a focus and each chapter can implement the best way they see fit.

See the NPHC seems to think that having 600-800 chapters--collegiate and alumnae, national and international all working on the same thrust would have a greater national impact in our communities. Silly us.

Why can't you join us in something that we do? Do we have to put in 90% of the effort? Because that's what it sounds like you're saying.

I think the problem is that national websites really don't give NPC greeks a grasp of NPHC structure. It doesn't really get lines of communication open either.

Perhaps I'm too idealistic, but I'd love to see XYZ invite ABC to their event. ABC cannot attend, but replies and suggests another possible event. Crazy huh? I wish that sort of invitation had been offered to our chapter when Sigma Gamma Rho had an event at Harris Stowe. And I do wish that our campus had worked more to get the NPHC groups some sort of campus status so the invitations could have worked the other way too.