I just read about a chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority on the West Coast and a hazing incident over a three-week period a few years ago. Four sorority members pleaded "no contest" and are serving 90 days in jail. They can no longer have any involvement with the sorority.
The sorors beat female pledges with spoons and stuff because they wanted the pledges to know what slavery was like and where they came from. I just want to know who made them God and decided to teach this lesson?
It's stories like this that discouraged me from pledging in the first place. Why would I pay someone money to become a member of a Black Greek-letter organization that thinks a beating slavery-style is going to bring us closer together and call my abuser my sister? And the first "sister" who put her hands on me, it would be the last time. Trust me.
As people who have shared a similar history, you would think something like this would be a no-brainer. Even off the pledging table. However, for many its become I want so-so to go through the same thing I did. As a result Black Greeks are losing their presence on college campuses.
At my own alma mater (Purdue), the Black Greeks that had their own houses have lost them. Twenty years ago, every black and sorority except for two didn't have a house. Alphas, Kappas, Deltas...every one had them. Today, no one. The college took the land back and many of these sites are now parking lots.
National chapters have asked the hazing to stop. It hasn't. So how are the Greeks hurt. In the pocketbook. People are suing. Their children are getting hurt, injured or dying. Universities are being held accountable. Seems like people don't understand, children are being sent to school to learn...not to pledge.
I just don't know when the so-called leadership is going to REALLY do something about this. Greek Life is a good thing. As a little sister to a fraternity, my social life was fun. Parties, road trips, community service, and my own little family on the campus. It's a part of my college experience I won't soon forget. Life is hard enough to begin with. How many young men and women who could have been doctors, teachers or a nurse, have to die before they finally catch a clue?
Posted By: Marsha Jones
Friday, October 8th 2010 at 12:42PM
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