Seriously, WTF?  When I first read this headline I thought “Damn, there must be some racism going on here.”  But no, there’s none of that.   The Tom Joyner Morning Show is being replaced with the Steve Harvey Morning show by Clear Channel.  Replacing a black guy with a black guy.  And it’s not even like it’s as bad as 92 Q out in Baltimore replacing the Big Phat Morning Show with criminally unfunny Rickey Smiley.  Steve Harvey is actually pretty good.  Apparently Steve Harvey’s show brings better ratings.  That’s called business.  It happens all the time.  If you don’t perform well in the radio/TV business, you will be replaced by someone who does bring the ratings.  Now I understand that the TJMS is a big part of the Chicago community and that they partner with Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. in supporting that community…but the President’s message is completely overboard and out of line.  Clear Channel is a business.  Businesses make money.  The fact that the TJMS does good things in the community is nice, but it apparently hasn’t translated into ratings.  Tom Joyner being off the air doesn’t mean they can’t still work to do things in Chicago…it just means he won’t be on the air.  Apparently all those people he was helping weren’t returning the favor by tuning in. The cold hard reality is Clear Channel is in the business of putting out radio shows that get ratings, not community service.  This is how life goes.  Some of my favorite shows have been canceled because of poor ratings while crap like Flava of Luv keep getting new seasons.  Tough shit…that’s life.  I didn’t write my Senator when Fox canceled the X-Men animated series back in 1997.  I chalked it up a a lost and kept it moving.  Instead of bitching, how about reaching out to Steve Harvey and seeing what he can do to keep the good community work going?  Oh wait…that would be too much like right…my bad.

Honestly, the statement released sounds like the rantings of someone taking this personally.  A more appropriate and even handed statement would probably be taken more seriously and might even change Clear Channel’s mind.  Something that stated “disappointment” instead of “anger” and maybe listed out the positive effects the TJMS had on the community.  That’s a proper statement.  Not this trash of a press release that reads as if it was rushed out by someone angry and emotional and that flings about wild accusations of racism.  Maybe they’re right.  Maybe it is a bad decision to take the show off the air.  But if anything it’s a bad business decision and has nothing to do with race.  News Flash:  Every time a black person is fired or replaced doesn’t necessarily have to do with racism.

Maybe I have it all wrong.  Maybe what happened here was this was suppose to be released tomorrow…on April Fool’s Day.  That would then make sense.  Because right now, I’m having a hard time comprehending why an organization as old and “prestigious” as Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. would send out such a poorly written statement dealing with a radio show being taken off the air (He wasn’t fired) when there are so many other important issues out there like exploding AIDS rates, failing schools, teen domestic violence, etc. etc. etc.  Yeah, I know, the TJMS was a vehicle to address some of these issues…well guess what?  So does Steve Harvey.  Broaden your horizons and stop bitching about trivial issues.

Okay maybe not the actual chapters themselves but I seriously have a problem with individuals within those chapters that seem to have a false sense of pomposity simply because he/she is in a single letter chapter.

Please don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the single letter chapters for a lot of reasons, mainly because of the amount of rich and colorful history/legacy that follows them. I could only begin to imagine what it must have been like during those times when these chapters were being chartered and all of the major breakthroughs all over this country on college campuses.

In this era of greek life membership, those critical challenges that faced those chapter charter members are now long gone. The challenges today simply have a new face and require a different set of skills or self sacrifice to accomplish. Even the most BITCHMADESASS members can put in 5 hours of work every two weeks in their chapter and feel like they are doing something (which bothers me quite a bit).

Here are my main points:

1. If you belong to a single letter chapter and you are still judging your chapter’s successes by the work that those that precede you did….kick yourself in the nuts. Your chapter founders were the trailblazers….NOT YOU…therefore you LOSE!
2. Being a single letter chapter, you should WANT to do above average work because of the simple fact that your chapter charter members were nothing less than exceptional trailblazers. If you are not winning majority of the awards and honors being granted by your university/college/regional office/national headquarters/community partners….you LOSE!
3. If other chapters around you aren’t envious of the way you carry yourselves and all of your accomplishments….you LOSE!
4. If a triple letter chapter is coming onto your yard and commanding more respect than you….you LOSE!

And if you are going to continue to lose, please humble yourself and go ask for help from other chapters around you that are actually doing better than you. Maybe you will eventually get saved!

Please visit link first to understand my frustration…

This is beyond ridiculous and every time that I say that ‘I ve seen it all’, I continue to be shocked.

