Latinamerican joining Fraternities
 

Ok, I live in latin america. However I am white and speak english perfectly. I am about to finish high school and will probably go study in the United States. I am also very interested in joining a fraternity. However I do not want to join a "latino only" frat, nor a foreigner frat. I'd prefer to join the, lets call it, "stereotypical" fraternity. My question is, will there be any problems, how uncommon is it for foreigners to join this types of fraternities, and might I not get a bid because of it?

No one on here can tell you what random college men will think when you go through rush. All of the questions you aksed will have answers that vary widely from campus to campus, and even from chapter to chapter at some schools. Also, are you even sure that the school of your choosing will have Greek life, as you're only "probably" going to the US?

Yes, I am sure that the school im choosing will have greek life, since all the options I have looked at in the US are state colleges with Greek life. And then, it would help if you could tell me how your house would react. Or if you knew of any situation similar to mine

My chapter has had a few international students join, and when they go through rush they're treated like everyone else. However, how my one chapter would react is no indicator of how another would see international students. Also, will you spend all of your college career at the University, or just one year? That might make a big difference to many chapters. But again, anything one person types is no guarentee of how others will react.

No foreigner frat? Sorry guys...

http://www.thegreat80s.com/images/Bands/Foreigner.jpg

There is no such thing as a "Latino only fraternity". There are several organizations founded specifically to meet needs for Latinos. I am a member of Lambda Sigma Upsilon Latino Fraternity. My chapter consisted of Latinos, Asian, African American, and people of European decent

Sorry, my mistake. However, as you can see, your chapter mainly consisted of non-americans. It isn't exactly what I'm looking for.

Lol at your definition of "non-american."

The point here is that someone could say "Oh my chapter LOVES exchange students and will give you the most stereotypically white American fraternity experience ever!" and that will have zero impact on your experience unless you go to THAT school and even then, they might meet you and hate you!

I think you're a little confused.

All of our organizations are, for the most part, filled with Americans from different backgrounds. They are not filled with illegal immigrants.

It sounds like you want to join a fraternity with Caucasian membership.

Good man.

I'd rush him.

Give the guy a break, he is just having trouble expressing himself. He probably wants to have a full-on american college experience and is wondering if he can considering he is not american. Answering your question, one of my pledges is Guatemalan, he had no problem whatsoever during rush.

Um, who is giving him a hard time?

And FYI --being in a "white" fraternity does not automatically equal a "real college experience"

On the eyes of others, it might be an american college experience. Mostly based on, like this guy said, stereotypes.

We're aware of that, there's a reason why we're trying to correct his misconceptions rather than 'easing up.'

Hence, they are challenging the stereotypes. Did you join GC to tell us this?

And to let us know he was born in Georgia.

It bothers me that someone from Latin America is generalizing cultural focused orgs. I am a Latina, a American, I am member of a LGLO and damn proud!!

I understand wanting to have a similar experience to what he may have seen on television or in movies, but that is not real. How can anyone predict what kind of experience he is going to have with any group??

To answer the original post: I think you should probably focus on getting into school and getting good grades.

I highly doubt you will have problems. Its hard to nail down what groups will provide you the sort of experience you seek because we don't know what school you're going to, hence, we have no idea which groups you're looking at.

It, however, is almost universally true that the stereotypical fraternities, as depicted in television and film, will be part of your campus' IFC. Once you're there, the process for joining is a process of mutual selection. Some places are pretty competitive, so you having not gone to certain high schools in the U.S. could be a liability, but you'll find a place.

And really, there's not anything offensive about him looking for a particular sort of experience. It's not as if some of the same people here expressing outrage express the same outrage at individuals seeking to join cultural or multi-cultural GLOs.

I'm still looking for a post expressing "outrage"

He isn't seeking to join a particular GLO or even a particular council or conference. His imagery is based on American vs. Non-American.

There is a problem with making "American college experience" synonymous with "white college students' experiences" and therefore making "American fraternities and sororities" synonymous with "predominantly white fraternities and sororities/NPC/NIC."

