University of Alabama Breaks Color Barrier...

[Eirene_DGP]

I think their excuse of having 2 Afr. Am females that joined NPC is really lame. I always said, if you know how many Afr. Am you have had in your home and can count them on one hand you might have a racial problem. That is just a southern thing. Don't anyone take this the wrong way, but I attend a deep south school and I KNOW what the REAL deal is. We have only had 1 Afr. Am female in the history of my school's NPC. I really wanted to be in a sorority and I knew I would not make it into or be welcomed into a NPC white sorority, so I went out on a BIG limb and brought a multicultural sorority to our campus. Yes, the south is changing, but very slowly and a lot of people's home ideas will not change, (Smile in your face, but never have any contact except hello and goodbye). It really disappoints me that this makes CNN because this is everyday life. It is sad that racism still exists, but we don't see Indians, Chinese, or Japanese on TV everytime they make a new accomplishment.

[SoTrue1920]

Originally posted by G8Ralphaxi

My assumption is that this young man simply really liked the brothers of XYZ, felt comfortable there, and decided to accept a bid...because he just wanted to be an XYZ, not because he had a special mission to accomplish.

Regardless of his motivation for joining an NIC fraternity, it doesn't change the fact that he's a trailblazer and should be proud of his accomplishments. He might be a regular ol' somebody, but what he did is still historic.

However, I'd forgotten about the whole 'pledge period/initiation' aspect. The articles I've read seemed to infer that he was already an intiated member, not a pledge.

[justamom]

SH80er, Mine too, but ALWAYS added a tail-
"Better late than never, but better never late!"

[mmcat]

he sticks around and encourages his friends to go greek.
mmcat

[SoTrue1920]

Originally posted by mmcat
he sticks around and encourages his friends to go greek.
mmcat

Do you mean that you hope he encourages his friends to join that particular fraternity, to become a part of the NIC/NPC fraternity system, or to join any GLO, even if it's a BGLO?

One or two sounds like a start to me. We have to remember that people also have to WANT to join these orgs. Progress is progress no matter what. And to a point when we kinda scoff and say one or tow isnt anything, it doesnt help us go any farther and might deter

[Wine&Blue]

Originally posted by UMgirl
One or two sounds like a start to me. We have to remember that people also have to WANT to join these orgs. Progress is progress no matter what. And to a point when we kinda scoff and say one or tow isnt anything, it doesnt help us go any farther and might deter

Well said.

[kristiAZD]

I guess things must be different up here where I go to school. I don't see this as being a huge deal. This guy decided to choose a fraternity that wasn't traditionally African-American, and I see that as being a big deal, but only because that school has nationally recognized African-American fraternities. Where I go to school we don't have these, and African-American students feel free to join whatever greek organization they please. I guess that's why our chapters are more racially mixed. There really isn't a bias here based on race because there are no special places that certain races feel they have to go. If this was the first black student to pledge a fraternity in the school's history and there were no African-American fraternities, yeah, I think that would be a big deal and I would be wondering what took so long, too. I don't know. I know what I'm trying to say in my head but it doesn't seem to be coming out the way I want it here, so if it is a little random, I apologize. Oh, I have a question I have wondered about but never asked: Are white, asian, hispanic, etc. students allowed to join African-American GLO's? Just wondering.

[Steeltrap]

The Alabama fellow is not in an NIC fraternity.
Check www.cw.ua.edu for a story on him.

[AlphaChiGirl]

I don't know...I'd feel like I was on display, "Look! The token African-American! Look at how progressive we are!" Ah, to each his own.

I'm actually glad to hear that he's older, and not just some 18 year-old who just wants to hang out with his friends like they did in HS. I get the impression that he might know what he's doing more than most.

[Eirene_DGP]

Originally posted by kristiAZD
I guess things must be different up here where I go to school. I don't see this as being a huge deal. This guy decided to choose a fraternity that wasn't traditionally African-American, and I see that as being a big deal, but only because that school has nationally recognized African-American fraternities. Where I go to school we don't have these, and African-American students feel free to join whatever greek organization they please. I guess that's why our chapters are more racially mixed. There really isn't a bias here based on race because there are no special places that certain races feel they have to go. If this was the first black student to pledge a fraternity in the school's history and there were no African-American fraternities, yeah, I think that would be a big deal and I would be wondering what took so long, too. I don't know. I know what I'm trying to say in my head but it doesn't seem to be coming out the way I want it here, so if it is a little random, I apologize. Oh, I have a question I have wondered about but never asked: Are white, asian, hispanic, etc. students allowed to join African-American GLO's? Just wondering.

I just can't imagine racially mixed sororities and fraternities at your school that were not founded upon those principles. Maybe because I am in the south. To answer your question, there are a lot of BGLO's that have white, asian, hispanic members. Just as though some Afr. Am do not feel welcome in WGLO neither do these people.

