[ms_gwyn]

This is just my opinion and also a perspective of someone who “grew up in both worlds”…this is going to be long so bear with me please…..

My Background – brief

Now I will be honest with you, when I first went into sorority rush, I was a tiny bit informed, but looking back, I was completely clueless. I thought all sororities held recruitment at the same time, not from the same pool perhaps but at the same time…meaning both NPC & NPHC…now a little background to get a better feel from where I am coming from…

I didn’t learn about black colleges and black greek like until I was very “old”, perhaps 14/15. One of my fathers friends came to the house, see I knew back then that I wanted to be in a sorority, I just didn’t know which one, I really didn’t know all that much about NPC, NIC, NPHC and I will be honest most of my information came from the TV/Movies. I would hope that most of the ladies in my age group (30s) who did not grow up around greeklife can understand where I am coming…Anyway, like I said, I told this lady that I wanted to be in a sorority, a whole new world opened up for me when I learned that there were black sororities….she then proceeded to tell me about AKA, DST, ZPhiB and SGRho, now to be honest with you, I think she only mentioned (or at least I can only remember) her speaking only about AKA and DST…she told me right away that I am DST material (even though I won’t repeat it, she was going of the stereotypes that existed at the time) she told me that there was no way in hell that AKA would consider me. I can’t say I had a reaction to this; it was just a piece of information to me, not good/not bad. Now all through this I think I knew that my uncle was in a fraternity, but didn’t become conscious of it until I got older and began to understand that that really meant, also driving by the house every so often “solidified” the knowledge. My uncle, cousin and step-father are KAPsi…they have not stayed active, but are very proud Kappa’s nonetheless.

When I got to ASU I went through rush, blah, blah, blah….During my first weeks during school I still saw nothing of the NPHC Greek, I gradually saw shirts for AKA and APhiA, but by then I was very happy where I was.

So back to the original question of perspective: The segment of community that I grew up in…Black Greeks were not prevalent, that is not to say that they were not there…because that would just be silly…just not as noticeable that it may seem, it just depends on the segment of the community you are speaking about and how involved with the organization and community service projects of that segment. (I hope that makes sense). I can name off colors and mascots, and maybe 1 or 2 service projects that the NPHC are involved with on the national level, this is because I am not involved in NPHC world.

Now I can rattle off colors, mascots and philanthropies of most all NPCs without breaking a sweat.

So it really just depends on the segment of the community and how involved you are in that community, so that you can have some type of “national” awareness of a particular conference or organization.

No one org is better than the other…no one conference/council is better than the other….neither has more or less national presence than the other….it all depends on the environment that grew up in and the path that you choose when you make the decision to become involved in a greek letter organization.

I will admit that in the NPHC world it does appear to be "all for one & one for all"...but I also think that is because there are 9 groups in that council...whereas 26 groups in the NPC and 60ish groups in the NIC