Diversity in the SEC

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by TriDeltaSallie

And if someone said, "I, for instance, do not want DDD/ADPi/KKG/DG/ZTA/XO/etc. to be racially diverse. I intentionally joined a historically and predominantly White, European American GLO. That is how I want it to remain and that is how it will remain. That is not a bad thing."

What would happen?

I was waiting for someone to ask this....

They would finally be an IFC or NPC member who was honest about the founding purposes of their GLO. They would finally be an IFC or NPC who stopped pretending as though their GLO just so happened to be predominantly white since founding.

That is awesome.

[carnation]

Who's pretending that? Who even thinks about that? Most GLOs were formed so people could have friends and in many cases, there were few females of any color on campus. Thus sororities were born, with no thought other than friendship and standing together.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by carnation

Who's pretending that? Who even thinks about that? Most GLOs were formed so people could have friends and in many cases, there were few females of any color on campus. Thus sororities were born, with no thought other than friendship and standing together.

You must have missed years of GC threads.

Anyway, TriDeltaSallie asked and I answered. If you are proclaiming that NPC and IFC foundings were race neutral and the membership remains predominantly white unintentionally, then this discussion will remain circular.

[DrPhil]

With over one hundred years and hundreds of thousands of members, let us not pretend that all sororities and fraternities only have members who were (1) wanted and (2) wanted for their individual awesomeness regardless of demographics.

Some of us know of chapters that were forced to initiate people and chapters that chose people based on what some would consider superficial reasons.

Furthermore, "wanted for themselves" can include race, ethnicity, and culture. My awesomeness includes being a Black woman. I am not a transparent robot void of culture and group identity. Therefore, "wanted for themselves" and what this means to different people is one reason why diversity is complex. People want to boast about not caring and pretend as though you just accidentally have diversity. You wake up one day and say "wow, we suddenly and randomly have a bunch of nonwhite people...it wasn't even somewhat intentional...we never noticed our PNMs and members were changing in demographics...wow....."

[carnation]

It's very, very difficult for women to get into most GLOs at all the universities I've worked with. A woman might have fabulous grades, scores, activities, and looks and still get released and no one will really know why. It's going on as I speak right now at various schools and we're all openmouthed at who's getting released--PNMs with sitting sisters, daughters of Alum Club presidents, you name it.

That's why I think that the idea of going into some sorority's selection meeting and saying, "OK, ladies, we're looking racist here and you have to take a black woman--here are the names of the 3 who are rushing, pick one and we're going to force 2 other sororities to do the same." An alum can't even go in and order the members to be sure and take 8 girls from Mountain Brook High School or take X amount of pageant winners or anything I can think of. And if some member gets up and tries to do the same about a stranger when they're in the middle of pitched battles about women they already know and love...nope.

They have to love the girl for herself.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by carnation

They have to love the girl for herself.

If only human interactions, cultural capital, and social capital always work as they do in our member guidelines and pledge manuals.

[carnation]

I imagine that forced pledging in the NPC would work about as well as it would with any GLO-- a college president, say, comes stomping into a DST meeting and says, "OK, ladies, I just made an NPC group pledge a black woman and I expect you to return the favor to me and pledge a white one. Here are 3 names, pick one."

Can you imagine how thrilled both groups would be?

[amIblue?]

I think there's truth in what both DrPhil and carnation are saying. Yes, the sororities have to like the girl or she's not getting a bid, but I still think there's some of that look at how cool and diverse we are because we have a black sister. Just my humble opinion.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by carnation

I imagine that forced pledging in the NPC would work about as well as it would with any GLO-- a college president, say, comes stomping into a DST meeting and says, "OK, ladies, I just made an NPC group pledge a black woman and I expect you to return the favor to me and pledge a white one. Here are 3 names, pick one."

Can you imagine how thrilled both groups would be?

This isn't about college presidents. This is about the GLOs themselves making such decisions.

Delta regional and NHQ wouldn't push white members (only because they are white) on our chapters because we do not purport to be seeking white members. It is not correlated with our founding purposes and interests. That is why you will typically not see us starting discussions about "racial diversity in Delta (NPHC, in general)." It is typically not our concern and not our goal. We are honest about that and therefore do not pretend to be shocked that 99% of our aspirants and membership for 100 years has been women of the Africa diaspora.

We also do not pretend that race and ethnicity are not part of the aspirant and membership process for many aspirants and members. Many if not most of us would never claim that race and ethnicity were no concern when speaking with aspirants. That doesn't mean that we do not have nonBlack aspirants and nonBlack members. It means that a Sisterhood of Black college women committed to public service is not pretending as though we unintentionally, coincidentally, and accidentally ended up 99% African diaspora and have no intention to remain that way. Delta has an "anti-discrimination clause" but there are also members who will honestly tell you that they would never vote for a white member regardless of other qualifications. White aspirants and white applicants are a rarity so these members are not losing sleep over this.

[MaryPoppins]

And I was going to say (but checked myself, and then decided it was in fact relevant) that diversity is a continuum for most places. You can't define yourself as diverse because of one African American, or one Asian American, or one Arab American, or one or a few anything. Diversity means picking each one on her own merit. When Recruitment is done that way it's done the way it's meant to be done, not the way someone else thinks it should be done, or the way way it used to be done.

[DubaiSis]

It's an interesting conundrum. I think having racial diversity in a chapter makes it more interesting. But you have to start somewhere and that means you're probably going to pledge 1 black girl and that sort of screams - see? We are diverse! We have A black girl! But if 3 or 4 black girls go through rush at Bama or Ole Miss, and they don't all magically like the single same chapter (and vice versa), that means there is going to be 1 black girl in an otherwise white chapter. And in a chapter of 200, if they did pledge all 3 or 4 black girls, it's still not even a drop in the bucket.

I think the best we can hope for in the near term is eliminating the disregard for a girl outright just because of race. It's going to be pretty hard to avoid a perception of tokenism when there just aren't that many black girls interested in NPC sororities, especially relative to the population of white rushees at the same school. I'm assuming the black southern girl who is interested in the NPC is used to being the only black girl in the room and what she and the chapter thinks is all that matters.

[DubaiSis]

There's plenty of that to be discussed in sorority history - exclusion of Catholics and Jews for instance. It can also point out how ridiculous some of those restrictions sound now. Sexual preference and race are probably the next barriers to go away. How long before it becomes -seriously, we kept girls out because of that? - is yet to be seen.

[TNAuburnMom]

A few sororities at Auburn have all different types of minorities. I only know this from looking at pictures. As far as my daughter and her sorority are concerned, they are just sisters.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by TNAuburnMom

A few sororities at Auburn have all different types of minorities. I only know this from looking at pictures. As far as my daughter and her sorority are concerned, they are just sisters.

*Putting the "Racial Cliche' Crown" on TNAuburnMom's head*

Unfortunate.

[carnation]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

*Putting the "Racial Cliche' Crown" on TNAuburnMom's head*

Unfortunate.

Whites can't win. If we don't pledge black girls (they may or may not be rushing NPCs because they prefer NPHCs), we're racist. If we pledge the few who rush, we're practicing tokenism. If only a few rush, we didn't make them welcome, even though they might only want to be in Mom's NPHC. If we pledge some and don't think the right thing about them, whatever the heck that is, we get a crown for racial cliches.

We can't win.

And five of my daughters aren't white and I don't think about it much at all and I'm off to have my racial cliches crown with 5 jewels made.