School Daze

[quteepie22]

EEEEE-YIP Sorhors!!! I was just on the website for the book African American Fraternities and Sororities; The legacy and the vision. And I was reading the abstract for the chapter about School Daze and how the movie depicted BGLO's. As I read it I wondered how much relavance or influence does the movie have on young non-greeks today. I don't remember if the movie was made in the late eighties or the early nineties, but I do know that I've seen the movie like a thousand times. Now, I'm 26 years old so of course I've seen it. And, I'm not going to lie, there are alot of stereotypes about BGLOs and even though I knew that it was just a movie, I knew people that were in college and they would tell me about the stereotypes which let me to believe that when I got to college the whole fraternity and Sorority experience was going to be like School Daze. Ofcourse, when I got to college and even before I became a Sigma woman, I found that it was nothing like School Daze. But how about the young people that are just starting college and may want to join a fraternity or Sorority. I wonder how many of them have seen the movie and how it may have effected their view of what BGLOs are all about. What do you all think?

[NinjaPoodle]

I think it has a lot of influence on non-greeks. The day I was to be inducted (into the greatest sorority of all time) I had a non-greek friend drop me off at the location. About a week later, I saw him again a he was asking me for info on what happened. {insert "yeah right" look here} Didn’t tell him anything but that it was a beautiful ceremony. That's it. He thought I was kidding and would actually tell him what happened and then we got into it about the why's and how come's and at some point during the conversation, the movie School Daze came up. He later made a comment I hadn't really thought about. He said that what he saw on tv and in the movies is all he really had to go on. None of his folks were in frats or sorors, so I could understand where he was coming from with that one. In all fairness, he was from St. Thomas and apparently, in his neck of the woods they don’t hear too much about that sort of thing.

Of the movies, news stories and tv sitcoms/programs I've seen that' have dealt with greek life, usually it's the party theme, the tragic hazing story, or racism. If this is what is presented to the general public and everything else is "secret", what are non-greeks supposed to think? Now there are those who are legacies or know someone who is greek and may get more accurate information but for the rest, where does that leave them?

[BlueReign]

Good topic! And one that can make us think what can we do or should be doing to change that image. I get tired of people guessing what sorority I belong to based on a certain stereotype they heard.

As a teacher a lot of my students look at my letters and the only thing they ask me is something in regards to stepping. I think it's great that more informative books are being published like this one and the Divine Nine book several years ago.

[NinjaPoodle]

Also, no matter how many community service events we (greeks in general) do, it's always overlooked. It may be a 60 second story in the local news but the hazing story took 5 minutes.

[TRSimon]

I have seen a lot of negative assumptions made because of School Daze (by people who have no exposure to NPHC organizations), but I have also seen prospects and greek organization members who felt they had to emulate certain parts of the film to maintain their credibility or perceived status. When the movie came out in the late eighties, there was a lot of uproar among the NPHC orgs, but to some extent, the film was dead on. It's 2005, and some folk still need to wake up.

[NinjaPoodle]

Originally posted by TRSimon
.. some folk still need to wake up.

Agreed

[quteepie22]

I believe that the partying and the hazing stereotype is what hurts us alot. You have so many people who want to join and who do join because they believe that being in a BGLO is going to involve partying all the time. I think that this is why we lose so many sorors and frats to inactivity because of the assumption that as soon as you cross, the partying was going to be the biggest part of the experience and when work needs to be done, they are no where to be found. The hazing stereotype is what stops a lot of promising people from even attempting to join a BGLO because, and it may sound a little exagerrated, but some people actually think that they might end up dieing (I may have spelled that wrong) in the process. After I was inducted into Sigma Gamma Rho, Sorority Inc. and went home with letters on, some of my family members were calling me asking me was I hurt badly and if I was Ok. And I had to assure them that I was fine. Now when my family sees me with letters on they are proud because of everything that I tell them that I am involved in with the sorority, and they realize that being greek is not a bad thing. I think that every chance we get we have to put positive images out there about our organizations because if we don't the media will continue to tear us down.

[bluethunder]

Originally posted by TRSimon
I have seen a lot of negative assumptions made because of School Daze (by people who have no exposure to NPHC organizations), but I have also seen prospects and greek organization members who felt they had to emulate certain parts of the film to maintain their credibility or perceived status. When the movie came out in the late eighties, there was a lot of uproar among the NPHC orgs, but to some extent, the film was dead on. It's 2005, and some folk still need to wake up.

I agree: while the movie was fictitious, it was a case of art imitating life to a large extent. When I was in undergrad, a Ph.D scholar (who also happened to be an Alpha) came to our school and gave us a historical overview of hazing and how it dated way back to the 1800's-- way before BGLO's were around and how it evolved, and how we (BGLO's) picked it up from our counterparts in greekdom, who, for the sake of this conversation, were our forefathers, if you will. When he got to discussing pledging and hazing in the 80's, he mentioned how when School Daze came out, NPHC org's were speaking out and how Spike Lee's movie depicted BGLO's in the wrong light and wasn't true to reality-- but at the end of they, there was A LOT more truth to it than people were willing to face and admit to.

