It was all Greek to me....
 

If I'm reading this wrong tell me, but it sounds like she's saying part of the reason her mom's experience was great and hers was not was that her mom went to a HBCU and she did not.

I didn't get that from the article. Granted, I skimmed around because I personally was getting a little tired of her whining.

She had a reason to her opinions, no doubt. But I typically don't have a whole lot of sympathy for people that didn't have it in their heart in the first place.

I'm sorry she was hazed.

This is very interesting, and against anything I've heard online about BGLOs.

I haven't read the article yet.

I just wanted to say that I thought Senusret I was saying that his "experience in a historically black sorority...."

I was prepared to ask all sorts of WTFs.

Hm. So, basically, due to peer pressure and feeling lonely, she joined a chapter where she felt all the members were dumb and skanky, and as a result she feels that all D9 orgs are devolving into pointless gangs on college campuses and that's why she refuses to join a grad chapter even though she thinks they're still okay? HUH?!? :confused:

I skimmed it enough to get the point.

I'm not interested in her feelings enough to read it word-for-word.

It's just another hazing, immaturity, superficiality, and unfocused on academics and community relevance blog. Good for her. I hope her chapter and the Zeta nhq tell her to GO TO HELL if she ever has a change of heart. :)

I was tempted to respond to the comments on there. :p I'll "vent" here.


Her experiences are her experiences. She needed to vent so good for her. :)

The problem is with people acting like their experiences translate to some universal truth. She's in the comments section talking about she tells people "DO NOT PLEDGE."

While I appreciate what BGLOs do at the undergraduate and graduate levels, I don't walk around pretending that BGLOs and the BGLO experience are for everyone. It's just like anything else in the world--even CHURCH. Everyone won't have a positive experience because there are thousands of PEOPLE involved worldwide so we can't possibly filter out the negative.

So I think it's dumb when people take their bad experience and act like their bad experience is for everyone. BGLOdom goes against your personality, your interpretation of what God wants, or whatever else...OKAY...we get it!!!! :rolleyes:

Read it, and mostly agree with everyone here. Her experience is her experience. She went into for the wrong reasons and it seems as though she was already prepared to dislike it before she even crossed.

I was talking with a soror the other day. She was telling me about her experience, how she pledged because they wanted her too, not because she wanted to. Her story was similar. After college, she went inactive because, to use her words, "I was a total snob about it."

Years later, she reactivated and said that she now understands the influence and positive impact that Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. makes because of the women who are in our organization.

Every organization has these members, women or men who join for the wrong reasons or don't "have it in their heart" so to speak. However, the difference between this woman and my soror is that my soror came to realize her own culpability in her disillusionment and that she had been wrong in her initial assessment of the value of our organization and its work. I don't guess the author of this article has reached that level of maturity yet.

I say all of this to say that her taking her singular experience and extrapolating from it claims about the whole is, well, dumb. I am sorry that she was hazed too. The end.

I think it's less that her mom went to an HBCU and more that her mom went to a chapter that was closely supervised by grad and adult members...

I actually thought this was an interesting article. The woman does recognize the importance and value of BGLOs, but is more just bemoaning that her own experience wasn't that great. I don't actually think it's such a negative article toward BGLOs as a whole.

^^But she does, at several points, imply that all contemporary BGLO experiences are like hers; and the responses and her responses to the responses all imply that as well.

Is she really a Zeta because she believes that Eleanor Roosevelt is a member?!

She should just turn in her pearls and begone! :(

^^Missed that. Where did she say it?

The confused lot I dealt with on a regular basis could not be the same Zetas who encouraged First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to join.

Like paragraph 26 or so.

Soror, we are >>>here<<. I thought I was the only one who saw that. She must have missed the honorary members section.

Cosign with Little32.

This article is interesting, like I said before...but y'all's comments are even more interesting. If this was an NPC chapter, I would not be surprised to hear, "That chapter should be shut down", or maybe even "That chapter has closed already due to lack of members/national intervention/school kicked them off campus." Instead, I hear you all saying, "She should stop complaining. It's her own fault for not having her heart in it when she first joined."

