Why do historically Black GLOs use corporate designators?
 

I notice many historically Black GLOs are fastidious about including the corporate designator "Inc." as part of their name while other GLOs are not.

For instance, Sigma Gamma Rho - on its website - only refers to itself as "Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc." and never refers to itself as "Sigma Gamma Rho." This seems to be typical of Black GLOs.

Either use, of course, are probably correct. In the case of Sigma Gamma Rho, the North Carolina General Statutes indicate that the designator must be part of a corporation's official name while also not precluding the use of a shortened version in everyday communications. [e.g. Lowe's, the home improvement store, is officially Lowe's Companies, Inc., but DBA Lowe's]

Is there any significance to the fastidious use of corporate designators in the names of Black GLOs? Is the corporate designator "Incorporated" orally invoked during ritual work even?

I am not a member of ay of the Divine 9 but have been told by several friends who are members that it is because it was so difficult for blacks to incorporate in the early 1900s that they wish to emphasize that status. Reading in many places since, that seems to bear validity.

Very interesting - thank you!

This is why members of BGLOs rarely answer such questions on this forum.

The correctness of the usage has nothing to do with you one way or the other.

Your question is not offensive by itself. Your judgment one way or the other is.

Thanks for your input Sen. I wish there was a like button!!

...I concur. :)

Unbelievable. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't. Please please forgive us stupid white people (and I am horrible to assume that Ronaldo9 is white, but there it is) when we ask a civil, simple question because we are interested and trying to understand another organization or culture.

I am not trying to speak for Sen, because he can speak for himself far more eloquently than I ever could about anything, but dude’s tone and diction is way judgmental (“fastidious use” and “probably correct”)

Note to Ronaldo - check your subject verb agreement on “Either use are”. You’ve got a singular subject and plural verb. You know, since you’re all about policing others’ writing.

Not that I want to defend him but English is not his first language

What the heck?

You joined this site in 2003.

You are an alumna from a college that had BGLOs at the time you were there.

Yoooooouuuu weren't concerned about the topic before today.

Yooooooouuu made this a "stupid white people" thing.

I LITERALLY didn't give a thought to dude's race, or yours.

I pointed out the problem with the question and even said that the question itself wasn't offensive.

YOU are deciding to have a problem. Not me.

And not that I have to be nice about it, but I certainly wasn't rude or uncivil because I pointed out what was offensive to me.

I think the problem you have is with me. Please put me on ignore and leave me there.

Ronaldo9: Since you are not a natural born citizen accustomed to the subtilties of Greek life and certainly not those of Southern members (because many of us here are and which can be even more difficult to decipher), I must tell you that your questions/remarks border on being both impolite and impolitic. Perhaps you should chat with some of your own fraternity brothers about your questions first so that they may direct you to the resources and etiquette of same.

Titchou:

I don't even mind him asking, if he really wants to know. I don't presume that his fraternity brothers would necessarily know the answer to this particular question, so why not ask here? You had the answer, and it was accurate.

If he can ask simply, without editorializing, that would be even better.

Others have commented on other problematic aspects of your post, but asking a general question about the rituals of any other organization outside of Delta Upsilon, (which why would you, you can get their ritual on their website), is pretty bad form.

Just when you get a few normal posts under your belt, you post a train wreck like this. One has to wonder whether the train wreck and the predictable cascade of wtfs to follow was intended as a little Saturday evening diversion?

Sorry I upset you, Sen!

Best,
Ron

Well I'm Asian but I know no offense was intended so no offense is taken!

Best,
R

That's okay, Titchou already answered my question so I'm set. Thanks, though!

Best,
R

I will note, that whatever specific reason applies the situation at the time of the founding of the older 8 members of the NPHC (who were founded between 1906 (Alpha Phi Alpha) and 1922 (Sigma Gamma Rho), that it is also deliberately used by the ninth member of Iota Phi Theta (founded in 1963). Groove Phi Groove, Swing Phi Swing, Wine Psi Phi and MALIK, also founded during the 1950s-1960s also tend to emphasize the Incorporated.


I have also seen it used by chapters of non-NPHC groups on HBCU campuses including (found in a 5 minute google search)

• Alpha Phi Omega (chapters at Winston-Salem State and Florida A&M) and
• Gamma Sigma Sigma (chapters at Prairie View A&M and Florida Memorial)
• Kappa Kappa Psi (chapter at Lincoln)
• Tau Beta Sigma (chapter at Norfolk State)

I do believe that there can be both initial reasons *and* a recognition that it has become an expectation of Greek Letter Organizations and chapters with significant African-American membership

That's an interesting find. I just tried the same and got similar results. I think your analysis seems like a good one. It's a bit like the evolution of key style badges in that regard (a practical reason metamorphosing into a symbolic one).

Many thanks for the catch, Blue! I appreciate people helping with my English. In the circles in which I usually move there's a reticence to correct people publicly, and yet it really can be helpful. (I haven't spent much time in the South, I should probably think of taking a summer in Arkansas or West Virginia or someplace similar, perhaps, where there's less delicacy in interlocution. I might learn a fair amount!) Thanks again for the feedback!

I think the ignore feature might not be working, actually. Another user has twice interjected herself into threads to announce to everyone she has me on ignore but is still replying directly to my posts. Could be a software issue, maybe?

Ok, now you're just taking the piss.

I wouldn’t know how they do things in Arkansas or West Virginia (only driven through one and never set foot in the other), but you sure are coming off around here like a grade A arse. I generally only correct people who belabor pointing out issues with the writing of others. Does expounding on a writer’s use of “all” parenthetically no longer ring any bells? I certainly wouldn’t do it with anyone in polite conversation or polite society. While I have a graduate degree in English, I am the least grammar Nazi person you’ll find...because I believe that as long as one is getting the point across in non-academic settings, it really doesn’t matter too much.

^^^^
THIS

+1

Definitely agree with you on this, Blue!

As a note, this was the thread when I asked the question back in 2001!

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=1667

And as a Note, I'm sure that the Iota Phi Theta brother and I were talking across each other. The question is *not* whether the GLO is incorporated, frankly I'd be surprised if any GLO with more than 5 chapters and more than 10 years old *isn't* incorporated...

The question boils down to more or less "Why is there *emphasis* by the members in speech and print as to Incorporated as part of the descriptor of the organization".

• I've had that answered to by satisfaction that for the HB GLOs founded prior to WWII, (Example: Alpha Phi Alpha) it represents recognition of the higher difficulty of getting incorporation to work relative to other organizations.
  
• I recognize that for groups that are not HB GLOs on HB campuses (Example: Gamma Sigma Sigma) , that it represents an effort to fit the same cultural norms as the the other GLOs on that campus.
  
• For the HB GLOs founded in the 1960s (Examples: Iota Phi Thetas, Groove Phi Groove), the information as to whether it was still more difficult in the 1960s to incorporate for HB GLOs is something that I would love to see information about.