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411,
Looking from the outside in, I have to say you hit the nail smack on the head. As for the definition of hazing, I have oft wondered at the same double standard you pointed out: if we indeed were to take hazing to it's politically correct level, those lawyers making careers out of suing frats and sororities could make a whole lot more loot focusing on the military. Now, that is where you'd find hazing at hit's finest (or worst).
I was slow to mention that the fatalities that we hear of seem to be very recent because I had only recently started to pay attention to black greek life these last couple of years. I do think it quite interesting that they do seem to coincide with the inception of MIP. Though far from an expert on intake history, I daresay MIP might have unwittingly helped birth the monster it was supposed to abort.
Since I have not been fortunate enough to have seen what you guys have, I'll decline the urge to say what I really believe MIP has done on a whole. I do say this: some things are cultural, and some things are unique to us as black people. I know things change with time, but some of the very things we now mock and do fight to do away with helped us to bond and survive when the chips were stacked against us. Lest we forget, we still deal with the remnants of those chips today. If we want to do away completely with a process, it better be for a very good reason.
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