Quote:
Originally posted by VirtuousErudite
I totally agree that race may not have played a part, but I guess you can say that my viewpoint is skewed because I have PERSONALLY witnessed racism play a huge part in the selection or the lack their of , of two of the freshman guys I work with one last year and one this school year. You said you needed hard evidence, I am honestly wondering what would suffice, signed confession, hidden camera audio/video tape, racial slurs written on the walls? Ok, that one was a little far fetched but seriously what would serve as hard evidence??????
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Hi Virtuous,
Sorry for not replying sooner.
To answer your question about "hard evidence" concerning discrimination in NPC rush: Honestly, the main thing that I would consider (as I mentioned in my post to Alias earlier) is if the girls were rude to Twilley during her Rush -- if they made her feel ill at ease, ignored her, or in any way treated her differently than any other rushee at the parties. The thing is, Twilley herself admits that the girls were all nice to her and that she enjoyed her rush experience. She didn't feel as if she was treated differently while Rush was going on -- it was only afterwards that she formed her idea that discrimination was the reason for her lack of a bid.
Another example of evidence that I would examine closely... If several sorority members were to step up and claim that discrimination did take place and state when and how it happened, then I would be willing to take a harder look at the situation. The reason that their words might carry more weight than the rushee's? Because the sorority members are insiders to the issue -- they were actually involved in the Rush process on a deeper level and were privy to at least some part of the voting procedures.
However, and this is a BIG however, I still wouldn't take their word for it entirely. I would want to talk to other sisters in the chapter to get their opinions on the girls, and see how they were perceived within the organization -- to see what kind of sorority members the girls who came forward were. Were they assets to their chapters? Did they hold any offices? Did they represent their chapter positively on campus and in society? Did they have any personal reasons for wanting to bring negative publicity to their organization?
You would be surprised how often that happens. A disgruntled member who feels, for whatever reason, that she has been "wronged" by the organization, or certain people in the organization, can cause a lot of problems unnecessarily just out of spite. I've seen it happen several times - enough to know that it's a common occurence. So, I suppose that I would have to know something about the whistle-blower's character before I made a judgement about whether or not her story was true.
The problem with discovering discrimination in the Rush process is that Rush is SO complicated. There are numerous reasons for why a girl might be cut, and that's why I posted a summary of how Rush basically works -- so that people would be aware of the fact that sometimes there is no way to pinpoint exactly why a girl didn't receive a bid.
Just as there is no evidence that Twilley wasn't discriminated against, there is also no evidence that she was. It's a tough call to make. However, I'm willing to give the sororities the benefit of the doubt because, as I've stated before, in this country people are suppose to be innocent until proven guilty - not the other way around.
I hope this answers your question, Virtuous.