Quoted from
www.nphchq.org (I did my best to include exerpts without taking them out of their originial context):
"Undergraduate chapters of NPHC affiliate organizations began to spread to major research universities admitting Blacks and to major historically Black colleges in the South. Graduate chapters were birthed in cities across the US as civic and service organizations, due to blatant racism prohibiting African Americans from participating in general civic organizations within their communities after college graduation..."
"The need to form campus-based councils to represent NPHC affiliate organizations is not motivated by a "separatist" philosophy. The establishment of councils assists in maintaining a distinct identity as "service based organizations," as opposed to organizations that may be strictly social in nature; NPHC, Inc. does not advocate a disassociation from NIC, NPC, or NALFO organizations on college campuses. It should also be noted that member organizations have never restricted membership solely to African Americans. They have, however, developed a distinctive African American style in their activities both social and philanthropic."
Soror: I don't think that the term social has negative connotations at all times. The reason why I was making the distinction is because a distinction has ALWAYS been made. I was always taught (and read) that our organizations are "service" organizations. This is not to say that the "social" organizations do not do service. However, HBGLOs and the NPHC choose (even today) to make the distinction.
Much Love
Quote:
Originally posted by CrucialCrimson
Any organization with a Greek-lettered name is a GLO, but the term, "Fellow Greek" is something I only use for NPHC, IFC, or NPC organizations. As for the service/social issue, DST is a social sorority which performs community service projects. The distinction is professional vs. social because both perform public service activities (or at least they can if they choose to.) Social is not meant to demean or take away from our service activities, but rather refers to the means of securing membership - i.e. it is not open to all women and men in a particular field, major, etc. It doesn't mean we sit around and party all the time - the relationship that we have sister-to-sister and sister-to-organization is just as significant as the work we do, so in that light being a "social organization" sets us apart from people that are brought together based on their interest in a particular field or discipline - they are more like clubs to me, albeit clubs with greek-lettered names.
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