Black Issues in Higher Ed. Focuses on Frat at Norfolk

Blueknowledge · #4 04-30-2002, 08:33 PM

Please read my answer on this topic on the Zeta board. For the record, I did not have a poor undergraduate experience; however, I am critical enough of our process to understand the reform that is needed, and the people that have to institute that reform. Also, we need to be clear that the "rationalization" of violence, which we've renamed, for all intents and purposes, "pledging", is a social construct. It is a socially negotiated value that someone created that we've, over time, objectified so much that we can't even imagine a new membership process without it. Sorry, if I no longer agree with the dominant discourse and order of "reality."

But frankly, I'll be more blunt - since it is evidence and a chronology of events that you appear to want.

After I "pledged", I still participated in "sets" for a couple of years. During those two years, I came to increasingly question the purpose of "pledging" as a logical and "normal" activity. Finally, I happened to go to a set that was so disturbing, YOU would NEVER have to ask me this question. My sister, I saw a man brutalized in a fashion that was so bad, it was damn near animalistic. This man's skin, his back, his chest, etc, had imprints and severe bruises all over it. I tried to stop the set (it wasn't my campus and they weren't "my boys") but there were too many people doing their thing to hear my voice. I couldn't bear to watch and I walked out of the set and vowed to fight (even if I'm by myself) against this destructive behavioral norm that we've created. But as your response shows, I'm clearly in the minority and losing the argument.

Nevertheless, I no longer believe in this world view. And I care too much for us, as a race, and the organization, to allow the dominant construct to go unchallenged.

So, maybe we continue on for 10 years, or maybe we'll last another 20, but certainly, all BGLOS are on their last leg, unless they reassess their values, and change their ways.

Blueknowlege

Note: That man that I saw assualted by "my brothers", never did make it into the blue and white because the undergraduate chapter didn't take care of the "paper work."

Please tell me where there's a justice and moral authority in our "system."