1. I put the first set of blame on the members of Zeta Phi Beta who decided to allow someone in their chapter (not sorority) who they knew they wouldn’t accept 100percent. Most people stopped joining fraternities/sororities, they join chapters because of they know that they can feel at home with that campus/chapter. If the Zetas knew that this might have major future implications on the chapter (which was foolish to ignore), then tell her NO (give some bullshit reason) and tell her to go join grad after graduation. They gambled and FAILED hard.

2. The young lady for making decision to join a ‘family’ where she knew she wouldn’t be completely accepted. Looking at the pictures, it seemed that she ‘pledged’….the idea of ‘pre pledging’ means you get to meet the chapter members and see if u fit. She should have known that she would have been out of place….she gambled and FAILED hard as well.

3. I am glad that someone mentioned this already, the article is completely one sided and she sounds like a bitter chick in this article. She makes some good points about ‘discrimination’ and ‘harrassment’ but she set herself up, is now bitter and is trying to ‘get someone’.  If she had liked them enough to want to be part of their family, she wouldn’t be making this big news right now. Its like me suing my own relative/sibling for something like this….family means…you won’t agree on everything but you keep family business IN HOUSE!!! She clearly doesn’t care much about Zeta.

4. For the GBLTA advocates, this is not the platform for it. May I ask that if this country as a whole including politicians, scholars etc are still struggling with how the GBLTA culture fits into today’s society, then what makes you think some college students can get their minds around it? Are you serious? An organization with 89 years history versus a country with how long? and still struggling with basic civil rights issues?

Come on folks….until she gets a sex change…she is a SHE. Just because a child who gets Fs in school wants to be called SMART, doesn’t make the child SMART. It makes the child NOT SMART. This is not HER world, its a world with established cultures/norms…that won’t change over night.

- Dylan

Another day, another Fraternity hazing allegation.  This one involves an Eastern Kentucky University student who claims to have been beaten so bad while being initiated into the university’s Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. chapter that he was later hospitalized for kidney failure.  Of course, as a member of a Black Greek Letter Organization myself, I read various emails that went on to condemn the hideous hazing acts and wonder why members of Greek Lettered Organizations continue to put themselves on the opposite side of the law.  Fed up with people ignoring the reality of the situation, I finally spoke up and said what everyone is afraid to say:  Hazing and Pledging will never stop.  It’s an inevitable part of human society.  Ending hazing and pledging would be the equivalent of trying to teach all the lions in the world to stop eating gazelles and zebras and instead start munching on leaves and tall grass. When you take a group of people, separate them from the rest of society by feeding them the notion that they are part of the elite and therefore better than everyone else, you’ve now created a recipe for hazing and pledging to occur.

I’m always amazed by how shocked people are when they hear about a hazing or pledging incident.  Hazing/Pledging is nothing new to human society.  In fact our history is completely ingrained in it.  The main argument against it is that “Beating someone isn’t brotherhood or sisterhood. ” Then there’s the most recent one which is to call fraternities and sororities that pledge “Educated gangs” and say that their “brutal behavior” emulates that of Crips or Bloods.  First off, if you want to play the theoretical game of “What came first, the chicken or the egg” then technically you could say that gangs modeled their initiations after fraternities and sororities.  Secondly these arguments completely ignore the history and mindset behind these “illegal” activities.  Its extremely arrogant (and false among other things) for us to think that we in Greek Lettered Organizations are the originators of secret societies and grueling initiation ceremonies.  They all stem from one thing:  A male rite of passage.  The same people that so eagerly condemn these initiation activities are the same ones who think that 300 was one of the greatest movies they have ever seen.  300 wasn’t a fairy tail.  At the age of 7, Spartan boys entered into the Agoge System where they were removed from their families and trained for mental and physical combat.  This involved sleep deprivation, physical challenges, diet restrictions, etc.  In medieval times, Knights had squires, young boys around the ages of 13 or 14 who aspired to be knights and so became servants under a knight.  Growing up I used to read stories about Native American and African tribes who would have the young boys in their villages go through rites of passages or vision quests in order to prove themselves to be ready for manhood.  History is ripe with these stories.  The actual rites are all different, some more difficult and deadly than others but the overall the theme was the same.  First a young man is removed from his family and friends.  Why?  Because they are his comfort zone.  The world is bigger than those that support you and put you in friendly territory.  The real test of a man’s character is when his feet are to the fire, he’s in uncharted and unfriendly territory, does he survive?  Does he build up the will to continue or does he wilt under the pressure.  While removed from his family the young man would be put through extensive training and challenges (both mentally and physically) and when he completed these challenges he returned back to his family a man.  Not just any man either.  He returned a man who went through and survived an elite process.  His community recognized that and respected him for it.  His brothers (those that went through that process and those that guided him through it) had even more respect for him (because they had a deep appreciation for what he did to earn his position) and in many cases they would die for him.

