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Originally Posted by Alphagamuga
I think many of the NPC or IFC founders were pathetically blind to the full equality of Black people. I don't think they thought about the inclusions of people of different races at all. They went with what they were familiar with, which was other white people. It would be interesting to know how many groups ever addressed the race of members before they published non-discrimination statements. I think most founders took it for granted that the members would be white so much that they didn't even mention race. Most probably attended segregated institutions, so the possibility of Black members didn't occure to them.
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This is a little ridiculous/overboard. You can't blame recruitment decisions in today's time on our founding fathers. Lets take my fraternity, SAE....we were the only fraternity founded in the ante-bellum South....370 of our original 400 members fought for the Confederates. Our 8 founding fathers were from very upperclass families and were all officers for the Confederates.....hell, one of them is believed to have been the very first casualty. Blacks were slaves at the time, save a small number of them, do you honestly think there would have been any reason for an original SAE to consider a black man for membership?? No, absolutely not. They didn't "take anything for granted"....they operated according to how the lifestyle was at the time. You can say the same thing about Kappa Alpha....their spiritual founding father was ROBERT E. LEE....i'm sure black men post Civil War were just jumping at the oppurtunity to join.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alphagamuga
Today, I think the majority of members of NPC and IFC groups are/would be proud to have Black members. The problem is that a few people who are concerned with being elitist tell themselves that it's better not to have Black members at all than it is to take people who aren't a "perfect fit." The fact that being Black is the only thing keeping a pnm from being a perfect fit never crosses their minds. The problem is magnified because other members and other groups aren't brave enough to deviate from what the elites do.
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Can you not, atleast, open yourself to the fact that a great majority of blacks at large Southern institutions have absolutely nothing in common with large, white, top fraternities??