Why are there no black members in Phi Kappa Psi? Another view

[Blackwatch]

Hello everyone,
First let me state that I am an African American Man who is a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. an NPHC affiliated fraternity. I am an active alumni brother in one of over 150 alumni chapters in Alpha. As for inter racial discussions on diversity and "prejudice" this discussion has been better than most. I would just like to clarify some terms so that people can understand the viewpoint of the black family from the article and other members of NPHC orgs. on this thread.

When we talk of segregation and diversity, I see many people falling into a trap that Dr. King disccussed in his book Why We Can't Wait. He talked about the need for power intergration, not space integration. What was happening was that people misunderstood the notion of integration to think that black folks were trying to gain the ability to sit next to white people in social and job settings (shop with you, go to school with you, join your social clubs,etc). The real aim was to have the same access to opportunities and resources that those white institutions had. One example he specifically states is the issue with schools in our communities. Since Brown v. Board in 1954, Dr. King noted that the desegregation of our schools was causing blacks to loose control (power) of our schools. Black schools were being closed down and black students bused to white schools, the black teachers and administrators were loosing their jobs. The solution to the problem of power segregation and become space intergration, which never hit at the main issue of power integration.

I go through that brief history lesson to state that one black person in a NIC/PHC org doesn't mean a hill of beans. It would actually behoove us to discuss the disparity of resources on college campuses between the NIC/PHC orgs and the NPHC orgs as institutions. This is why I do not generally like talks of diversity, because it always boils down to how many white/black friends I have and never really hits at a deeper, more essential issue of power intergration. I attend grad school at the U of Missouri-Columbia and I tell you that the houses that these NIC-PHC orgs have here are down right amazing. Maid service, suites, manicured lawns, etc. All of the NPHC orgs are active on this yard and all of them struggle to donate a $500 scholarship. Now I know that most of that comes from the resources that the orgs themselves have, but the issue here is how does such a disparity along racial lines happen? Will this disparity change as a result of a mostly black pledge class? In a truly "integrated " society, the Alpha Phi Alpha House would be right next to the Kappa Alpha house, not just in location, but in size and trappings, but people don't like to think about that because that smacks of "Socialism" (heaven forbid)


Truth is that none of these organizations are racially restricted by policy so whoever wants to join whatever really isn't a big deal. If your group doesn't attract people of different ethnicities, and this is something you want to do, then you could do maybe one of two things
-Look at the population you want to attract and see what they like. Then see if your org could ever provide those things, if not then
- Decide that attracting other ethnicities can't be a big priority because in order to attract them in droves you would dilute the purpose and culture of your own org.

This may sound a little cold in this warm and fuzzy PC climate, but I am tired of us throwing around terms like "diversity" and only wanting to see people holding hands and singing, rather than looking at solutions to the real issues, like the power and resource inequality in this society heavily metered out along racial lines. If we want to talk about that, then I'm game. Otherwise, to truly respect the diversity of different orgs, allow them to be them. If a white person wants to join Alpha Phi Alpha, fine. If a black person wants to join Alpha Tau Omega, then fine. But don't think for a second that this makes a difference in the social order or culture in our society in general, nor our respective orgs specifically. If you were a black frat founded to uplift our community, be that. If you are a white frat that believes that Robert E. Lee is someone worth emulating, be that. In a truly diverse society, we would respect differences, not try to dilute them with tokenism, which really doesn't change anything.

Blackwatch!!!!!!