"Why Did You Decide to Join ...That?"

[rhoyaltempest]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

if you are going to ask the questions of mimicing...then u have to then ask your orginal founders WHY they created their orgs...as another question i am so commonly asked....and I am SURE somewhere along the line ..WHY on GOD'S green earth would a BLACK person join a GREEK LETTERED organization and not an African one.....and yet...it's a valid and fair question. It's not like the 9 did anything different than newer GLO's are doing...they got grief for wanting to do something and for various reasons they didn't find it among what was already present and made the decision to branch out and carve thier own niche....it's like trying to tell someone that there are only 9 things in life you can ever hope to be and out of those 9 you can only truly choose one without giving that person the benefit of saying....well I know that there is more to this world than 9 choices.....just like your founders made the choice to start soemthing of thier own and no matter 'how unique' they are supposed to be, they / we all serve the same purpose....THAT is the bottom line.


The only thing that divides us are our colors and our symbols....take that away and what else are we.....

Bottom Line: Most of us joined our respective organization to in some capacity serve the communites in which we live right?

Last time I checked...I did

And truthfully? Bottom Line?

I could just as easily do without and did it either on my own or as an individual..but as just another gardener out here...nothing gets cultivated without extra hands...questio is...who else's hands do you trust to help you?

Read my quote at the bottom of this page please....define that for yourself because when it comes right dfonw to it, that is how I feel about Greekdom.

What's valid and fair about this question? I have never thought this question was valid or fair, but rather uninformed. When someone asks me this, all it tells me is that the person asking either THINKS they know everything there is to know about our organizations OR they are just looking for a reason to put us down, but it doesn't work with me either way because I know who I am and I know a great deal about my history. Then you have those that have studied some or a lot about African history and wish to condemn anything that isn't what they perceive to be "Afrocentric." I have encountered all of these types and in each situation I am able to hold my own. For one thing people have a tendency to study history and then take what they've learned and apply it to every modern situation regardless of the circumstances surrounding it in the present day. Yes, our founders created our orgs at a time when many African Americans were looking to fit in with the White community. We know this and I don't think that any of us can rightfully fault them for trying to get ahead in the unjust environment in which they lived and was trying to progress in. None of us can personally identify with what their struggle was truly like. Was it easier to assume a greek letter name just as the White greeks had before them? I would imagine so. Would it have been welcomed to give themselves an African name when most things having to do with "Blackness" wasn't welcomed? I'm sure it wouldn't have been. Would they ever have received a charter on a predominently White campus if they had an African name back then? Did they even think about giving themselves an African name? We'll never know for sure but it's obvious when you look at all of the NPHC orgs and see the various symbols that relate to our heritage, that our founders were not void of their sense of self and a connection to their African history. In fact the reason that the D9 orgs developed their own ways of relating to one another: calls, handsigns, stepping (things that some of us think are superficial but I don't) are rooted in our need to stay connected to one another and to our heritage. If you read about some of the rituals of some African societies (the Mende is a good example), you'll find that much of what we do (or did) and how we do it can be compared to that of some African tribal groups.

As for why we don't change our names today? I used to think about this but I realized that we just don't need to. If you know who you are personally and you know who you are as an organization, there is no need to change your name just to appease those who do not understand. Today, our orgs are businesses and our names are a Brand, a very popular, marketed brand at that. I believe this is the reason that the NAACP won't change their name even though we are no longer calling ourselves "Colored People."

The bottom line is...don't allow anyone to try and intimidate you with this question and I have seen many of our members do just that when faced with this question. If you know your history and the history of our orgs, there is nothing that anyone can say to you. Tell the person who's asking to do the research.