Most don’t bother because they know it’s the “system” that doesn’t want them.
“The move comes after a story last week in the school’s student newspaper, the Crimson White, about a highly qualified black student being denied a bid to join any of the school’s prestigious, historically white sororities. Despite receiving excellent scores during the recruitment process from current sorority members, the young woman — who requested that her name not appear in the paper’s story — was reportedly blocked by alumnae. The sole reason, according to current sorority members: she was black. Another black woman was also denied a bid. Some alumnae even threatened to pull financial support from their sororities if they accepted black members.”
I know nothing about this particular case,but given that black girls are accepted at a rate disproportionately higher than their percentage of the Rush class, this seems unlikely.
The article is from 2013; the link from 2010. It may very well have happened then. It appears not to happen now, per the statistics, fortunately.
The article is from 2013 because that is when UA officially desegregated. Think about that. It’s a system that didn’t officially desegregate until 2013. No one looked around and said, “Perhaps this is wrong”.
Here’s another article from 2013.
.insidehighered.com/news/2013/09/19/segregated-sororities-not-limited-alabama-experts-say#:~:text=The%20first%20black%20Alabama%20student,one%20has%20followed%20suit%20since.
“The first black Alabama student to pledge a traditionally white Panhellenic sorority did so in 2003 – and no one has followed suit since.”
While you keep quoting the 97% bid rate statistic, that is a statistic in isolation that doesn’t tell the whole story.
About 1.3% of PNMs identified as African American. In spring 2021, Black and African American students made up 11.7% of the UA undergraduate population.
While White students accounted for about 89% percent of PNMs but made up about 85% of the UA undergraduate population in spring 2021.
Black women are self-selecting NOT to participate in a system where they were unwelcome until 2014. You also have to wonder if they are discouraged from signing up for rush or made to feel that it isn’t for them (again, look at all the pictures, composits, etc).
In an article in Marie Claire’s September issue (on newsstands now), current and former sorority members revealed the internal conversations and orders from alumnae that kept the nation’s largest Greek system segregated until this year. “We were told we do not take black girls, because it would be bad for our chapter—our reputation and our status,” says Yardena Wolf, 20, a junior and member of Alpha Omicron Pi, who says many of the women in her house worried fraternity members would no longer invite them to parties if they had a black member. Others said their parents would make them withdraw from the house if they had an African American member. Another sorority member, Caroline Bechtel, 21, a senior and member of Phi Mu, said her sorority had a list of women who were to be dropped from formal rush and “anyone who was a minority was automatically added to it.” She adds, “Sometimes they’d say things like, ‘Oh, she wore an ugly dress,’ but it was so obviously wrong, so obviously racism.”
In 2014, 100% of the 16 black women that rushed received bids. So, with all of those examples, are we supposed to think that in one year, the system suddenly became welcoming and non-racist?
Look, I really don’t care about any sorority. But is it so hard to believe black girls might want to join a historically black one as women like Michelle Obama, Jada Pinckett Smith, Toni Morrison or other famous women have done? Maybe not; maybe Alabama in 2023 is identical to what it was like in 2013, when the present members were little children-I do not know and neither do you, let’s leave that up to the girls there now to figure out.
If there is evidence that any sororities are currently discriminating I would hope the national chapters, the university, the students themselves, or the student newspaper would investigate and address it.
Or, of course, had always planned on joining the sororities of their own mothers, grandmothers, aunts, older sisters, etc. But two things can be true at once and that recent history of institutional exclusion is not easily forgotten.
So I definitely wasted my time watching this. All I got was “I want to be in a sorority because HS was awful and I want instant friends”. The “consultant” was somebody who got rejected from sororities and now thinks she’s got it figured out. The “machine” was from some old newspaper articles (I freeze framed to read) that had two sides of the story unlike this one.
I wasn’t surprised that there are consultants out there for this kind of thing, but even if I had temporarily lost my mind and was looking for a rush consultant, I wouldn’t seek out either of these women.
