Race & Sororities

[Ghostwriter]

I cannot speak for Ole Miss but I can assure you that many large national sororities have multi-cultural members. Both my daughters attended a large southern university and were members of a large national sorority. They had white, hispanic, asian and black sisters. Don't be surprised to see the same thing at other large southern universities. Racism is not dead, of course, but it is not really as big a factor down south as people presume.

[OPhiAGinger]

Originally Posted by Ghostwriter

IRacism ... is not really as big a factor down south as people presume.

Agreed. Though I have no insight into the demographic makeup of our Ole Miss chapter today, I worked with their founding mothers during our Ole Miss colonization several years ago. I was proud that they included women from a variety of backgrounds including women of color.

To the OP, keep all your options open: NPC, NPHC, multi-cultural orgs, and service orgs. Ole Miss has so much to offer!

[libramunoz]

Originally Posted by Ghostwriter

Racism is not dead, of course, but it is not really as big a factor down south as people presume.

I beg to differ. Racism, especially in the South, is as big a factor as people DO and TEND TO presume. I went to school in the South, the Heart of Dixie, and lemme tell you, it wasn't easy, pretty, or damn right at times! When you can still go into courthouses in the south, and if you look hard enough (which sometimes isn't too hard) and you can still see a door that says "Colored Only" then you'll KNOW that racism is still an issue and it's still a HUGE factor in the SOUTH.
Why do you think that MOST HBCU's are in the south? I don't know of many on the West Coast and very few on the upper East Coast.
Racism will always be a factor and it depends on HOW the person makes a choice to deal with it when a) it's presented to them overtly, b) it's presented to them covertly, c) their constantly reminded through daily actions of others, and d) it's a factor within the persons surroundings and enviornment.
So to say that it's not a true factor DOWN SOUTH, you are presuming very much. Sometimes, they saying of "Walk a mile in my shoes" turns out to be more true than what a person tends to "want" to think.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by libramunoz

So to say that it's not a true factor DOWN SOUTH, you are presuming very much. Sometimes, they saying of "Walk a mile in my shoes" turns out to be more true than what a person tends to "want" to think.

"Not really as big a factor...as people assume" versus "HUGE" are subjective and unnecessary distinctions. He acknowledged that it isn't dead, so you agree with him.

And the interesting thing is that you agree without his needing to wear your shoes. Woohoo!

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by libramunoz

I beg to differ. Racism, especially in the South, is as big a factor as people DO and TEND TO presume. I went to school in the South, the Heart of Dixie, and lemme tell you, it wasn't easy, pretty, or damn right at times! When you can still go into courthouses in the south, and if you look hard enough (which sometimes isn't too hard) and you can still see a door that says "Colored Only" then you'll KNOW that racism is still an issue and it's still a HUGE factor in the SOUTH.
Why do you think that MOST HBCU's are in the south? I don't know of many on the West Coast and very few on the upper East Coast.
Racism will always be a factor and it depends on HOW the person makes a choice to deal with it when a) it's presented to them overtly, b) it's presented to them covertly, c) their constantly reminded through daily actions of others, and d) it's a factor within the persons surroundings and enviornment.
So to say that it's not a true factor DOWN SOUTH, you are presuming very much. Sometimes, they saying of "Walk a mile in my shoes" turns out to be more true than what a person tends to "want" to think.

Most of the HBCUs are in the south because at the time of their founding black students could not attend HWCUs in the south. That is no longer the case. So to argue that most HBCUs are in the south because of continuing racism is wrong - these same HBCUs are now struggling. Is that because racism is no longer an issue? If they go under, does that mean racism is dead?

I know of ONE courthouse that had a sign that could be seen and which was in the news a few years back - it is of course no longer there. Where are these others?

My point - and others - is that it is wrong to assume that racism is more of a problem in the south, or that the other parts of the country are free from them. By arguing that it is the south that has a problem, you give everyone else a free pass. Some sociologists have said that the south is in many ways more in touch with the problem of racism because of its past problems - that other areas of the country have a more "hidden" racism, that it can be argued is more toxic and damaging. In the context of this OP - you can ASSUME that racism means a bi-racial woman would never get a bid at Ole Miss, but until you go through recruitment you won't KNOW - and even then, you wouldn't know that it was because of race. It may be that at a school which has no blacks in the NPC sororities it isn't because of racism, but because of a strong NPHC system.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Most of the HBCUs are in the south because at the time of their founding black students could not attend HWCUs in the south. That is no longer the case. So to argue that most HBCUs are in the south because of continuing racism is wrong - these same HBCUs are now struggling. Is that because racism is no longer an issue? If they go under, does that mean racism is dead?

