I understand your concern DirectorDST99. To tell the truth one can only do so much to curb the miseducation about Greeks in High Schools. The teachers that are Greek can only do so much; but the teachers who aren't also have an impact on how the student thinks about Greeks. If the non-Greek teacher had a good experience with Greeks, then they would say positive aspects about Greeks. If not, they don't and even get to the point to where they discourage the students from going for scholarship awards given by Greeks.
Part of the problem is that now alot of HS Step Teams and Black oriented groups are on White High School Campuses, where there are little to no BGLO role models to say yes, this is how it works and no, this is not how it works. I don't think that we as advisors can blame the children for what they see on television either. To tell the truth, if you are not a legacy or have not been exposed to Greek life as a youth, then you would believe every negative stereotype that you see on television and the news. So by time they get into these groups, they already have the preconceived notion as to what they think it means to be Greek or to be in a group with status. People come to our tryouts and want to join our team because they think this is a stepping stone to AKA, DST, ZPB or SGRho. Then when they find out this is not the case at all (how can it be, we work with fraternities), they don't want to be apart of it because they want the hazing the other things they think being Greek or in a group of status entails.
I don't mean to overstep my boundaries but I believe teenagers, especially Black ones, begin to choose which organization they think is right for them around the 10-12 grades. Many times, theses judgements are based on what they see the groups do at stepshows and in the communities. I know in high school I used to hear rumors all the time about which organization pledged the hardest or which one has more respect and different things like that. Then, based on the rumormil and where there priorities are, they make the decisions about each organization. And you are right, I have seen people I have competed against in step shows come to campus and see that they were completely wrong about the organization of choice.
I am not Greek, so I wouldn't know how to tell you directly what I think you should do to get rid of the miseducation that many High Schoolers think about Greeks. I guess I can say that the only hope is that all youth organizations are run by Greeks, but realistically we know that is not going to happen. So I guess the next best thing is making sure the advisors (myself included) are teaching these teenagers how to by young responsible African Americans and if they are doing that, the teenagers will make the best decisions about Greek life or any social organization.
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