[kristiAZD]

Originally posted by Eirene_DGP


I just can't imagine racially mixed sororities and fraternities at your school that were not founded upon those principles. Maybe because I am in the south. To answer your question, there are a lot of BGLO's that have white, asian, hispanic members. Just as though some Afr. Am do not feel welcome in WGLO neither do these people.

I feel bad that this still goes on in schools today. Our organizations don't have a ton of other races joining, but I don't think there's an organization on our campus that doesn't have at least one person that's not anglo as a member. And none of our organizations are special, just the regular national ones from Panhell and IFC and one local fraternity. I've never really thought of the race issue when rushing potential new members. It's more important to me to have a strong chapter on the inside, not one that looks homogeneous on the outside. Hopefully someday schools in the south will catch up and realize different people=better.

[dzrose93]

Originally posted by kristiAZD
Hopefully someday schools in the south will catch up and realize different people=better.

Being from the South, I was quite offended when I read this comment. Our schools need to "catch up"??? I don't think so. That statement implies that Northern schools are "better" than Southern schools, which is absolutely not true. Please don't assume that Southern schools are "behind the times" when it comes to the race composition of our Greek systems. I think we're doing quite well, and I abhor the fact that a few isolated incidents are constantly used as a means of stereotyping the South as being "backwards" or inferior to the North.

If you take a look at the composites hanging in the houses of southern GLO chapters, you'll find that there are "different" people in nearly every one of them. Maybe there isn't an African-American face in a lot of the composites, but there are certainly other minorities represented - Asians, Indians, Arabs, Latinos, etc. We take the best and the brightest of the rushees who show an interest in us, regardless of color. It IS true that Caucasians make up the majority of the rushee lists. But, come on, what do you honestly expect us to do about that??? We put flyers up in the Student Union, advertise in campus papers, and chalk the sidewalks to notify people about upcoming rush parties. Somebody please show me where in all these advertisements it says "Minorities Need Not Apply."

The simple truth is that we do nothing, absolutely nothing, to deter an interested person - whatever his/her color, race or religion- from going through the Rush process. However, we also are not in the practice of dragging uninterested people into our organizations just so that we can say, "Hey, check us out! See how diverse we are?"

It may be true that some AA people don't feel comfortable rushing a historically white GLO, just as some Caucasians don't feel comfortable joining a historically black GLO. People like being around other people that they have things in common with, and I would assume that this is the case throughout the country, not just in the South. I don't know of any way to change peoples' minds about that.

If anyone from the North has some real advice on how we can make our organizations more diverse down here in the South, then I'd love to hear it. Until then, please don't act as if we Southerners are too ignorant to realize that "different = better."

**dzrose93 stepping off of her soapbox carefully so as not to trip over her antebellum gown**

[Wine&Blue]

Originally posted by dzrose93


Being from the South, I was quite offended when I read this comment. Our schools need to "catch up"??? I don't think so. That statement implies that Northern schools are "better" than Southern schools, which is absolutely not true. Please don't assume that Southern schools are "behind the times" when it comes to the race composition of our Greek systems. I think we're doing quite well, and I abhor the fact that a few isolated incidents are constantly used as a means of stereotyping the South as being "backwards" or inferior to the North.

If you take a look at the composites hanging in the houses of southern GLO chapters, you'll find that there are "different" people in nearly every one of them. Maybe there isn't an African-American face in a lot of the composites, but there are certainly other minorities represented - Asians, Indians, Arabs, Latinos, etc. We take the best and the brightest of the rushees who show an interest in us, regardless of color. It IS true that Caucasians make up the majority of the rushee lists. But, come on, what do you honestly expect us to do about that??? We put flyers up in the Student Union, advertise in campus papers, and chalk the sidewalks to notify people about upcoming rush parties. Somebody please show me where in all these advertisements it says "Minorities Need Not Apply."

The simple truth is that we do nothing, absolutely nothing, to deter an interested person - whatever his/her color, race or religion- from going through the Rush process. However, we also are not in the practice of dragging uninterested people into our organizations just so that we can say, "Hey, check us out! See how diverse we are?."

It may be true that some AA people don't feel comfortable rushing a historically white GLO, just as some Caucasians don't feel comfortable joining a historically black GLO. People like being around other people that they have things in common with, and I would assume that this is the case throughout the country, not just in the South. I don't know of any way to change peoples' minds about that.

If anyone from the North has some real advice on how we can make our organizations more diverse down here in the South, then I'd love to hear it. Until then, please don't act as if we Southerners are too ignorant to realize that "different = better."

**dzrose93 stepping off of her soapbox carefully so as not to trip over her antebellum gown**

Well said. I'm including the post because it's worth reading again. dzrose - watch out for my antebellum gown too when you come off that soapbox!

[Angels&Arrows]

Very well said dzrose93!