Quote:
Originally Posted by Senusret I
I've had just about enough of your founder beating up on my frat lol
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Y'all made a fatal mistake; your faculty apes tried to shut us down. The Ques will start some s@#t and wreck the joint. It was that way in 1911 and still is that way!
Seriously, the critical study of BGLOs is in its infancy (in which many Alphas are in the forefront). One glaring omission, I feel, is a real examination of the social dynamics which led to the development of various BGLOs. I get frustrated when I read that BGLOs emerged simply as a result of racial discrimination and the exclusion of blacks from white greek life. It's a superficial half-truth! Most BGLOs were founded at Howard Univ. in which this was not an issue. What was an issue was existing class/caste distinctions in the black community which were reflected in the formation of BGLOs. We don't talk about this much anymore but there is still vestiges of colorism and classism amongst African Americans. (My late mother, who grew up in the '30s and '40s and attended a HBCU, used to talk to me about these issues in the segregated educational system of the South.) It may make us uncomfortable because it makes us (African Americans) feel as though we're airing our "dirty laundry."
What Founder Love discussed was a reality, and not just inter-Greek polemics. Ques (and later Sigmas, in their own more radical way) were based on egalitarian ideals. In the past, the stereotypes were well known: Alphas and AKAs were elitist, from typically that background, Deltas, Ques and Nupes were in the same league but not typically of that background, and Sigmas, Zetas and SGRhos were groups for "lower class" persons. (I had a Brother in a former chapter tell his undergrad son that if he pledged Phi Beta Sigma, "don't come home." The son had to make a choice between Sigma and his family. This Brother felt that Sigma was the lowest of the low, and he was hurt that his son would even consider pledging Sigma.)
In reading from the biography of Roy Wilkins who was a founder of Xi Chapter of Omega at Minnesota, he relates that he and other superior students were rejected by Alpha because of these class/caste issues which spurred them to found a chapter of Omega. And Langston Hughes biographer, Arnold Rampersad, tells of a Countee Cullen, an Alpha writing to Langston Hughes his friend to dissuade him from pledging Omega at Lincoln Univ. when he informed of his decision to do so. Omega wasn't considered "fashionable" as Rampersad puts it.
