Real Talk

September 17, 2006

Recently there was a campus survey about the effectiveness of NPHC on Tech’s campus. The first participants of this survey were a political oriented group that the Greeks frequently clash with. A lot the members are anti-greek while others just have no knowledge of what the Greeks do, and the survey responses reflected this.

I remember when I was pre-greek, I used to say that a lot of BGLO’s didn’t fulfill their purposes. They had lost their focus and concentrated on perpetuating stereotypes, and helping themselves more than helping others.

Since I’ve joined, I’ve noticed that this is only the case in some circles, but as a whole, I feel like we are not doing enough. Especially now.

I just got a phone call form my mother. I have cousin. 15 years old. Male. His parents were never married so he was shuffled between members of the family and frequently told that he wasn’t worth anything. He got in trouble on many occasions, went to juvi, was just basically in a bad situation with no way out.

Tonight, he asked to say at my aunt’s (his grandmother’s) house. He came in, went into her bedroom, got gun, and shot himself in the neck.

Instantly dead.

At the time when my mother was telling me this, I was looking at my line jacket hanging on the back of my chair and thought, “how am I really making a difference? What am I doing specifically to improve the state of my people’s way of life? How can I help other people if I can’t reach my own family?” I haven’t met this cousin, but I don’t feel like that’s an excuse. I’m sure there are people just like him everywhere. Young, old, male, female…

It was really a reality check. He was only 15…

I know that one person can’t save the world, or BGLO’s can’t save the world, but I think we can do much better. All of our principles were based on getting rights for African Americans, raising our consciousness, and leading our people into a new era of purpose and posterity. We all may have different ways of going about this, but those are our goals.

I think that maybe we should keep this purpose and situations like this on our minds as it is very real and very telling of what the impact of the “talented tenth” really is or is not. To NPHC, or even to the “talented tenth” in general I know we’re all busy, but we should all really think about our responsibilities as leaders when planning programs, community service, or just interacting with our peers and how we can impact not only our campuses or workplaces, but the community and world.

Chase Ends in Suicide

Greek Life

2 Comments

September 19, 2006 at 7:24 pm

Wildcat Queen

I am sorry for what happened to your cousin. I think that your connection of this loss and Greek life is a profound one. I am not greek. At one time I thought that I wanted to be. However, I was turned off by a number of reasons. One big reason was that when I sat down and thought about it, I questioned if I wanted to be associated with what greek life stood for on our campus. It was a status symbol basically with one or two community projects (usually performed by a small number of members) injected into the academic fiscal year. I am not sure if I will ever reconsider. Anyway for those who are greek, I think that a reality check in the form of a revisit to what the founders of each respective organization envisioned.

Today our greek organizations have become cliques that are content with a step show and a probate (and then there is the occassional fist fight with another greek organization). I remember going to an inner city school in Brooklyn and one of the students mentioned greek life. He had a cousin who was a member. Many of his classmates saw greek organizations as gangs, regardless of what I tried to tell him. He heard that they ran in groups, wore colors, had handshakes, secrets, and fought others who were in other like organizations. He didn’t know much about greeks, but what he knew sounded like gangs to him. I had to ask myself the question, “How many chapters do I know that don’t operate as gangs?”

I am proud of anyone who joins an organization with the intention to uplift the community through service. Keep doing what you’re doing and pass it on.
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September 20, 2006 at 1:09 am

KaNisa

I see where you’re coming from. On many campuses Greek Life is just a status thing. I can say at Tech, we are NOWHERE near as cliquish or status driven as the AUC Greeks. In the citywide stance, we are the most conservative Greeks around. Not alot of skee wee-ing or A-Phi-ing on campus, and we actually don’t even wear nalia that much.

LOL I remember at the MLK march, everyone was stepping and chanting and the Tech Greeks were all like, “hmmm.”

Not to say that the area Greeks are bad or anything, or that we’re lame Greeks with no spirit it’s just that we all have our places in the structure of our respective campuses. Maybe the elitist thing works for them. I know though in the environment of Tech, the black population is too small for that kind of thing. We’re focused more on working together and reaching our goals.

But don’t discount Greeks altogether. You can always go Grad. For the most part, grad chapters are about business more than the undergrads, and in some cases, undergrads aren’t as image or status driven as they appear to be. I promise, I thought as much before I got to know the members of the chapter here. Sometimes, perception isn’t everything.
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