Exactly, especially when you consider that at some HBCUs, the majority of graduate students are white because of programs in architecture, pharmacy, and agriculture.

A lot of people are saying that there are diverse chapters all over the country. No one is denying that. Again, private colleges and smaller state schools in the South with less of an entrenched native population are more open to integrating their chapters than others. The greek systems at Emory and Tulane are integrated--but that's probably because the schools pull a good chunk of their populations from the Northeast and West Coast.

But, what the OP needs to know is that at many of the flagship universities in the South, an African-American female who rushes may not be considered an "attractive" prospect by some of the top chapters (regardless of how awesome her personality, grades, and extracurrics are), and may end up being relegated to the bottom tier of chapters in her school. Now, we can be all kumbaya about that and say that maybe the bottom tier chapters would be more willing to look past race and see sisterhood. Or, we could go with a much more likely explanation--those lower tier sororities have much less to "lose" because their numbers are pretty low. I've seen this in play at some SEC and Big 12 schools.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Exactly, especially when you consider that at some HBCUs, the majority of graduate students are white because of programs in architecture, pharmacy, and agriculture.

That can actually be used as an example of social exclusion, since the leadership and funding for most HBCUs don't come from Blacks. This would be based on outcome and not intent, so folks (not you) shouldn't respond with "they might not mean for it to be that way."

The higher up in HBCU faculty rankings and in the organizational structures, for some of the more esteemed HBCUs, the more nonBlacks you find than Blacks. I have actually been told by faculty that having more whites and other nonBlacks brings up their prestige ranking (which is arguably an informal/unwritten component of accreditation).

On the other hand, you will be hard pressed to find PWIs where a large proportion of the higher ranking faculty, higher ranking administrators, and most of the graduate students are Black. Even Research 1 PWIs with 20,000 students and lots of faculty only have a relatively few esteemed tenured "sprinkles." That's why there are still minority faculty and graduate student associations. Even PhDs with years of awards and recognitions know the deal. As for grad students, a large % may be nonwhite, but usually not Black.

(Of course, much of this also has to do with population sizes for whites as compared to Blacks, which is another reason why the larger universities are PWIs)

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

That's why there are still minority faculty and graduate student associations. Even PhDs with years of awards and recognitions know the deal. As for grad students, a large % may be nonwhite, but usually not Black.

Do you think this has anything to do with region or discipline, or even Masters programs over PhD programs? Granted, my individual graduate school (Architecture) was overwhelmingly majority white and Asian, but there were other schools (ex. Social Work and Public Health) within the University that had more blacks and Latinos than whites and Asians.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Do you think this has anything to do with region or discipline, or even Masters programs over PhD programs? Granted, my individual graduate school (Architecture) was overwhelmingly majority white and Asian, but there were other schools (ex. Social Work and Public Health) within the University that had more blacks and Latinos than whites and Asians.

The general pattern exists across region, discipline, and graduate program. General patterns aren't meant to apply to 100% of the cases.

Let's take disciplines like social work and the social sciences, in general, which had a sharp increase in minorities and women over the last 30 years. Social work, for example, is now considered a non-traditional field for men, which now translates to it being one of the lower paying specializations for women depending on the research, teaching, and practitioner base.

Even with the increase in women and minorities, there are (women and racial and ethnic) minority faculty and student organizations to serves as networking tools, and to address concerns. Many of these faculty feel they are unable to climb the ranks in white and/or white male dominated field and/or department. Part of that is because most of these women and racial and ethnic minorities aren't the key decision makers. Students often don't notice that a lot of the diverse faces they see are either adjunct, nontenured full-time faculty, and are overworked and underpaid in comparison to the other faculty in the department and/or university. Even the tenured minority faculty often don't become department heads and graduate directors--unless the departments have no other alternatives--they often don't have a voice in the department and are on the sidelines doing research/teaching/mentoring.