Do BGLO's = equality???

[ZetaAce]

AXO Alum- Thank you for your kind words.

ZetaAce

[prettygyrl]

Oh yeah Please do not refer to me or my people as minorities! Okay. Thanks

L-Dawg...I completely understand your perspective. I think that minority issues are only perpetuated when minorities segregate themselves....even with something has "harmless" aa the "unofficial" org name, BGLO.

I guess you could call me a minority ...because I am a woman. Allow me to explain. When I was in college, I was only one of a few women working on a B.S. in Chemistry. There were several scholarships that the Chemistry department awarded to students...one of which was awarded to an "Outstanding Female" in the department. Several of my professors told me that I should apply for the scholarship. I refused. I didn't want to win a scholarship just because I was an outstanding "female" student. I wanted to win a scholarship because I was an outstanding student PERIOD! I did not want to participate in something that I think further separates women from men.....something that pushes us further away from equality. Women complain about the glass ceiling that exists in the business world. True, women are not paid the same as men for doing the same job.....but I believe that scenario continues to exist because woman (as well as other so called minorities) continue to involve themselves in or support issues, events, organizations and such that cast us in a minority-type role.

Does that make sense to anyone else?

[DELTABRAT]

Butterfly,

I can see where you are coming from. As women, we are a minority. That's all I will say because I could goon and on about other issues regarding this one but I don't want to. I will simply say that your point is taken.

[Shelacious]

I didn't see anyone attacking anyone in this forum. To the contrary, I thought ZetaAce handled her responses very well. In just reviewing L-Dawg's initial question again, I realize that he/she used a lot of "hot-button" terms and phrases that could have sent this conversation spiraling quickly downward, instead of the intelligent debate it became.

For the record, I don't recall any member of the NPHC using the phase BGLO when decsribing the nine-member organizations that make-up the NPHC. When I tell people I belong to a Sorority, I state the name of the Sorority, not state that I belong to a "BGLO". I care not what phase to use to describe these organizations, so if anyone feels the term is divisive, then I encourge you not to use it, and encourage others in your realm to refrain as well. I have no issue one way or the other, because I care more what it is you're NOT saying that what you say. When I use "GLO" for example, folks might as well add the my silent "W", because that is essentially my meaning. Frankly, I think we need to get past being hung-up on what people CALL things and focus more on what people THINK, for there lies the dilema when finding solutions for race relations.

And finally, as an American of African descent, I have "hatred" for no one except those who have personally incurred my "hatred" (if even them). Therefore, belonging to an organization that is composed primarily of other people of color engenders no more "racial division" for me than being around members of my family would.

And by the way, the nine members of the NPHC as a whole have NEVER had discrimination policies against people of any ethnicity to prevent them from joining our organizations, so I would daresay that almost from the beginning, "BGLO" would be an inaccurate term anyway.

[ZetaAce]

Thank you Soror Shelacious. The hot button for me was the first sentence of L-Dawg's post. "I am constantly bewildered as to the purpose of the BGLO. "

ZetaAce

Alright. Why is is that in this country people are afraid to recognize people' s racial differences?. To this day I don' t understand. Racial differences are not something that you should try to eradicate because of all the history of discrimination and prejudice. On the contrarty, America has to learn to embrace and cherish people' s races. The B in BGLO should not bother you, just as the W in WLGO. You have try to call a cat a cat ( I am not trying to be smart Zeta Ace) No but seriously. Are you saying that because you are bothered by the term Black or White, everybody should act as if the color did not exist?. Not only it matters but you have to understand that it is one of the things tha make this nation great. Despite the horrors and discrimination the US is still a great nation rich in DIVERSITY.
Let me take an example based on sex. Are you saying that no want should see that you are a man or a woman, or even call you a man or a woman just because there has been so much discrimination against women in the work place in the past. So what are you then?

[Shelacious]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by butterrfly:
[B]L-Dawg...I completely understand your perspective. I think that minority issues are only perpetuated when minorities segregate themselves....even with something has "harmless" aa the "unofficial" org name, BGLO.

It makes sense to me Butterrfly. I would only make mention, however, that to imply that only "minorities" segregate themselves would be an oversimplification. It is in the nature of humans to find ways to seperate ourselves from each other into still smaller groups. Otherwise, we'd all, regardless of race, gender, class or moral values be in one, big happy fraternity. A fraternal organization of middle-class, white men who share similar backgrounds and values will (and has, time and time again) still decide to form a new fraternity, based on differences or "segregation" within that group. People segregate...that's why there are so many different types of orgazations in the world that are essentially the same.

So let's not imply that we only segregate along racial lines, because that is far from the truth...we seem to try and segregate along ANY darned line we can find.

