There have a been a few GCErs who questioned my original response to Alias, so I'll try to explain myself here:
Yes, I read the article about Twilley. Yes, I've read several articles about Twilley. And, yes, I know people who have actually spoken to Twilley herself - and I was referring to those peoples' impressions of her, not anything in the articles, when I said that it appeared that Twilley may have had an "agenda" when she went through rush the second time. If you read the articles, you would get nothing more than the picture of a privileged girl who went through Rush and got cut for apparently no reason other than the color of her skin. But you can't always take articles at face value, and a lot of people unfortunately do.
The main point that I was trying to make when responding to Alias is that there are MANY, MANY girls who get cut from formal rush once -- and often more than once -- who appear on the outside to be qualified because of their financial status and/or high school GPA. However, it is only an African-American girl who gets the headlines when she doesn't get a bid at a Southern school. The Caucasian girls who are cut don't even merit a blurb in a college paper, much less a spot on the front page of a national. There is definitely something to be said about that, and I don't feel like I'm being a racist for pointing it out.
SoTrue1920 said it perfectly: Melody Twilley is a symbol. She's probably a very nice person, but she's a symbol of something greater, and I think we should try to remember that.
My question is: WHY is Twilley a symbol? Because she was cut from Rush? No, that can't be it - because 1,000's of girls are cut from Rush every year. Twilley claims that it must be because she's black. And the media subtly alleges that the NPC sororities in the South must all be filled with racists because they didn't give a bid to a black girl whose family is a member of the upper class financial bracket.
I'm sorry, but it's just not that cut and dried, and I don't think the media should try to make it appear that way -- and I don't think Twilley should have raised such a ruckus about it. If a white girl had made such a stink on campus about not getting a bid, most people would have looked at her in wide-eyed bemusement, shaking their heads and thinking to themselves, "um, so you didn't get a bid... time to move on with life..."
Because Twilley is black, this turned into a huge racial debate, and I just don't see why. It would be different if the girls in the houses had treated her terribly during Rush or showed any sign that they disliked Twilley because of her race. But, even in the article, Twilley comments on how sweet the girls were and how upbeat they were during the parties. I suppose (to answer another of your questions, Alias) if there was any evidence to prove that Twilley was discriminated against because of her race, I would feel differently. However, not receiving a bid doesn't strike me as a racist move. Like I've stated repeatedly, lots of girls don't get bids and the fact that Twilley is among the list doesn't prove a thing.
Alias states that: "Besides, if she WAS trying to prove a point, instead of rejecting her because of it, wouldn't that be the perfect opportunity to judge her solely on her qualities to see if she was the right material and prove everybody wrong if she was? Why would you teach her a lesson by helping her prove her point?"
My rebuttal to that is: How do you know that the sororities DIDN'T judge Twilley solely on her qualities? Normally, when a person goes through Rush 2 times and gets cut by every sorority on campus, there is usually a pretty good reason for it. It could be something as simple as she didn't seem interested in the sorority and the girls didn't want to waste a bid on someone who wasn't interested. There are a million "maybes", but race is the only reason that anyone in the media has ever offered as a cause for the cut. The fact is, we just don't know. We weren't in the houses, and we don't know how Twilley and the sisters interacted. So, why should we jump to the conclusion that it was a racist move on the sororities' part?
Also, sororities don't exist to teach people lessons. During Rush, the groups are interested in one thing: finding girls who meet the standards that their organization was founded upon, who get along with the other sisters, and who seem to show an interest in their particular sorority.
Now, back to my original comment about what kind of car I drove when I went through Rush... I just find it extremely funny and absurd that so much emphasis has been placed on what kind of car a person who was cut from Rush drives, when cars don't even matter. Nowhere on any NPC rush application is there a spot for rushees to list the make/model of their car, and "What kind of car do you drive?", regardless of what some people might think, is NOT an age-old question asked by sorority girls at an NPC rush party.
Yes, we want to make sure that the girls we pick up are going to be able to handle their financial obligations to the sorority. But, no, we're not snobs for feeling that way. Would a department store give you a credit card without asking first if you can afford the payments? Would a gym give you a 1-year membership without checking to see if you can pay the dues?
A sorority is a business much like any other, and we should not have to apologize for "watching our backs" and making sure that the girls to whom we offer bids can actually afford the cost of socials, formals, house upkeep, etc. HOWEVER, it doesn't mean that we only offer bids to girls who drive top of the line vehicles and have a trust fund set up by daddy. We also take girls who hold down jobs in order to pay their sorority dues, and, in my case, girls who drive older model, less attractive cars.
So, my point about the car is that it seems like people OUTSIDE of the sororities are making a bigger deal about a rushee's material assets than the sororities themselves.
That's really the only point I was trying to make. I apologize if I've offended anyone with these or past comments in this thread.