Why do multicultural GLOs/organizations exist?

[SOPi_Jawbreaker]

Originally Posted by shinerbock

Jeni uses abbreviations I don't understand, so sorry if I've missed something. What I don't comprehend is the need for multi cultural groups. For example, one of the primary reasons I like greek life, is that it allows like minded people from similar backgrounds to join together both socially and in other endeavors. I don't wanna sound like a jerk here, but often people join fraternities to avoid the melting pot of society. The world is multicultural, why do you need a GLO acting as a microcosm?

The world is multicultural in that it is inhabited by lots of different different people of all sorts of ethnicities. However, there still exists a sort of segregation. There are still many neighborhoods that are predominantly one race or one ethnicity. The schools in these neighborhoods are also going to be predominantly one race or ethnicity. Even in a school that has a good mix of different ethnicities, cliques tend to form along racial divides.

You stated one of your reasons for going Greek was to join like-minded people both socially and in other endeavors. Well I'm sure the same could be said for the ethnic sororities and fraternities as well as the multicultural sororities and fraternities. They may have a different mindset than you, but it doesn't mean that there's no commonality between these organizations and the NPC/NIC orgs, and it certainly doesn't mean that they're less than NPC/NIC orgs in any way. They are real Greeks, they have just as much right/reason/justification for exisiting, and they provide a lot of the same things the older, "more traditional" NPC/NIC orgs provide (strong sisterhood/brotherhood, networking, social events, leadership skills, support in times of need, fun/memorable college experience, giving back to the community, etc.) And with multicultural fraternities and sororities, the members may come from different backgrounds but they are still coming together as like-minded people for the unified purpose of promoting multiculturalism. And multiculturalism isn't about a melting pot. It's not about us all blending together until we're all the same uniform beige-y, tannish color. It's about becoming more worldly by educating yourself about other cultures and educating others about your own culture...and realizing that there is a huge wide world out there beyond your own little corner of the world.