Diversity in Sororities? Hogwash!

I just finished reading an article on social sororities at the University of Alabama. Was the article about the benefits of finding a group of like-minded students during your first foray into adulthood? No. Was it about the high academic goals that most of these social organizations promote? No. Was it about the vast number of philanthropic endeavors on each campus? No.

Hmmm. What was it about?

Racial Diversity.

The article, on AL.com and written by Melissa Brown, in this year of 2013, was about race, plain and simple. How many are black and how many are white. AL.com should be ashamed.



Here is a random photo of the social sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. AKA is familiar to me because they share the colors of my own sorority (pink and green), so I take note whenever I see them. This group is a champion of health causes like asthma prevention and management, promote environmental sustainability, and the fight against global poverty and for social justice. Was any of this in the AL.com article? Of course not.

Instead, the question was, what is the level of diversity? When presented with this question, one of the governing bodies of social groups gave this answer, "That's not something we track." This comment could have been better only if she had added, "We are colorblind. We don't care what color our members are."

What do you see when you look a the picture above? I am 47 years old, and here is what I see: lots of pink, lots of pearls, legs crossed at the ankle instead of the knee, and a beautiful collection of smiling faces. What did Ms. Brown of AL.com see? She probably scoured the picture for white faces. Shame, shame, shame.

Here is a pic of my sorority, Delta Zeta:



See what I mean about the pink? Delta Zeta's national philanthropy is speech and hearing. A new endeavor since I graduated from college is The Painted Turtle, which provides a year-round, life-changing environment and authentic camp experience for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses.

What do you see when you look at the picture? Young girls, lots of pink and a gorgeous day. What do you not see? Black women. Why? Why are there no white women in one pic and no black women in another? Does AKA "cut" white girls from their membership? I would think not. Does DZ cut black women from their list? I know from experience that they do not.

Why is this an issue, Melissa Brown?

Why do you want to see the integration of sororities, obviously operating from the assumption that they are currently segregated? Do you honestly believe that these social sororities are actually segregated? Do you believe that, if a white woman wanted to join a historically black sorority that she would be rejected? Is it possible that these organizations do have members of other races, but not enough to satisfy you? What would you like, membership to be 50/50? What about Hispanics? Asians? Native Americans? Are you going to force them to segregate, too?

No, and let me tell you why. You are not colorblind, but you wear color blinders. You only see black and white. And I suspect you are not that interested in making the black sorority whiter, but more interested in making sure the white sorority gets blacker. Again, to what end? College girls "rush" each fall and choose the sorority in which they feel most comfortable. If the black student feels best at Delta Zeta, I can assure you she would be welcomed. If the white student wanted to be an AKA, I would hope the same would be true.

It's not time for us to "diversify" the way you describe it. It's time for us to be truly colorblind, and the best way we can do that is to stop making it an issue.