Minority Oriented Greek Organization

brownsugakdphi · #1 03-01-2002, 01:06 PM

WHAT'S UP!
Well, I'm in an Asian Interest Sorority, and I was wondering how other greeks felt about Minority oriented Fraternities and Sororities. At my campus the relations between IFC/PANHELL and the other Minority Greek Organizations isn't the best, and there doesn't seem to be much understanding between the groups. Last year my organization got to participate in PANHELL's Greek Week, but this year many of the minority oriented fraternities and sororities got together to do a spin-off of Greek Week... I guess this year we're gonna do that one instead... I just kinda feel like there isn't any more unity on our campus... mind you there isn't much Greek Support from the campus so I think it would be great for all of us to maintain some togetherness.... I'm really interested in hearing replies from both minority oriented and IFC/PANHELL Organizations....

In Eternal Love and Friendship.....

Steeltrap · #2 03-01-2002, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by brownsugakdphi
WHAT'S UP!
Well, I'm in an Asian Interest Sorority, and I was wondering how other greeks felt about Minority oriented Fraternities and Sororities. At my campus the relations between IFC/PANHELL and the other Minority Greek Organizations isn't the best, and there doesn't seem to be much understanding between the groups. Last year my organization got to participate in PANHELL's Greek Week, but this year many of the minority oriented fraternities and sororities got together to do a spin-off of Greek Week... I guess this year we're gonna do that one instead... I just kinda feel like there isn't any more unity on our campus... mind you there isn't much Greek Support from the campus so I think it would be great for all of us to maintain some togetherness.... I'm really interested in hearing replies from both minority oriented and IFC/PANHELL Organizations....

In Eternal Love and Friendship.....

Hi brownsugakdphi,
If you use GC's search page, you'll find that variations of your questions have already been discussed ad nauseam on these boards.

#3 03-01-2002, 01:18 PM

UM doesnt have a problem and nor do I with minority interest greek orgs. All the orgs. try to go to everyones different events. Like NPC/NIC's will go to NPHC's step offs, NPHC's will participate in or come and watch Greek Week, etc. Evereyone invites everyone. Not saying there is 100% harmony, but its pretty close.
However, I did have an alum once say to me that she really didnt see a need for multicultural GLO's b/c she felt that it was making NPC/NIC and NPHC orgs look bad by insinuating that they arent trying to integrate or be diverse. However, I almost joined a MCGLO, so I just blew it off and tried to make her understand thats not what they are about.

AXWhoah · #4 03-01-2002, 01:27 PM

I personally don't understand the need for them. Especially the ones that call themselves "multicultural". My AX chapter is feakin multicultural! We have jewish girls, asian girls, girls from four different countries, hispanic girls. There are no guides for who can or cannot be in Alpha Chi and so ANYONE can join (as far as ethnicity or race is concerned), so I don't see why people feel they need to set up exclusive sororities.

Eirene_DGP · #5 03-01-2002, 01:50 PM

Brownsugakdphi,
Check your PM, I sent you a message!!

brownsugakdphi · #6 03-01-2002, 01:55 PM

An Asian American Perspective
Hello Everyone,

Well, I was skimming through the many responses to the question, and generally I see a lot of "white glo" vs. "black glo" reponses. However, as being a member of an Asian American Greek Letter Organization, I would like to respond to the original question.

I understand why someone would attempt to eradicate what they deem is "segregation" but perhaps it may be important to understand why that certain organization was started. It's kind of like the MELTING POT analogy of our country. People would like the U.S. to be a MELTING POT, but in that sense you are not recognizing the value of people's cultures but assimilating those cultures to the general value of the majority's culture. In the SALAD BOWL analogy, these different ethnicities can be allowed to value their own culture yet experience and understand the roles of various other groups. By establishing one general organization, you are in a fact assimilating that group. What you deem as "segregation" may be in fact a way to create more diversity.