What's embedded in the perceived "outrage" is that those who are aware of the issue of culturalism are incapable of discussing such matters without becoming "outraged." When in fact, such discussions are so common that responses are not contingent upon any emotional reaction, let alone outrage.

NIC =/= whites only anymore. This ain't the 60s, unless, of course, we're talking about Old Row fraternities at Alabama, which we're likely not. I take offense to that.

Reading the OP's post, I cannot imagine he'd be very interested in joining an organization set up to cater to U.S. ethnic minorities.

It means historically and predominantly white. Don't pretend that segregation has ended in America and the average NIC chapter is not predominantly white or all white.

Correct, he is looking for an organization set up to cater to (your wording, not mine) the U.S. majority which is whites. That's his vision of America and his vision of Greekdom.

Someone tells him about Lambda Sigma Upsilon Latino Fraternity and chapter consisting of Latinos, Asian, African American, and people of European descent; and the OP replies that these people are mainly non-Americans and that's not what he's looking for. I doubt his response would have been that different had he been told "Latin-American," "Asian-American," and "Americans of European descent."

As always, I do find humor in BGLOs/LGLOs/AGLOs/MCGLOs being the organizations "set up to cater to U.S. ethnic minorities" and therefore being considered the only organizations "set up to cater to" U.S. racial, ethnic, and cultural identities.

That leaves the rest of the organizations. Who are these organizations set up to cater to? Are people still pretending that the remaining organizations are racially, ethnically, and culturally neutral? They cater to thousands of people who have invisible racial, ethnic, and cultural identities? Defining the organizations that are uncoincidentally predominantly white as mainstream, the majority, and neutral is one reason why BGLOs/LGLOs/AGLOs/MCGLOs were founded in the first place and remain relevant and prevalent in 2011.

Oh come on, it's pretty obvious what he is asking, he just doesn't understand the PC terms in America. He wants the typical, stereotypical American fraternity experience. Other GLOs do not give that. He just went about saying it the wrong way.

To answer the question, it really depends on individual schools and chapters. I know my fraternity initiated guys from Mexico and Colombia when I attended school there, but that's in Los Angeles which tends to be much more open to other cultures. In a less liberal area of the country it might be more difficult.

I disagree, at many campuses in America it is very possible to get an experience quite close to what is portrayed in movies. These tend to be bigger schools with a large GLO percentage, however.

So I got an unusual, international college experience? Wow. That Texas university sure fooled me.

As stated earlier, he wants to join a fraternity with white membership (since we're not beating around the bush).

So, now you are reducing our replies to the demand for "PC terms?"

That depends on what "other GLOs" means.

Perhaps your chapter would consist of non-Americans as far as the OP is concerned. He may prefer being the token in a chapter. It seems that he wants to be accepted but doesn't want "too many others" accepted as to reduce the American fraternity experience for him. Quite a conundrum.

They want to piss on our shoes and tell us it's rain. Talk about bullshitting and trying to be PC.

Right.

Let's not address these topics as they come up, lest we become Angry Black Posters. Never mind that our experiences were reduced to being less than the "real" experiences.

LOL. You know there are blonde haired, blue eyed, lily white people from Latin America and I'm assuming that the OP is one of them.

I thought that and didn't want to speculate, but I agree with that possibility. The OP may be part of the white diaspora. When he gets to that all American chapter, his tokenism could therefore be ethnicity, culture, and country of origin. He could eventually assimilate and mesh quite well.

To both posts, I don't think this is remotely what he meant. I think he chose his words poorly, but to me it seems like he is looking for a particular experience, not a particular ethnic group. He wants to join a fraternity that offers the stereotypical American experience: the big parties with elaborate props and bands, the sorority exchanges, living in a house, the intramurals, etc. I think the number of chapters outside the IFC/Panhellenic umbrella groups that can offer this experience are extremely limited (if they even exist), and frankly many schools can't offer this experience even with their IFC/Panhellenic GLOs.

