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Agreed, ktsnake. It is somewhat unfair to judge our founders by today’s standards. But you do have to at least be aware there were different standards, so you don’t get too carried away with how wonderful your founders were. In 1860 you could be an educated, moral, upstanding young man and still consider a black man inferior and unworthy of membership. In 1960 it was obviously a different story.
But this is where we disagree: I think it is still very much “in the closet”. I don’t think the average GLO member has any idea that their constitution once allowed only whites, and that the civil rights movement created some very strong dissention in fraternity ranks which resulted in the loss of several original chapters. It continues to this day. There are still plenty of old-timers around, active alums, who fiercely resent having to admit blacks.
Yes, diversity has made us better. I wasn’t saying that fraternities and sororities today are racist organizations (or at least, no more so than a sampling of the general college-educated public). My point was simply that we should be aware this happened. Clearly, many of us are not.
And, as James tried to point out, we shouldn’t elevate our founders to such an unrealistic degree as to imagine them above the more “unsavory” attitudes of their time. I agree with James that this shows “limited reasoning”.
This statement is pure fantasy:
“My founders weren't racist. They would be happy we have non-White and non-Episcapalion members. They set out to be a national fraternity and have members of lots of groups be brothers.”
I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the founders of our groups. The dedication and the hours required to assemble a group of like-minded individuals, to develop a structure of ritual and symbolism and law that endures today, is incredible. But I have no illusions about who these people were. They were simply young, educated men and women who were as much driven by the social and political forces of their time as we are by ours a century or more later.
wptw
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