I think it is a sad day when people know more about stepping and pledging, than they know about our legacy and service and history of community uplift. Unfortunately, that sad day is today. I think while people are always going to gravitate toward what is "ear candy" or appealing to watch (i.e., the pledging/hazing horror stories and stepping), a lot of their shortsightedness is due to what BGLO's are showing them. I believe there was a time when people readily recognized the black greekdom was REALLY about something, it was REALLY a distinction to be in one of our orgs. But with all the petty rivalries, all the power trips that result in multi-million dollar hazing suits, and huge turnouts for stepshows in T-shirts but low visibility in service, its no wonder people buy into what they see on television.

Remember: people don't see all the grand things your NATIONAL organization is doing; they see what YOU are doing locally and form an opinion. For example, Sigma Gamma Rho as an org has very noble ideals and aims and tons of national projects, but if the local chapter on campus is beating people down, actin' up at the club, and only shows up--and out!--for a step show, it's easy to buy into the stereotype hype.

[SummerChild]

Quteepie22,
Please excuse (or Moderators delete) my post if it was directed to only your Sorors.

I'll chime in and say that I've never seen the movie (I'm 30 so I was around when it was around I just think that Spike Lee movies are corny the way that he's always talking into the camera, etc.) but I had heard of the various stereotypes of some of the organizations upon getting to college. I say that to say that as someone who never saw the movie, those stereotypes from the movie may still be proliferated by who knows whom upon entry to college so young people may still hear them as I did.

SC

Originally posted by quteepie22
EEEEE-YIP Sorhors!!! I was just on the website for the book African American Fraternities and Sororities; The legacy and the vision. And I was reading the abstract for the chapter about School Daze and how the movie depicted BGLO's. As I read it I wondered how much relavance or influence does the movie have on young non-greeks today. I don't remember if the movie was made in the late eighties or the early nineties, but I do know that I've seen the movie like a thousand times. Now, I'm 26 years old so of course I've seen it. And, I'm not going to lie, there are alot of stereotypes about BGLOs and even though I knew that it was just a movie, I knew people that were in college and they would tell me about the stereotypes which let me to believe that when I got to college the whole fraternity and Sorority experience was going to be like School Daze. Ofcourse, when I got to college and even before I became a Sigma woman, I found that it was nothing like School Daze. But how about the young people that are just starting college and may want to join a fraternity or Sorority. I wonder how many of them have seen the movie and how it may have effected their view of what BGLOs are all about. What do you all think?

[SeriousSigma22]

Sorhors and Friends,

Movies like "School Daze" and constant news reports that glorify the stepping and hazing are very damaging to BGLO's. We all need to focus on better strategies to let the greater society understand the real purpose and focus of our great organizations. There's an interesting article in the Aurora located in the From Him section of the magazine titled "How To Get Your Brand." The author; Walter M. Kimbrough, says that "we've lost some of our relevance and it's time for someone to craft a new brand that hopefully other groups will model. We need a new brand for Black Fraternalism." When I first read the article I was taken back a bit and unnerved from the boldness of the it, however, the more I thought about it I realized there's a lot of truth in his presentation. We are losing some of our relevance and we can thank folks like Spike Lee and even our own brothers and sisters in our perspective organizations for doing damage to us. We (BGLOs) need to do a reality check and do it fast before it's too late.

Serioussigma22

[quteepie22]

I very much agree!!!

[NinjaPoodle]

Originally posted by bluethunder
...I think it is a sad day when people know more about stepping and pledging, than they know about our legacy and service and history of community uplift. Unfortunately, that sad day is today. I think while people are always going to gravitate toward what is "ear candy" or appealing to watch (i.e., the pledging/hazing horror stories and stepping), a lot of their shortsightedness is due to what BGLO's are showing them. I believe there was a time when people readily recognized the black greekdom was REALLY about something, it was REALLY a distinction to be in one of our orgs. But with all the petty rivalries, all the power trips that result in multi-million dollar hazing suits, and huge turnouts for stepshows in T-shirts but low visibility in service, its no wonder people buy into what they see on television.

Remember: people don't see all the grand things your NATIONAL organization is doing; they see what YOU are doing locally and form an opinion. For example, Sigma Gamma Rho as an org has very noble ideals and aims and tons of national projects, but if the local chapter on campus is beating people down, actin' up at the club, and only shows up--and out!--for a step show, it's easy to buy into the stereotype hype.

[TRSimon]

You JUST got around to readin that NinjaPoodle???

[NinjaPoodle]

yeah, i had missed a few threads here and there or forgot to come back to some.

[ChangePlease]

Can one of you explain exactly how greek life was depicted in the movie? I haven't seen it. But come on you some of it holds true for some chapters and orgs.