I'm not saying this because I think that you all support hazing or are hazers. I'm saying it because it really IS interesting that theres such a big shift in opinion between BGLO members and NPC members.

^^^ I think there's an issue because she's just whining. She joined a chapter for the wrong reasons and continued on when "she knew things were bad." Because of her negative experience, she's denouncing all NPHC organizations. Then, in her next breath, she claims that she understands the importance of these organizations.

She needs to step off of her soapbox and keep it moving...

I read the article and don't see that she's denouncing the NPHC at all. She's merely calling out the practices that she experienced in her org and didn't like. Some quotes:
Even this passage, where she critiques her chapter, she admits it was less the undergrads in the chapter but the lack of oversight and direction that made her experience less than what she wanted:
I don't know. I don't get mad when people write similar things about NPC chapters. In fact I admit that a lot of NPC chapters don't live up to or flat out ignore the ideals of their org. I was lucky to have a different experience. But I know plenty of NPC alums are disillusioned about such things. I actually found the article balanced, and it was interesting to see an NPHC perspective like this. While she may have some facts wrong (oof, wrong sorority for Eleanor Roosevelt), she obviously has a strong sense of the values of Zeta specifically and the history, legacy, and values of the NPHC generally even if she doesn't really have great memories herself. And she seems to really admire the experience that her mom had.

This is what I have a problem with. If she was so above these antics and found them deeply troublesome, why would she continue with the process? I think people change their minds about what they feel is right and wrong at different times in their lives. And it's okay to change your mind but it's not okay to publicly denounce what you once took part in and agreed with. That's my issue.

And what about all the things our orgs are doing currently to combat hazing incidents? You never hear anything about that but the truth is that members are being thrown out of their orgs (something that was never done in the past) for intake violations left and right. More and more members/chapters are not pledging at all and grad chapters have gotten closer to their undergrads, establishing mentor programs and relationships. All of this is going on but you never hear about it, only the negative.

She's denouncing the NPHC all over that blog, especially in the comments section where she says that she tells people "DO NOT PLEDGE A SORORITY."



Well...good for you and that's all I'll say about that. :)

I agree with you. I was reading this like, OMG! They need an adviser to step in and assist ASAP! Not, this woman did something bad in wanting to join. But obviously there is a difference in opion between the two Councils and their operations. I totally respect both and personally do not think less of the writer or her org.

What about the "God saved me and now GLOs are the devil and I can prove it because they reference satan in their rituals...and I was a heathen as an undergrad so I participated in sex parties and put pledges in the hospital but I want to blame the frat for making me do it...but I was really just a heathen back then with or without the frat" people? :)

Oh yeah I just love the heathens turned holy rollers, I just love them!

I would've "respected" this idiot's opinion more if she had not made this about Zeta or her chapter. Was that her photo she posted with her eyes blotted out? I think those who know, already know who she is and what chapter she's talking about.

I think all anti-GLO rants are dumb but they are more tolerable when they don't appear to single orgs out or get too detailed.

NPC vs. NPHC? Apples vs. Oranges? Some of you need to stay in your lane...for real.

<----is glad that she isn't the one who had to say it :D

right on rhoyal tempest!

EXACTLY. She could have written that article an entirely different way. No need to mention Zeta especially since she knows that there are thousands of members and hundreds of chapters that hers does not represent.

So, if we're going to make this some sort of NPHC versus NPC thing, maybe someone could tell me ... would NPC members *really* be okay with, for example, some random blogger getting on the Internet and saying that she had been a Phi Mu, that the sisters in her chapter (giving enough details to identify said chapter) had been more crude and less intelligent than herself, and going on about how she had been hazed and hadn't ever really wanted to pledge in the first place, then goes on to encourage everyone to avoid the NPC altogether?

I just don't get it, but if that really would be fine with you all, okay.

