Help Needed!!

[L.O.C.K.]

Maybe you all should just stay away from stepping. It's not your tradition. You are mimicking, and that is never cool. Create your own traditions, and don't bite others'.

Boom, while I respect your opinion, I think we need to take a greater historical look at things before we deem certain things one cultures "possession" or one groups thing.

I think we can all agree that stepping (in it's modern form) originated from Black Greeks. However, to say that only Black Greeks can do that further segregates us all from each other. If we want to talk about "biting others" we could easily talk about the Greek System in general, and Black Greeks (and others) established fraternities as well. Indeed, Malik is a great example of an organization that didn't want to use things that represented, to them, the dominance of "white" cultural over other cultures.

But many, many, many things we use originated in other cultures. Are we to say that only Black people can listen to Jazz? Or only white people listen to rock? Or only Latino people to Salsa? Or only Asian people to the er-hu and pi-pa (traditional Chinese instruments)? Or for that matter play them?

I think being ignorant of the tradition is a problem. In this case it would be stepping without knowing where it came from. However, my brothers researched stepping, have friends who are Black who step, and ran it by brothers of a Black fraternity for their approval. Not to say that their opinion can speak for all of Black Greek life, but I think it was a kind and considerate move.

Now, back to my original question: the form, etc. What did people think?

Thanks
Nate