I was briefly on a Greek life FB page and many of the moms on there were spending HUNDREDS on “rush baskets” full of gifts to get their girls through each stage of the rush process (these were primarily SEC moms). There are apparently legit business that sell rush baskets. I had to get off after that.
Note that it looks like only Toni Morrison out of the above joined a sorority while in college, while the others were invited to honorary membership after college.
There is a rush consultant company that is recommended on Clemson parent pages. My daughter didn’t use it, or really research anywhere, got into her first choice (and the president of clmdon’ daughter is in the same one which made me feel better).
These are all pretty weak examples of Black women having the option of choosing Black sororities over traditionally white ones.
Toni Morrison attended Howard. As an HBCU student, she didn’t have the option of choosing a Panhellenic sorority.
As @ucbalumnus mentioned, the other two are honorary members of AKA, both inducted as adults, after having established themselves professionally. Obama graduated from Princeton, which doesn’t have Panhellenic institutions; JPS attended the University of North Carolina School of Arts, which is its own entity within the UNC system, for one year. I don’t believe that it has a Greek system, and if it does, JPS wasn’t part of it.
Your argument is starting to sound a lot like, “If they have their own fine schools/neighborhoods with support systems there, it isn’t our fault that they don’t want to join ours.”
Your argument sounds like there is something wrong with those girls who prefer a D9 house, or no house at all. Perhaps since neither of us attend we should stop speculating. After all, the girls who dont rush may have found a better way to spend their time
In my other replies on this thread, I have made absolutely no statements or expressed any opinions at all about race and sororities, at Alabama or elsewhere. My only statement has been to correct the context of the examples you gave.
Edited: I found in the middle of a long post I made about the hierarchy of sororities/fraternities on larger campuses that I did say that the houses considered to be “cooler” tend to be wealthier and whiter. I wasn’t commenting on how women of color do or should choose to rush, but since I am being a stickler for accuracy, I wanted full disclosure.
That’s easy to believe. It’s also easy to believe that the racial dynamics of the Deep South are not identical to those in other regions of the country.
No one has said anything like this. There is nothing wrong with African American students (or any other students) preferring a D9 house or no affiliation over organizations that were still segregated only 10 years ago. There are very good reasons that African American students (and some other students) steer clear of organizations that live in fake plantation houses and celebrate white, southern beauty standards, history, values, etc.
These organizations are historical relics, and it’s an ugly (and recent) history. It would take more than just removing the “no blacks” rule to become truly inclusive and inviting places for students of all races, but it is not clear they are interested in that. Even if they are interested, it may be too late to reverse the damage already done.
You seem to turn a blind eye to the difference between individual racism vs. institutional racism. Also to the fact that 2013 really wasn’t all that long ago when it comes to excluding people of color from an organization. While the current members were only about 8 (think about that, it actually happened in their lifetime) these cases of exclusion were not initiated by the current members as much as they were by the alumnae. Do you really think alumnae no longer exist? The whole point of sororities is that these people are your “sisters”. Past, present and future. That you uphold the values of the sorority.
Other schools have taken much stronger stances on this issue much earlier than AU (and probably most schools in the SEC). There IS a difference in the Greek system in these schools and yet it is a big draw to so many applicants. Everyone can draw their own conclusions on what that means, but to me, it’s sad.
I personally know a handful of (New England) girls attending AU (and similar SEC schools) and it’s all about the “southern charm” (plantation charm) and sorority life. It is THE reason they are picking these schools. These are nice girls with their heads screwed on straight. But the Instagram pics and promises of a certain type of social life are blinding. If they really sat down and learned the history beforehand, my guess is that they’d be horrified. It’s not til you’re in and committed that many(white girls) even know the institutional bias of these organizations (if even then). Why would they? It doesn’t affect them?
And this is why and how it continues…
(Note: Some schools/chapters do address this with their members and it is an issue they seem committed to. But to do this they actually have to admit to the institutional racism and bias)