Well, as far as I can see, James, thanks so much for dropping your knowledge...it's about time we stopped picking on neicy...well, most of us anyways...thanks also for trying to bring back a respectable tone to the thread..highly appreciated on this end.
As for christina houston, it's too bad the situation that we are all in. Even M Twilley. None of us will ever know what was said or not said but voted upon in her bid meetings. The main difference between the two women clearly is the acceptability factor. We may not liek to admit it, but it is harder to accept someone who is diffrent in a way you haven't been exposed to. You can't understand a lot about the person and who they are when you can't understand why they talk the way they do, or look the way they do.
Being a lighter skinned sistah who has grown up with the white kids, and is in a local sorority that is more closesly linked with WGLOs than with BGLOs, I must say a few things. I have experienced the need to "fit in". My hair is longish (passed shoulders) and I speak in a very proper tone...until I get around my black friends. Any of us who have had to be in different circles know what it is to adjust. There are nearly two separate worlds that I must answer to...even though I am not mixed. We live in a white world, therefore adjustment for black who wish to excel is mandatory. And that is where a lot of whites fail to relate. I am forced to adjust to whites unless I attend a HBC, or want to be "the black girl" in social situation rather than Ariane, who I actually am. Whites don't have this issue of fitting in. Unless you put yourself into a black environment...blacks don't get to "choose".
Christina is merely more easily adjustable to than M Twilley. Like I said we'll never know why christina is in, and Twilley is out, but we do know who fits in more easily. I only hope that christina is strong enough to represent. When issues of the "n" word, or any other degrading phrases occur, she is able to stand up and correct the situation. That is what we all need to break the barriers. Let it begin with the one who is only slightly "different" so she can widen the bridges into the un-integrated WGLOs.
Many black women don't consider WGLOs because we think that's not our place, but speaking as a happy member of my org, I probably would feel most happy in an NPC rather than a BGLOs (ifwe were allowed to charter on my campus) due to similarity in practices. And I would hope that my skin color would not have to be a huge issue. By the same token I realize my selection criteria would include factors such as has this org had any blacks? mexicans who are visibly mexican? etc.
bascially, christina houston is helping out future Twilley's...as long as she is not forced to lose herself in the process.
one last thing...there have been a lot of use of "they" and "them" on this site amongst those defending AL...did anyone else pick up on that? Just a clue to the degree of separation, and the currently irreconcilable differences present
also-
if I have happened to offend anyone with my blunt use of white and black, or anything of the sort, I apologize. My blunt tone has come from years of debating racial situations.
greek love
ariane