It was all Greek to me....

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

^^^ I think there's an issue because she's just whining. She joined a chapter for the wrong reasons and continued on when "she knew things were bad." Because of her negative experience, she's denouncing all NPHC organizations. Then, in her next breath, she claims that she understands the importance of these organizations.

She needs to step off of her soapbox and keep it moving...

I read the article and don't see that she's denouncing the NPHC at all. She's merely calling out the practices that she experienced in her org and didn't like. Some quotes:

I try not to let my experience sour me on the organization because Zeta Phi Beta is a great and important group historically and I know a lot of women feel strongly about it.

You didn't have to come from perfect breeding or be light-skinned to be a Zeta. It was supposed to be about finding what was best in the heart of black people and shining a light on it.

All four original black sororities had similar goals. Education would be salvation of the black race. It was the same for the four original fraternities. We would be both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois and we would lead ourselves out of the wilderness.

Even this passage, where she critiques her chapter, she admits it was less the undergrads in the chapter but the lack of oversight and direction that made her experience less than what she wanted:

My sorors weren't bad people. They were just kids and they acted like kids. Anyone who's ever read "Lord of the Flies" knows how quickly youth can deteriorate into destruction without some adults officiating. When I graduated the older grad students in the chapter who'd gone through the worst as freshman wanted the chapter to give up the six-week pledge process and start following the national guidelines. She was so proud of this because she wanted the experience to be what the founders intended. But she was heading off to start her adult life and her words fell on deaf ears to the girls below her. They liked the "old way" of doing things. It was what had been done to them and it was more "fun." They liked wearing the t-shirts and dancing and the parties and six-weeks of pledging and superficial charitable efforts that gave them feelings of legitimacy.

I don't know. I don't get mad when people write similar things about NPC chapters. In fact I admit that a lot of NPC chapters don't live up to or flat out ignore the ideals of their org. I was lucky to have a different experience. But I know plenty of NPC alums are disillusioned about such things. I actually found the article balanced, and it was interesting to see an NPHC perspective like this. While she may have some facts wrong (oof, wrong sorority for Eleanor Roosevelt), she obviously has a strong sense of the values of Zeta specifically and the history, legacy, and values of the NPHC generally even if she doesn't really have great memories herself. And she seems to really admire the experience that her mom had.