In my sorority nationwide we have sisters of different cultures, two of the sisters at my own school were of latina descent (one being a founder). Regardless of our sorority's purpose (to promote Asian American awareness and strengthen the role of women in higher education), we can't deny the cultures of each of our members. SISTERHOOD is color blind, but our world isn't. It is a fact that some groups are less priviledged than others, and the creation of such minority greek organizations are aimed at changing that fact. So by eliminating such greek organizations, aren't you in fact taking away some of the benefits that we provide to minority groups that might not otherwise be present... In other words... for the organizations that do not focus on a certain racial/ethnic group, how often do you focus on the problems that Asian American, Latino American, African American, Native American people face, and don't you have brothers/sisters that face these problems? Just be thankful that there are organizations out there that do......

In eternal love and friendship

lovelyivy84 · #7 03-01-2002, 02:28 PM

I admit to being slightly conflicted about this issue.

If you felt that there is a need for your organization then I am in no ways qualified to tell you that there wasn't. Obviously you and enough of your sisters felt that there was for there to be an organization, and judging from the number of multicultural orgs popping up nationwide y'all are not alone.

I suppose that the issue that members of BGLO's have with it is why you have to use our model? The mutli-cultural org's on our campus were basically BGLO's by another name, without the restrictions we face and without an equal amount of recognition in their communities.

Part of what has always made BGLO's so remarkable to me is the way they took something traditional and made it their own- they created a new sort of business model for fraternities and sororities. There are so MANY differences between us and HWGLO's. A LOT of the MCGLO's are not. They have yet to find their way to make a new model of the sorority and fraternity. I guess that's why some people don't saee the point. Why join something that is EXACTLY like everything else but just goes by another name?

I think that as your org's get older and you get your own ways of doing things and develop stronger traditions and nuances it will be different and people will understand but it will be a loooong road. Good luck!

kristiAZD · #8 03-01-2002, 10:08 PM

I can see how at some schools it is important to have these oraganizations because they are large schools, but my school is small and all of the sororities and fraternities are already diverse. Bringing a Multi Cultural org. on campus would be like telling those that would join our sorority that they shouldn't because we're not "multi-cultural" like they are. It would seriously detract from our membership and being able to meet and associate with different girls. I do see the opinion that there is need for them at big schools however, where there are more people.

About the Greek Week thing that brownsugakdphi talked about, how can you expect any unity if people are so willing to segregate themselves? If the IFC and PHC want to have the other organizations participate, why not participate? Don't say that you are being predjudiced when your organization decides not to participate when invited. Maybe your organization was the only one to participate the first year, but set an EXAMPLE to all of those other organizations that didn't that you are not about to let your greek organizations be segregated. Show them that you are ALL GREEK TOGETHER. Sometimes you just have to be the trendsetter and others will follow. Nothing will be done about segregation until someone takes the first step.

33girl · #9 03-02-2002, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by lovelyivy84
I suppose that the issue that members of BGLO's have with it is why you have to use our model? The mutli-cultural org's on our campus were basically BGLO's by another name, without the restrictions we face and without an equal amount of recognition in their communities.

Part of what has always made BGLO's so remarkable to me is the way they took something traditional and made it their own- they created a new sort of business model for fraternities and sororities. There are so MANY differences between us and HWGLO's. A LOT of the MCGLO's are not. They have yet to find their way to make a new model of the sorority and fraternity. I guess that's why some people don't saee the point. Why join something that is EXACTLY like everything else but just goes by another name?

lovelyivy84,

Thank you for bringing that up - I've always wondered that, too.

brownsugakdphi · #10 03-02-2002, 01:22 PM

Well in response, my organization was invited last year, and we were grateful and so we participated. Part of the reason we may be stepping away from Greek Week was because there was so much fighting and extra drama associated with Greek Week between various sororities, and our organization felt that it was not an environment we wanted to be in. Furthermore, this year IFC and Panhell picked and choosed who they wanted to participate, and we were the only "minority oriented" greek organization to be asked. We felt that it wasn't fair, and although we were grateful once again to be invited to participate, we didn't feel right participating in something that wasn't very inclusive....

Kevin · #11 03-02-2002, 02:08 PM

Quote:

We felt that it wasn't fair, and although we were grateful once again to be invited to participate, we didn't feel right participating in something that wasn't very inclusive....

Just a thought...

