4A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
MONDAY, DECEMBER 5. 2005
Divide
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Of the estimated 3,000 members of the Panhellenic Association and Interfraternity Council, about one out of every 230 is African-American. There are a total of 13 African-American members; seven are in sororities and six are in fraternities.
Rachel Sevmour/KANSAN
University Archives, Spencer Research Library
A group of 350 people wait for Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe to address the Civil Rights Council demonstrators and university students on March 9, 1965. In September of that same year, the Kansas Board of Regents established a policy ending discrimination in all faternities and sororities at the six Kansas universities.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A make it difficult to recruit African Americans, other factors, including the cultural and economic divide, have created barriers. High costs and houses dominated by whites have African Americans looking elsewhere for housing. Traditional Greeks hail from upper-to middle-class, suburban white backgrounds while African Americans are associated with an urban, working class culture. These differences have fostered stereotypes about both sides.
When Jeison Lawson, Overland Park junior, hits the Lawrence nightlife with his black friends he doesn't worry about what he says or how he acts. He can let loose to the R&B and rap beats of artists such as Kanye West, Dr. Dre and Twista.
The cultural barrier
The free-spirited personality he demonstrates with brothers from his own culture is shed. He can't slip into his Ebonics vocabulary when he's around men from the chapter, he said.
But when he goes to the Theta Chi house, where he's the only African-American member, his demeanor becomes introverted, he said.
Lawson said the decision to join an IFC fraternity or one of the black fraternities of the National Pan-Hellenic Council was the toughest decision he's made and one he now regrets. He has decided to leave Theta Chi to join a black fraternity.
"When I'm around a majority of whites I have to keep my guard up and have to watch what I say," he said.
The language of Ebonics, which he uses with black friends and which dominates songs he listens to. is difficult for his white fraternity bothers to comprehend, he said.
He said Theta Chi provided a sense of brotherhood, but in NPHC fraternities brotherhood runs deeper than just a group of friends; it's a bond shared through common culture.
"It's like going away to a place you've never been and you're kind of homesick." he said.
He said if there were another African American in his chapter he would have reconsidered, but with no one to connect with culturally, living in the house was difficult.
When introduced at one of the houses, she said her skin color triggered this response from a member: "My best friend is black."
Emi Erekosima, Rosehill freshman and the only African-American member of Alpha Delta Pi, recalls similar feelings of displacement when sorority members reacted to her skin color during open recruitment.
"I felt I was going to be the tooken." she said about that chapter
Later, when they were going out for dessert, she said a member asked, "Are you going to eat vanilla? I heard all black people eat vanilla."
She said at Alpha Delta Pi she wasn't treated differently, but after she joined, her black friends started to tease her about being the only black in the house. Friends upset her when they called her an "Oreo" because of her involvement in a "white" sorority.
Erekosima said she has not forgotten her ethnic roots. She is a member of the Black Student Union and said she doesn't have to talk or act a certain way to be considered black.
"If they could just see past the whole idea, 'I have to act this way because I have to be black,' I think they might join a fraternity or sorority," she said
Sampson Yimer, Lawrence junior and the only African-American member of Sigma Chi, said the lack of diversity stems from vastly different cultures rather than skin color.
Yimer said he recalled being asked by a white woman, "Well, why didn't you join a black fraternity?" His answer: Why do we expect all blacks to fit into a socially constructed box by joining members of their own ethnic culture?
"Regardless of color of skin, if
everybody acted the same there wouldn't be these racial hatreds," he said. "It's the difference in culture that breeds racial hatred."
Freshmen dues for sorority members range from $1,016 to $2,443. Living in the house sophomore and junior years can cost anywhere from $4,600 to $7,300. The cost is far greater than dues of the historically black NPHC sororities and fraternities where members pay only $100 to $200 for dues.
Urban vs. suburban
The five historically black chapters at the University are much smaller, don't have lavish, pillared houses like the traditional greeks and hold meetings in the Kansas Union.
Christina Strubbe, Leawood senior and 2005 Panhellenic president, said the lack of African Americans could be the result of the "ridiculous fees" traditional grecks paid.
Erekosima said if cost deters African Americans from joining a sorority, it shouldn't.
cial assistance are available. She said members weren't punished for missing a payment and would not be kicked out even if they did.
She said scholarships and finan-
"People look at the book price and don't see what they are gaining from it," she said.
Strubbe said the absence of African Americans has as much to do with a clash of urban and suburban culture as it does economics. She said a majority of sorority members are from areas like Johnson County and North Shore Chicago, which are heavily populated by affluent whites.
Erekosima said one's background played a role. Coming from Rosehill, where there were only three African Americans in her high school, made her feel comfortable with a group of white women who came from the same background.
"I haven't met anybody who's from the ghetto," she said.
Scarred by the past
She said they've made strides, but admitted, "Historically, there is an uphill battle. They don't have a glowing history."
The constitution of Sigma Chi fraternity in 1959 read, "No person shall be eligible to membership in the Sigma Chi fraternity who is not a bona fide white male student in the college or university in which the chapter proposing his initiation is charted." These clauses existed in other Greek houses, prohibiting black membership.
Exclusion of blacks caused then-Chancellor W. Clark Wescoe to issue a statement on July 1, 1962, asking for the removal of discriminatory clauses.
The last clause was removed nearly three years later when Sigma Nu fraternity received a waiver from its national council to eliminate the white only rule on March 4, 1965.
The words had been removed, but discriminatory practices remained through blackbaiting tactics that included negative letters of recommendation from white alumni for black pledges and a voting system where one "no" vote eliminated a potential member.
The council asked Wescoe to reassure African-American students that the sororities and fraternities no longer practiced racial discrimination by providing a signed statement from the chapters.
On March 8, 1965, the segregation problem boiled over when more than 150 students from the Civil Rights Council conducted a sit-in at the chancellor's office, protesting the practices of fraternities and sororities along with other civil rights issues.
The Kansas Board of Regents put an official stop to segregation practices on Sept. 27, 1965. It established a policy eliminating discrimination in all fraternities and sororites at the six Kansas universities. That racist history is still remembered by the African-American community. Erekosima's black friends reminded her about the problems they felt still existed.
When she joined, her black friends warned her that sororites wouldn't let her in, because they select only a few "token" minorities, or that alumni wouldn't approve her membership. But she was invited and joined.
Misunderstandings and insensitivities still exist she said. She said this year's Delta Delta Delta and Beta Theta Pi bid day party shirt reflected those insensitivities. It featured a "Dukes of Hazzard" theme with the unmistakable stars and bars of the Confederate flag.
"It's a symbol of racism. It's rude," she said. "They didn't think before they made the shirt."
She said they were oblivious to racial issues and should be more sensitive.
With Greek members coming from suburban areas that lack diversity, the problem only continues as chapters recruit the people they know.
Who do you know?
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