What! I Don't Need No Stinking Sorority!--An NPHC Membership Journey

[SISTERGREEK]

Inspired by tld221's thread, I wanted to post my NPHC Membership Journey (Since NPHC membership is less about recruitment and more about pursuit.) It is a long one, because the pursuit lasted many years. I hope you all will enjoy. Without further ado, I present:

"I Don't Need No Stinking Sorority!"

First, let me set the scene. I am a child of the eighties coming of age in the time of grunge, gansta rap, and the emergence of the boy band era in the early and mid-nineties. The music of the era was not the only media that was as diverse and it was descriptive; so to did the television programming of that era in many ways define certain generational boundaries.

As a youth, my tastes were hard to pin down. I loved Transformers and Thundercats, but also cartoons like Jem and Punky Brewster (along with the series) and My Little Pony Tales. By the nineties, my taste was moving more towards sitcoms (though cartoons remained some of my favorite viewing). Again, my tastes were all over the place, I enjoyed anything and everything from the Disneyesque shows like Saved By the Bell and Boy Meets World, to the bawdy humor of shows like Married with Children and The Simpsons, to the wholesome family sitcoms like The Cosby Show and A Different World. (If this list reveals anything about my personality, perhap you will have discerned that I am a bit of a tomboy, fiercely individual and independent, idealistic, occasionally raunchy, and sometimes a bit sappy. All of these qualities may or may not help you to figure out where I eventually found my home.)


In fact, those last two shows on that list actually represent my first exposure to Black Greek Life. There were some memorable pledging episodes (featuring characters that I love to this day) with Ron as both a pledge and a DP of Kappa Lambda Nu and Freddie and Kim defying and humiliating their DP Whitley as pledges of Alpha Delta Rho. Of course, at the time most of this was lost on me, seeming tangential to the romance between Dwayne and Whitley, the love quadrangle between Ron, Kim, Freddie and Shazza.

Suffice to say, I had given Greek Life very little consideration by the time that I walked onto the campus of my HBCU in the fall of 199_. (I had never even seen School Days, which many of my new friends said was a huge factor in their deciding to attend an HBCU, along with A Different World--college freshman, what can you say). And for a good while, greek life and membership was the least of my concerns as I tried to figure out the whole college thing, worked to maintain a GPA that would help me keep my scholarship, and tried to make friends in this completely new environment, where everyone else seemed to already know each other.

To be continued...

[Senusret I]

Zoom zoom zoooooooom Kappa Lambda Nu!!!!!

MEMORIES!!!!!!!

[SISTERGREEK]

Because I have already talked so much about television, I will disguise the organizations by renaming them for shows from my youth: Punky Brewster, Boy Meets World, X-Men, and Thundercats.

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

But just because it was not really on my mind, does not me that there weren't freshman women already thinking about, plotting, and openly discussing (where is the discretion ) which organizations they would pursue membership in. I remember distinctly being part of a conversation with several women in my dorm freshman year. The Thundercats had just had their probate, and everyone--with the exception of me--was excited about the prospect of pursuing membership. Several wanted to be Thundercats, several more wanted to be X-Men. Someone asked me if I wanted to pledge, and I said that I didn't know, because at that time, I hadn't really thought about it. (One of them said to me that I looked like a Punky Brewster. I didn't know it at the time, but I think she meant that to be an insult. I never really liked that girl.) Though the probate had been interesting, I still wasn't really sure about the purpose of these organizations.

Of course, as most of us know, most D9 sororities do not allow women to pursue membership until they have attained sophomore status at an accredited four-year institution. I actually love this about these organizations, because it means that women (and men) have time to observe all of the organizations and really get a sense of what the organization and the women in it were all about. On top of that, of the three organizations that were active on my campus, all were having lines that year and would not have another line until two years later, my junior year. (By the time that I was eligible to pursue membership, all four Black Greek Letter Sororities were active on campus.)

Throughout the rest of the year, I observed. There were step shows and dances. While the stepping was impressive, it did not seem reason enough to join an organization. I had participated in a dorm step show that year, so that didn't seem like a huge thing to me. And I am a homebody, utterly and completely. I went to three or four dances (this includes one ill-fated trip to the club) my entire freshman year, so that was not really a draw either. Of course, the men and women wore letters and colors to represent their different organizations and that was cool, but again not really a compelling reason to join any organization. By far, among the sororities, Thundercats were the dominating presence, there were just so many of them. While some were impressed with how many women were members in this organization, size was always an inconsequential thing to me. Also active in my first year were Boy Meets World and Punky Brewster. I only saw these women on occasion, so I did not have much to form an impression of them.

Overall, there was not much to distinguish the organizations with the exception of colors and letters. Punky Brewster's colors were my favorite. In fact, I often wore them together, and my first really nice suit was in one of that org.'s colors. ( I have that suit to this day). Several times, I was mistaken for a Punky Brewster (hmmm, maybe I did look like one) when I was wearing that suit (or maybe it was just the colors). Of course, at that point, I did not know anything about the service aspects of these organizations. There wasn't a lot of promotion of those activities....

[1908Revelations]

Well we get hints as to whos who later in the thread? Or did I miss the hints?

[SISTERGREEK]

Hints will come later. They will be subtle though. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But feel free to start guessing.

[SISTERGREEK]

...going from non-existent to bad....

In addition to not being that well-versed about Greek life, my initial experiences with Greek Life in general did not leave me with very favorable impressions of these organizations.

