Change. Change is what needs to happen on this campus. However, where I think a lot of change needs to happen is in sorority and fraternity life. Layla Evette a Black student at Southern Methodist University went on the internet to tell her story about being a black woman at her school and trying to join a sorority. Once doing this she was backfired with racism and hate which received national attention. She said "The reality is is that black pnms are often unqualified for recruitment (low GPA, bad grades, not involved on campus, know nothing about the houses) and are heavily unprepared (no letters of recommendations or letters of support) and generally come from a completely different background (impoverished lower class).
So going through recruitment is 10x tougher as a black woman, and you will have to work harder than other white, Asian, Hispanic or foreign women. I know someone asked about it and this is a hot topic on YY, but it’s the truth. People can deny and act like the houses are flooded with black girls, but they aren’t.” When posting this on the GreekRank, she was backfired with sorority members being hateful and racist back to her. They replied to her saying“Reasons why black women do not and will not get bids are 1) Y’all are racist and have your sororities and fraternities. Y’all created them, so how about using them? 2) Y’all are aesthetically unpleasing to the eye both for activities and the fraternity men we associate with. No, we don’t want to be the house that took “the black” and end up like Gamma Phi, where guys avoid them like the plague. Sorry, but looks matter. 3) Y'all never have letters of recommendation or support. 4) Y'all have no in-house connections. 5) Y’all go to crappy schools and generally don’t deserve to be at SMU, to begin with. 6) Your personalities suck. 7) Y’all are boring to talk to. 8) Not wealthy. 9) Don’t put in any effort yet expect us to want you. 10) No incentives for bidding you, other than looking diverse.” This response is recent. Moreover, what makes my heart so sad is that this is not just the response of an SMU sorority member but also has also been the response of TCU’s Greek life and my chapter Delta Gamma in the 1980s. This is why I have decided to write this essay. To encourage TCU’s Greek life and my sorority to be inclusive and change this racist, cruel actions against black women as we have seen in the past and today as well.
An archival object that I found was the Delta Gamma letters from 1980 from Tom F. Badgett was on the Student Organization Committee and wrote Delta Gamma an email about Delta Gamma needed to be more inclusive and accepting of all races. Delta Gamma denies that they have been inclusive, and I couldn’t see what the school was charging them on for being not inclusive and not accepting, but it did say they were going to have a hearing. I found it interesting that I found paper stating that Delta Gamma had been not accepting of all races and not inclusive but thought it was fascinating how the documents of what they had done to be accused of this were not found. I wonder if Delta Gamma had them hidden or as a matter of fact if TCU had them hidden.
The language and vocabulary used to describe these women is very formal. The professor is aggressive about Delta Gamma is not inclusive and that what they are doing is not right. However, he doesn’t describe what the Delta Gamma women have done wrong. I’m sure he did say what they did wrong, but those TCU archives went “missing.”
The archival context of where I found this was in a skiff in the folder titled Racism and minorities at TCU. In this folder where just pages and pages of letter and newspaper articles about TCU’s Greek life being exclusive to Caucasians. One article that I found interesting was the that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had an article titled “TCU petitions hit racism” in this article it states that Don Jackson a TCU professor started a petition on TCU’s campus asking students to respond to race discrimination by sorority’s and fraternities. When doing this, the head of the sorority and fraternity group which is the Student Activities office at the time said they never saw or were handed in these petitions though Don Jackson said he took the petition to their office. He stated “continuity of racism among TCU fraternities and sororities” At the time this article was written which was in 1980 the Fort Worth Star-Telegram stated that there were no blacks in any of TCU’s eight fraternities and ten sororities though there were two black sororities and fraternities on campus. The article finished off with Butler saying “I think they will help raise the consciousness that this is an issue that we need to respond to as educated and Christian people” This article gives me hope. It was written just a little after my own chapter Delta Gamma was discriminatory against women of color and so this article made me happy to at least know that someone on TCU’s campus was fighting for women of color in the 1980s.
Today, Delta Gamma only has three black women. One of them is my close friend, Daria. I told her I was writing this paper and asked her if I could ask her about her experience being in Delta Gamma. She said “Even though my dad is black and you can tell my little sister is half black other than having a big butt and lips no one can tell that I am black. Since I look completely white even though I am half black I could not count the times that one of our sorority members had said racist things in front of me and then when I had to correct them and continued to tell them that I was half black they were shook.” I also asked her in her time with Delta Gamma if she has seen them be racist towards black women at all. She replied “When I was a sophomore during work week when we went through the slides of PNMs we could say negative things about what we knew about pnms and so whenever an African American girl came on the slide I felt that others had negative things to say. However, this rule has been changed where now we can't say anything negative about the pnms, so that’s good.” In the book that we read in class When They Call You a Terrorist Patrisse Khan-Cullors states “One of the worst things about racism is what it does to young people.” I think college students are still young people; they are going away from home and coming to TCU. These young women’s first impressions of TCU is recruitment it happens before even school starts. We need to love these young African American women that are going through recruitment. Also, though Delta Gamma has a long way to come, we have welcomed three African American women in our sorority, so I think that’s a start. I hope that we continue welcoming more with open arms. I recommended the book to When They Call You a Terrorist to my whole sorority at chapter the other night because I think it's so crucial for them to understand and learn about all the hardships black women have gone and go through, and because it was one of my favorite books and taught me so much.
I think if Delta Gamma saw themselves in relation to women of color of TCU, they would feel guilty for the racism and hurtful things they have done over the years. At least I would hope they would. I think that as a chapter they want women of color of TCU to be involved in their chapter and want to redeem themselves and be inclusive. My little the president of Delta Gamma stated “We want Delta Gamma to feel like it is home away from home to all genders, races, and religions” This made me feel positive about women of color of TCU and Delta Gamma in the future. We have been very hateful and inclusive in the past but bringing that to light in this paper my hope is that it will only get better from here and that not only will Delta Gamma be welcoming of TCU women of color from now on but also that sorority and Greek life as a whole will be welcoming of Women of Color in their chapters.
*A reflection on how Delta Gamma and TCU Greek life sees and looks at women of color is something that needs to continue to change, but at the same time, I think it is changing, just very slowly. We need to talk more about being more inclusive with all race, classes, and genders in Greek life, but the fact that Delta Gamma does have a three half black women is somewhat of a positive change.
Change. Change is what needs to continue to happen in Greek life and Delta Gamma. I hope that this change will be a change of inclusiveness, a change of acceptance, and a change of love for all race, classes, and religions and being respectful to all.
Sabrina johnson