New Omega house at USC Greek Village.

[AXEAM]

Originally Posted by Wolfman

This underlying sentiment of white privilege and bigotry has to be challenged. The sub rosa "hate speech" about our house at the USC Greek Village by some white fraternity members flies in the face of the fact that the fraternity/sorority row is on university property, on the flagship state university in a state where black people pay taxes to support state-sponsored higher education just like all other people. It is not "their" Greek Village. We are not interlopers! We have to change our way of thinking! Maybe our presence is just an aspect of the next phase of "desegregation"--transgressing the de facto spaces where some white folks think they can maintain the Old South. If some want to do this, they'll have to do it on their own private property, not quasi-state property. The Greek Village is ours too! President Sorenson had the right idea. We poneyed up the money and are building a nice house like the rest of the groups. They'll just have to get used to the bruhs!

Bruh. I agree w/everything you stated in your post.....except the part that we have to change our way of thinking. The black students @ USC welcomed the Omega house (well maybe not the alphas that's an inside joke.)
the problems seem to be w/some white students. Have you ever notice that blacks @ HBCUs never react in this manner towards mostly white orgs on campus.

[Wolfman]

Originally Posted by AXEAM

Bruh. I agree w/everything you stated in your post.....except the part that we have to change our way of thinking. The black students @ USC welcomed the Omega house (well maybe not the alphas that's an inside joke.)
the problems seem to be w/some white students. Have you ever notice that blacks @ HBCUs never react in this manner towards mostly white orgs on campus.

Bruh, I think I know what you're saying. The point I was addressing is the result of some--even bruhs--who think that we shouldn't have gotten involved with this project,esp. after this incident. This project is something that the Fraternity wants to parlay into something bigger. I'd be great if an HBCU or two did the same thing and we could do this there. I'm reminded of the documentary about Bro. Percy Julian who brandished a shotgun, daring anybody to mess with him and his family, when arsonists and others tried to run him out of his house when he moved to toney,white Chicago suburb Oak Park, IL. back in the day. If our ancestors ran away from situations where there was some disapproval to our presence, where'd we be today? A bruh in my present grad chapter recently went to South African and he told me that many black South Africans have never been to many of the national sites of interest in their own country. Economics and the awakening that this is now their country is something that is a growing reality there; and in some ways there is residual inferiority or defeatist attitudes amongst our people in certain ways. I had a conversation with a young black woman about politics the other day and she expressed the attitude that Barack Obama shouldn't run because he can't win: the white power structure won't let him get to the top. However one feels about his candidacy on political grounds, this attitude is a bit distressing, seeing how so many risked their lives to enable us to fully participate in the fruits of this country,according to one's desires. That's what I was getting at. And, to be honest, some blacks have negative or ambivalent feelings about the growing white presence in HBCUs, even though you won't find the same kind of response by blacks as in the SC incident. You're right. But the difference centers around this cast/race apartheid mentality by some whites about certain institutions and social spaces and what they represent: the bastion of their culture and civilization; thus we should not transgress on "their" social space.

P.S. I hear you about the Ape beatdown at SC.

[jitterbug13]

Originally Posted by AXEAM

That could be a good thing.

Originally Posted by Wolfman

P.S. I hear you about the Ape beatdown at SC.

Which one? There have been several the last few years. There may be amosity with the bruhs getting the house among the black fraternities. The Alphas have been staying at raggety @$$ McBride for years. They have alway had pretty decent numbers. When I graduated six years ago, there might have not been even 10 bruhs on the yard, comparied to the others, who had 20+. Numbers started to go up for them after I left (some of it due to Holtz and Spurrier letting football players pledge, Brad Scott didn't) and all of a sudden, they're getting a house. Both the Alphas and Kappas have had several leadership positions on campus and had been more visible until the bruhs started getting their numbers up.

[Wolfman]

Originally Posted by jitterbug13

Which one? There have been several the last few years. There may be amosity with the bruhs getting the house among the black fraternities. The Alphas have been staying at raggety @$$ McBride for years. They have alway had pretty decent numbers. When I graduated six years ago, there might have not been even 10 bruhs on the yard, comparied to the others, who had 20+. Numbers started to go up for them after I left (some of it due to Holtz and Spurrier letting football players pledge, Brad Scott didn't) and all of a sudden, they're getting a house. Both the Alphas and Kappas have had several leadership positions on campus and had been more visible until the bruhs started getting their numbers up.

The last beatdown, I heard, was over something else. Anyway, the house had little to do with the status of ZZ per se but with the fact that Omega has sone prominent bruhs in Columbia who are connected with finance and have helped guide the recent Omega administration in economic development efforts. It's a about that "mean green" and the willingness to organize to get something done. It don't matter if the last ten SGA presidents were Nupes or Alphas and they had large numbers on the yard, if the nationals aren't willing to get up off some some cash, get a loan,and bruhs on the local level organize a housing corporation, you won't have a sorority/fraternity-owned house on any Greek row. In essence, it's about leadership and taking risks.

[jitterbug13]

I was thinking on the undergrad level, but I haven't heard about what you just said. There are a lot of proment Omegas in Columbia and SC in general (ex. Rep. Clyburn). But you are right that if you don't have the organizational stuff together, it doesn't mean a hill of beans.

And you know that SC produces a lot of Omegas/Kappas/Deltas/AKAs.