But why not ask PHC & IFC to include some other minority-aimed GLO's? Do you think they'd be interested in participating? I know that there are several minority related groups including the HASA and the Asian Students Association that participate in our campus' traditionally Greek-only events.. I think things like that have really opened the door a lot wider for more diversity with in our own greek system.

lovelyivy84 · #12 03-02-2002, 11:58 PM

It's quite possible that the other org's don't want to or can't participate. I know that our grad advisor would NEVER have let us participate in something that wasn't with a member of the Divine Nine. They would have been out of her experience and suspect so it was out of the question, lol.

Eirene_DGP · #13 03-03-2002, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by lovelyivy84
I admit to being slightly conflicted about this issue.

If you felt that there is a need for your organization then I am in no ways qualified to tell you that there wasn't. Obviously you and enough of your sisters felt that there was for there to be an organization, and judging from the number of multicultural orgs popping up nationwide y'all are not alone.

I suppose that the issue that members of BGLO's have with it is why you have to use our model? The mutli-cultural org's on our campus were basically BGLO's by another name, without the restrictions we face and without an equal amount of recognition in their communities.

Part of what has always made BGLO's so remarkable to me is the way they took something traditional and made it their own- they created a new sort of business model for fraternities and sororities. There are so MANY differences between us and HWGLO's. A LOT of the MCGLO's are not. They have yet to find their way to make a new model of the sorority and fraternity. I guess that's why some people don't saee the point. Why join something that is EXACTLY like everything else but just goes by another name?

I think that as your org's get older and you get your own ways of doing things and develop stronger traditions and nuances it will be different and people will understand but it will be a loooong road. Good luck!

As far as a lot of the MCGLO's NOT having major differences from the BGLO's, I am yet to see that. I am in a multicultural org. and BGLO traditions are very different and we do not participate in a lot of the same events/activities. One major difference I see is MCGLO's strive to better community in general and not just the black community. I would venture to say the average person knows little or nothing about MCGLO's or other ethnic greek organizations with the exception of NPHC.

lovelyivy84 · #14 03-04-2002, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Eirene_DGP

As far as a lot of the MCGLO's NOT having major differences from the BGLO's, I am yet to see that. I am in a multicultural org. and BGLO traditions are very different and we do not participate in a lot of the same events/activities. One major difference I see is MCGLO's strive to better community in general and not just the black community. I would venture to say the average person knows little or nothing about MCGLO's or other ethnic greek organizations with the exception of NPHC.

Well maybe this varies from campus to campus. On my campus that's how it was. On campuses I visited thats how it was. It appears to be like that many places.

As for the differing community service goals, well I can't fault you on that. That's your focus vs. our focus. But I was really referring more to the socialization aspects- line jackets, parkas, STROLLING, stepping, having calls, etc. I saw them do all that stuff just like BGLO's.

showstopper_1908 · #15 03-05-2002, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by lovelyivy84

Well maybe this varies from campus to campus. On my campus that's how it was. On campuses I visited thats how it was. It appears to be like that many places.

As for the differing community service goals, well I can't fault you on that. That's your focus vs. our focus. But I was really referring more to the socialization aspects- line jackets, parkas, STROLLING, stepping, having calls, etc. I saw them do all that stuff just like BGLO's.

If the other girl didn't respond to that, I would have never known that multicultural orgs do anything other than what is described above. On my campus, they try so hard to find out what you will be doing next so that they can copy it. The look of BGLO's without the goals and the restrictions. Why did I go into one of their offices and they had ivy leaves hanging on their pink bulletin board?!?!?! The Horror! I had a friend interested in joining a multicultural sorority on my campus. I challenged her to do research on all of the organizations before you make your final decision. After she realized that she would be doing nothing but running around campus with 3 letters on her chest that would mean nothing after she graduated, she changed her mind. Granted, things may very well change for what this organization means to society at a later time, but as of yet that is unknown. My friends biggest worry was that that name would go no where and it would all be a waste of her time. She would have a few "sisters" from campus who hang out with local frat guys, and have wet T-shirt contests but then what? I wish the organization luck with years to come beacue they are a cool bunch of girls, until then...