[ZetaAce]

Originally posted by Geez:
You have try to call a cat a cat ( I am not trying to be smart Zeta Ace)

LOL, ok!

*meow*
ZetaAce

[This message has been edited by ZetaAce (edited June 27, 2000).]

Ive encountered this kind of questioning in regards to BET. A white man commented that if there was such a thing as a WET the NAACP would go crazy. But, as some pointed out on these boards, since in this country white is seen as the norm, and everything else is seen as the other, theres no need to call a station WET.We call it ABC or CBS or NBC instead (hence the recent brown outs and black outs). Just like in literature. If a character's race isnt identified its assumed the characters white.

i have no problem with calling BGLOs by that name just as I have no problem in being called a black woman. With the former we're recognizing that different systems exist outside of predominately white GLOs with their own traditions and cultures and standards.

[AXO Alum]

Originally posted by Lady in red:
theres no need to call a station WET

But this would be a great name for a porn network

ZetaAce - back me up with this humor aspect !

[Rhoyal Blue_22]

Wow! This is a hot one, so i'll keep my comment brief. I would just like to say that the unofficial "B" in BGLO is a minor thing. If you want to join an organization that is a BGLO or a WGLO, you will join regardless of the "racial or ethnic" implimication. So in short, I would just like to say "what's up" to my 2 Chinese sorors and my white soror from Syracuse.
E-YyyyyyyyyIIIIPPPPPPPP sorors who did not let the "B" in BGLO discourage or deter you from joining

Just wanted to contribute my 2 cents with a short story about my learning about the greek system. I really didn't know too much about the greek system before entering college. While doing my research about all the different groups I was told by both white and black students that certain groups were BLGOs, black greek letter organizations. I was told that they (BGLOs) did not discriminate, but I only saw black members in these groups. BGLOs did not seem to be culturally/racially diverse at all, while the GLOs were much more diverse. It appeared as though only black people were welcomed as members of "black" greek letter organizations. So, being white, I decided not to even consider these groups and many of my friends did the same. Not because of me having a problem with black people (I do not) but because it really seemed as though these BGLOs were black-only and most people's understanding was that these groups did not welcome other races, especially whites. Many of my friends were/are of different cultural/racial backgrounds and I wanted to be able to share the greek experience with them, and they felt the same way (we were a tight group of friends even before greek life came into the picture). Because of the acceptance towards diversity, GLOs were the only way to go. One of our black friends decided not to pursue going greek because of the great amount of pressure from his family and from the other blacks on campus, they were all against him rushing a GLO which they called a WGLO, even though it was more culturally diverse than the BGLOs. He didn't want to be separated from his real friends by joining a BLGO, he wanted to make his family happy, and at the same time he didn't want to alienate himself from many of the beautiful black girls on campus (who made it clear that they had a problem with him joining a GLO), so, he never joined a fraternity. His family got over him not joining a BGLO since he didn't join a GLO either. Not all of us joined GLOs, and those that did didn't all join the same one. But we did remain a tight group of friends. And all those BGLO members who wanted our friend to join a BLGO instead of a GLO do not even keep in contact with him since graduation. We do. It's funny how we all learned who our real friends are.

[Catwoman]

I am going to throw my $0.02 in and move on...
The "B" in BGLOs is not being restrictive but descriptive. It is the same as saying FAMU is a historically Black college...which isn't to say Whites, Hispanics, Asians, etc can't attend but just describes the foundation of the school. I am sure we all know a member of one or more of the BGLOs that belong to an ethnic group other than African American.
Come on now...at my college in the mid-west there was this big deal about all the African American students sitting together in the cafe. It was seen as being racist. Well, no...when I spend most of the day in classrooms where I am the only brown face...it is nice to see another brown face and it just so happens to only happen at lunch time.
Get off the soapbox L-dawg (nice name)and go to class!

[This message has been edited by Catwoman (edited June 27, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Catwoman (edited June 27, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Catwoman (edited June 27, 2000).]

[Corbin Dallas]

Originally posted by Lady in red:
We call it ABC or CBS or NBC instead (hence the recent brown outs and black outs).

What is that supposed to mean? They're called blackouts because the power goes out, including the lights, leaving the room dark, or black. Brownouts, I think are when the lights flicker, or go off for just a minute, not as bad as blackouts, or not as dark, brown! Seriously, your statement would be like me complaining about liquid ink, or white-out.

On a side note, where can I get my own people? I notice many posts contain "my people". I don't have my own "people" and was just wondering if you could get that at Wal-Mart or K-Mart. Seriously though, I never hear of white people saying "my people" unless they are radicals. I notice that other ethnicities use it all the time. Just curious.

Steve