I made a couple of rookie mistakes--such as sitting in an area that unofficially belonged to one fraternity and being asked none-to-gently, in front of a crowd of people, to move (I was with friends at the time, so that softened the sting a bit). Also, I was actually manhandled by a member of another fraternity for stepping on grass that had been marked as territory by his fraternity! Never mind that that patch of grass was on the front side of my dorm! I mean, I understand being enthusiastic about your organization, believe me I do, but you are doing a bit much laying your hands on me over a piece of grass.

In the whole grand scheme of things, these incidents were quite insignificant. But in the mind of an impressionable young freshman these events took on a great magnitude. (Granted, most of these early negative experiences had to do with fraternities and not sororities.) Greeks had attitude, I decided, and that was not something that I was interested in.

By the end of my freshman year, I had essentially decided not to pursue membership in any organization. None of what I had seen had particularly impressed me or inspired me to explore the matter more. There were so many other activities and organizations that were available to me, not to mention keeping my grades up, that I didn't really see the point. I was shutting the door on greekdom....

Dunh, dunh, dunnnnnnnh.... Will SISTERGREEK change her mind? (Well obviously I will.) More importantly, what will happen to change SISTERGREEK's mind. Also, what will SISTERGREEK's impressions of the different sororities be? Tune in next time to "I Don't Need No Stinking Sorority!"

[BabyPiNK_FL]

Lol! I think the part about the suit gives something away seeing as how it's not very common for "average" non-greeks to wear suits in certain color combinations. That narrows that one down a tiny bit. I'm going to be rooting for Punky Brewster. I grew UP on Soleil Moon Frye, she's awesome!

[PrettyBoy]

This is good. So good, half the bag of popcorn is gone.

[Still BLUTANG]

SisterGreek, did we go to school together? LOL.

[tld221]

Originally Posted by PrettyBoy

This is good. So good, half the bag of popcorn is gone.

is this before or after the bowl of chitlins you scarfed down?

and SISTERGREEK - glad i was an inspiration - keep it coming!

[SISTERGREEK]

At this point, all four organizations were on campus. X-Men had crossed a line the year before and their numbers began to rival those of Thundercats. By this time, many of my friends had crossed into the various organizations on campus. Also, many of my friends had tried and failed to gain membership in different organizations (including one series of unfortunate events that put an end to what I thought was a really strong friendship). By that time, I was beginning to be able to distinguish between the organizations based on the women that I knew who became a part of them.

I knew one woman quite well who joined Boy Meets World. She was a year behind me, and her coming out was entirely unexpected; I never even knew she was interested in a sorority. She was studious and in my major. We were also in an organization together. I liked her a lot because she was kind, steady, and reliable. She was my first real impression of the kind of women that Boy Meets World attracted, and it was an overwhelmingly positive one. I was really happy for her when I found out that she had crossed.

I knew several women who had joined the Thundercats. These women were smart, campus leaders, and quite visible socially as well. But there was something about the women who became Thundercats. They completely changed. Many of them seemed to carry themselves as though they were the ish (and not in the good way, in the bad way) now that they were members of their organization. It seemed that for many of them, their organization made them. This was not the case for all of them. There were several women that crossed whom I continued to good friends with. These women were intelligent and friendly, women that I greatly respected on campus. Also, a few women that I knew and really respected wanted to be Thundercats but were denied membership. But it did not sit well with me that most of the Thundercats seemed to be of the former variety. My impression of Thundercats at this point was not very good.

I also knew several women that had crossed into X-Men. Like the women of Thundercats, these women were smart (one was the valedictorian the year that I graduated), campus leaders, and very much socially prominent. Many of the women who became X-Men were actually women that had lived in my freshman dorm. However, unlike the Thundercats, I did not see any manifestations of a newfound superiority complex in the X-Men. They were the same women that they had been before they crossed, I just saw them less frequently now. Of course, there was that one X-Men that skipped out on her duties for an organization that I was president of (though that did not happen until senior year), but her linesister was right there to pick up her slack, which I respected.

And last, but not least, there was Punky Brewster. I still had not come into contact with any Punky Brewsters. I did not know, personally, any women that had crossed. I would see them occasionally on campus, but never had a really in-depth conversation with one. But for some reason, I didn't quite discount Punky Brewster, maybe because of the colors. (I really like that combination).

The really important thing that happened my junior year was that I begin
to reevaluate the sorority thing. Seeing women that I knew and respected joining each of these organizations made me give it a second glance. I begin to wonder what drew them to these organizations; there must be something more to it then I saw. I decided that I would spend the summer researching the organizations before make a final decision of whether to pursue membership or not.

To be continued....

[SISTERGREEK]

Originally Posted by BabyPiNK_FL

Lol! I think the part about the suit gives something away seeing as how it's not very common for "average" non-greeks to wear suits in certain color combinations. That narrows that one down a tiny bit. I'm going to be rooting for Punky Brewster. I grew UP on Soleil Moon Frye, she's awesome!

Ahh, but certain of the color combinations are also good for professional looks. The school that I went to was all about honing that professional image (Still Blutang, does that sound familiar). Also, remember I was basically a clueless freshman when I got that suit. All I knew was that I was buying a suit in my favorite color, and it was a really good quality suit too.

[tld221]

i'm rooting for BMW only cause i wasn't a cartoon watcher and well, Ben Savage and Rider Strong pretty much rocked my socks in the mid-90s.

and well, they sounds awesome in this thread too.

[SISTERGREEK]

Oh, and there was that other "thing" that happened junior year.

What is it? What is that thing?.....

[tinydancer16]

I have to go with tld, I'm a Boy Meets World girl to the core -I'm not ashamed to admit that I still watch it allll the time on ABC family