I don't think it would be okay with the ones who typed in this thread but, as far as they are concerned, the problem would lie with the chapter and not the blogger. The issue would be with having a chapter where the big sisters are "dumb" and unladylike because it's a sign that recruitment is failing and women do not want to pledge the chapter. Therefore, the chapter is poorly representing the organization.

LOL...although I can see their take I also don't care how this would pan out in the nonNPHC world.

Thanks, DSTChaos.

Uh, I'll zoom out of my lane just long enough to give a resounding NO to your question above. I certainly can't speak for every NPC member, but I'd be chapped. Especially with how specific she was using the org's name, where she went to school, etc. Unlike the other NPCers who posted, my first thought wasn't about the chapter, my first thought was, "Good lord, I hope her nationals take/took her letters!" Guess I'm just meaner than most. :p

*zooms back into lane*

What gets me about the OP is that if she had been denied membership for whatever reason, she would be hella anti-greek psychotic until extended membership from some graduate chapter that failed to do a background check...

If she feels she was done so wrong, revoke her membership completely. Send her private jewelry (badge) and all her relays to membership back. Just because this child was a legacy does not necessitate that she should have become a member especially to be so hateful. I am sorry she failed to have a similar experience that her mother had. That is truly sad.

I do not see Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. in the manner as she described.

Alright - clearly no one agrees with me and I'm just ticking people off, so I'm going to step out of this conversation. Except I want to say that I would be fine with the scenario you mention. I know people in my own sisterhood that haven't had the greatest experience and have spoken to me about it. I know people in my sisterhood that were hazed. I know people in my sisterhood that felt the "hive" mentality prevented them from developing all the friends they could have outside their org. These are sisters I respect and admire and I understand why their experience with my org was not as good as it might have been. I don't mind people speaking or writing such things if it's truthful. Things like accusing Greeks of "satanism" I find more ridiculous, but again, I don't know that I'd be out there campaigning against those people. The latter scenario might annoy me but I can't control what people blog or what they say and feel. So you know, too bad.

Frankly, I realize the NPC has a lot of things to clean up. We need to do a lot better job in instilling ideals of lifelong membership and the fraternity values - things that I frankly think we could take some lessons from the NPHC on. I had an amazing experience but I don't believe that people who didn't should just shut up. Rather such things can help me improve my org.

I just don't see why getting mad at any criticism (qua criticism) of NPC would be a fruitful thing for me. There are critiques which might be untruthful or inaccurate, or critiques that I could effectively counter. But there are some that I might actually agree with - no matter how great my experience was.

well, she was honest about her experience, but i dont understand why people hold on to that anger like that? she does sound like she was easily swayed and a total joiner. if it wasnt Zeta, she wouldve joined anything that fit the bill - ski club, chorus, hopscotch-and-marbles club, iont know. she was rolling wit the homies, and all the better that she was a legacy.

her chapter just sounds like they were looking for girls to keep the chapter alive. and she just happened to fit the bill of what we (a general, NPHC "we") look for in potential members (grades, good character, etc)

i'm not mad at her for posting all this, but still. it sounds like, at basic level, she just got up with the wrong chapter. we ALL have chapters in our orgs that are not model examples of what we are as international organizations.

and where was her mother when all this went down?

Not at all. The road crew is just repainting the lines because people swerve when they fade. ;)

I agree TLD.

Since I am not in her chapter or her org these things may have actually happened. I know several people who regret the 'pledging' (ie. hazing) they went through (while there are others who praise it). I am surely not mad at her for posting this if it is the truth. They are her experiences.

Her mom was probably unaware if this girl is anything like one of my friends. I had a friend that 'pledge' (underground that is) whose mother is actually a member of the org she was 'pledging' yet she never told her mom because she wanted to do it on her own. She could have at least gone to mom for advice.

Well...the swerving frequently goes the other way so everyone should be a little more tolerant of the mistake!

That's a gross overstatement. Get a grip.

In what way? NPHC members comment on NPC stuff all the time...they can do it if they want! I don't get mad about it, but it's really hypocritical to do one thing and get bent out of shape when someone else does the same thing. Personally, I stay in my own lane because I don't know anything about the other.