Originally Posted by AGDee
You're right, everyone labels. And, we don't just label by skin color but by gender, religion, social class, economic class, intelligence, athletic ability, nationality, etc. The danger is when you make assumptions about an individual based on the stereotypes associated with that label. My nationality is Italian and specifically, I'm Sicilian. I've been asked if I have relatives in the mafia simply because I'm Sicilian. Not all Sicilians are in the mafia and it's ignorant to think they are. It isn't having a label that's the problem, it's people's assumptions about you because of that label.
NPC/IFC organizations definitely have a different focus than the Divine 9 and Multicultural GLOs have an even different focus. This doesn't mean that one is better or worse. It just means there are numerous organizations out there designed to meet different people's goals/needs. The hope would be that nobody would be excluded from joining one of those organizations based only on their heritage, if they met all other membership criteria (grades, service, dedication, commitment, etc).
On my campus, wayyyy back in the mid-80's, the NPC/IFC groups and the Divine 9 groups did things together sometimes. The Divine 9 groups were always invited to participate in Greek Week, for example. Some years they voted to do so, others they didn't. I believe we all respected each other because I never heard of any animosity between the groups. And, on my campus, it was during that time period that there started to be integration within the GLOs too. It seemed like everybody just took it in stride, but it was a very diverse campus to begin with.
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