Yes, I understand that due to America's de facto segregation that the majority of the participants in chapters like these are Caucasian, or at least identify with Caucasian cultures more than they do their own. I don't think racial ideals are the driving force behind his desire though, I think that he wants to experience the broadest level of American "culture" (think baseball, Dylan, apple pie, whatever) during his time here. America is a land with a huge diversity in culture, and many of them are extremely marginalized, but I don't think it's inappropriate to want to experience the mainstream culture when studying abroad. And once again, yes I understand that this stereotypical experience is primarily driven by the power majority which is Caucasian, in the same way that the British tea/football/rugby/pub culture reflects the Caucasian population rather than the scores of Indian immigrants. That still doesn't make me think it's inappropriate to purposefully seek out when studying abroad.

Neither of the replies that you quoted were directed at the OP. In fact, before those replies were made, we told the OP that he may have been confused with the language he used.

That said, if "your chapter consists of non-Americans" is the criteria he's looking at, what do bands and sorority exchanges have to do with anything? It's obvious that he's looking for a specific type of experience (his choice has absolutely no bearing on me, so I don't care where he ends up), but to say "he doesn't want to be in an ethnic GLO" in the same breath as "the traditional experience has nothing to do with race" is silly.

I could not disagree more. There are some people who pursue a particular GLO no matter what umbrella organization purely because of race, that's obvious. However, if you want a specific type of experience often times only one type of group can provide it. If he wants to live in a large house and throw big parties with enormous sets and hang out with sorority girls all days (the way he has likely seen it in the movies and TV), then of course he doesn't want to be in an ethnic GLO because they don't provide that experience. I can't think of one that does, and even if there are some they are obviously extremely rare. For example, despite Greek letters and some similarities, an NPHC GLO is going to vastly differ from an IFC fraternity (yes I know there is some overlap with some fraternities) the most deeply rooted organizational structural/cultural aspects (the increased focus on community service, the heightened sense of membership lasting your entire life, membership intake vs. rush) to the most superficial (step shows, probates, line numbers and jackets). That is enough to eliminate that type of GLO from some people's minds even before race becomes a part of it.

To say that just because of the correlation between race and GLOs (which I understand the historical and social reasons for completely) that somebody who is looking at just one type of GLO is doing it for racial reasons is very assumptive and not exactly fair.

Tell me how "your chapter is full of non-Americans" translates to "I want a fraternity with huge parties, sorority mixers, and a big house." The OP has a strong enough grasp of the English language to say "I want an experience like I saw in the movies." That's not what he said.

Either way, the posts you referenced in your previous reply were 1) correcting folks that thought that discussing this topic = OMG YOU'RE RACIST FOR NOT CONSIDERING US AND WE ARE OUTRAGED and 2) cutting through the bullshit PC nonsense.

Dude, may be ignorant and not up to date on American ethnic history, that's fine. But he emphasized that he himself was white in the OP, and didn't want to join a "latino only" frat or a "foreigner frat" but a "stereotypical" frat. To pretend that race isn't at least something of an issue here is silly, particularly since he equated "African American" with "Non-American" considering AA is pretty exclusive to the US. He didn't want a group with "non-americans." Yeah we know what he's looking for, it's obvious.

No one's said that it was inappropriate for him to look for that type of fraternity. None. He was rather gently mocked for his missteps, and informed that we couldn't tell him jack shit about what some random GLO on some random campus would think of him.

Where precisely did he need defending? Or was it stated that it was inappropriate? And it's not that DrPhil or K_S need my help here, by any means, but where did you think it made sense to try and explain racial issues to them?

Also, the idea that for the majority of people, they look at the increased focus on service, or the stepping in NPHC orgs "before race becomes an issue" is laughable at best.

Before you try to "correct" the misconceptions, you should probably figure out whether or not they are misconceptions.

So joining a non-IFC/NPC organization is 'taboo' and does not allow an individual to get a real college experience?

Oh.

/fullcircle