University of Alabama Fall 2014 NPC Sorority Recruitment

[unarose]

Originally Posted by AZTheta

I am compelled to say that racism is very much alive and flourishing in the USA. It isn't restricted to any locale or age group. And I do not have the answer as to when it will stop, or end.

While it definitely isn't restricted to any particular area/age group…having grown up and lived in Alabama all my life, I feel that when the older generations are so stuck in their ways and thus raise the younger generations the same, it definitely slows the progress. Privilege doesn't help, either.

Kudos to whomever made the call on pulling the instigator from membership. I really don't think the entire chapter should be held responsible. Hopefully the University and Chi Omega nationals can come to fair judgment all around.

[33girl]

Is there any truth to that "ninja" comment?

It shows something about the involvement level of the ex-member that she didn't know what was going on and who they had pledged.

[chi-o_cat]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Is there any truth to that "ninja" comment?

I'm not sure if that was supposed to be humor, or a sincere attempt at a cover story, but I Googled "sorority rush ninja", "Alabama COB ninja" and "sorority COB ninja" and found no references to recipients of snap bids/COBs (at Alabama or anywhere else) being called ninjas.

And I know this is the action of one individual (now ex-)member, but way to make your chapter, your school, your state and your fraternity all look bad in one SnapChat.


EDIT TO ADD: 33girl, just to clarify (and for anyone who didn't click through to the al.com article and scoll through the comments to know what I'm talking about in case it's not the same thing as 33girl...LOL), you're referring this this comment, right?:

john smith
When sororities do not issue enough bids to fill all of the freshman spots they issue what are called "snap bids", which are after-rush bids to fill the available spots in the freshman class. Chi Omega and several other sororities call the members who receive these bids "Ninjas". The accused girl here was trying to comment on the fact that they did not need to issue any snap-bids because they had enough freshman in their 2014 class, so she sent a message saying "No new Ninjas this year". However, her phone autocorrected to a racial slur (ending in -as, rather than -ers), an unfortunate occurrence particularly in the current climate there at UA. Case-in-point, why would she say "no new ______" if they indeed have 2? I feel sorry for this girl.

[LXA SE285]

Screenshot, courtesy of "that other site":

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2wme4ih&s=8

[MaryPoppins]

Originally Posted by chi-o_cat

john smith
When sororities do not issue enough bids to fill all of the freshman spots they issue what are called "snap bids", which are after-rush bids to fill the available spots in the freshman class. Chi Omega and several other sororities call the members who receive these bids "Ninjas". The accused girl here was trying to comment on the fact that they did not need to issue any snap-bids because they had enough freshman in their 2014 class, so she sent a message saying "No new Ninjas this year". However, her phone autocorrected to a racial slur (ending in -as, rather than -ers), an unfortunate occurrence particularly in the current climate there at UA. Case-in-point, why would she say "no new ______" if they indeed have 2? I feel sorry for this girl.

My lawyer-fu says this is an attempt at saving face, possibly a cover story.

[LXA SE285]

Originally Posted by MaryPoppins

My lawyer-fu says this is an attempt at saving face, possibly a cover story.

Yup, and a lousy attempt at that -- if it really did auto-correct, wouldn't that mean the poster had used the word a lot previously on her device?

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by MaryPoppins

My lawyer-fu says this is an attempt at saving face, possibly a cover story.

Yeah, um, if your phone autocorrects to the n-word, you've taught your phone the n-word (and I don't give a shit if it ended in -as, it's still the n-word).

[33girl]

And while not nearly as offensive as this obviously, celebrating over nosnap bids is kind of dicky, too.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by unarose

I really don't think the entire chapter should be held responsible.

Should the entire chapter be punished? No. Should the entire chapter, and for that matter, pretty much every chapter, be instilling better values in their membership? Yes. Every NPC group that I know of has some kind of chapter development, and yet we see this shit on a regular basis. Why isn't the lesson "don't be a racist asshole" as important as "develop good study skills" or "write a stand-out resume"?

NPC groups really have a unique opportunity to engage in extra-curricular education of our membership, and yet I don't know a single one that prioritizes social justice in any meaningful way.

[unarose]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Should the entire chapter be punished? No. Should the entire chapter, and for that matter, pretty much every chapter, be instilling better values in their membership? Yes. … Why isn't the lesson "don't be a racist asshole" as important as "develop good study skills" or "write a stand-out resume"?

I completely agree with you on this, DBB. One of my first thoughts when I saw this was that perhaps part of the ~consequences from either Chi Omega nationals or UA could be some sort of "cultural sensitivity"* workshop that the entire sisterhood would be required to participate in.

*If anyone has a better way to describe it, by all means please use it. I simply could not think of one at the moment on my own.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by unarose

I completely agree with you on this, DBB. One of my first thoughts when I saw this was that perhaps part of the ~consequences from either Chi Omega nationals or UA could be some sort of "cultural sensitivity"* workshop that the entire sisterhood would be required to participate in.

*If anyone has a better way to describe it, by all means please use it. I simply could not think of one at the moment on my own.

Organizations shouldn't use diversity/cultural sensitivity training or workshops as a "consequence". These workshops are pointless and "check off the checklist" enough without being officially considered a reprimand. If these GLOs truly care they will discuss these topics as part of chapter development, NM interaction, and it would be discussed informally without needing to be required to discuss (to further debunk the notion that whites don't think about and casually talk about race, ethnicity, and culture--their own and that of other groups).

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

Clicking on the link, it recants, saying it was a hoax. So yeah for that.

Hoax or not, this is a lackluster incident not worthy of being called "racist" and not worthy of too much attention. Except as an excuse for pre-existing racial tension so people can claim "we were doing soooooooo well until this happened."