These days, we don’t have rites of passage.  Some will say we don’t need them.  To those that say that, I point to all the “bitchmadeassness” going on in the world today and say that’s absurd.  Sure, many of those old rites of passage were in place to create warriors and other elite fighting units.  But I think a warrior doesn’t necessarily have to be someone that picks up a spear or a gun, but someone who is mentally and physically prepared to face the challenges of the world.  What is occurring today is that we now have groups of men who are seeking that next step, that rite of passage and so they are attracted to underground pledging and hazing activities. You cannot deny that there is a stronger bond between those that have gone through a tough stretch together as opposed to those that haven’t.  Adversity, turmoil and chaos breed comradeship between those that endure it together. And pledging/hazing isn’t a Fraternity/Sorority only problem.  These activities occur in the Military, High School/Middle School/College/Professional sports, other Secret Societies, etc.  The difference between those groups and Fraternities/Sororities is that the leadership in Greek Lettered Organizations seems to think that they can completely eliminate the risk that comes with pledging/hazing.  That’s impossible.  Stopping pledging/hazing is like the New York Knicks trying to stop an elite player in the NBA (61 from Kobe, 52/11/10 from Lebron…WTF?).  You can’t stop it you can only hope and pray to contain.   When you are operating a group consisting of elite members of society and you initiate using secret rituals and processes…you will NEVER eliminate the risk…you can only hope to mitigate it.  Creating a zero risk Membership Intake Process only shoves the pledging/hazing further underground which in turns INCREASES the risk.  The threat that if members of these organizations don’t stop with these behaviors then the organizations themselves will go bankrupt and disappear is also a little bit naïve.  If Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. were to cease to be an organization tomorrow, I would still be an Alpha, I would still have line brothers and I would still be doing the work of Alpha.  Just like the Civil Rights movement didn’t end with the death of Martin or Malcolm, fraternities and sororities will continue to live on even if they cease to be National organizations.

Now I want to address why I used both the words hazing and pledging together.  See, all national organizations lump both of these together as if they are one.  I don’t believe they are.  I believe there is a big distinction between pledging with a purpose and hazing someone for no reason.  It would be as if the Spartan Agoge System took these young men from their families, beat them, trained them to be cold hearted killers…then sent them home to be farmers.   Unless they were making those angry onions like in that Burger King commercial, that would have served no purpose.  Pledging is a linear process that allows those that engage in it to look ahead to see the light and look behind themselves to see how far they’ve come.  The months spent pledging to join an organization are only the beginning of the overall pledge process because anyone who has pledged will tell you that the real pledging begins after you have earned your letters.  Hazing on the other hand is just senseless acts of stupidity that serve no purpose other than to stroke someone’s ego.  It’s pretty easy to tell the difference.

Let me end by saying that it is mind boggling to me that at the age of 18, we allow young men and women to join the military where they learn skills to kill a man, we allow them the ability to gain debt they cannot pay off by giving them loans and credit cards or we allow them the right to smoke (Essentially slowly killing themselves) but when a young man or woman willingly subjects themselves to some form of illegal initiation process we talk about how young, impressionable and frail they are.  Does anyone else see the ridiculousness of that?  We allow these young men and women to willingly subject themselves to something that they are well aware of the consequences yet when they get hurt or don’t feel like doing it anymore, we reward them with monetary compensation.  This is how bitchassness spreads.  Human beings like any other creature on this planet have a natural instinct for survival.  I’m reminded of the quote from G.I. Jane, something along the lines of Pain is good because it let’s you know when you are seriously injured and that you’re not dead yet.  Your body will let you know when something isn’t right.  And if you continually show up week after week until it gets so bad that your kidney fails, then you are just an idiot.  The story that sparked this post involved a young man putting up with this for two months.  After 2 hours he should have known what was going on and that he wanted no part of it.  He shouldn’t be rewarded with a lawsuit.  Instead he should be locked up in a mental institution for not listening to his own primitive survival instincts.

But we know that won’t happen.  And because of that, the bitchmadeassness of America will continue.

This fall will be 5 years in the game for me.  Still hard to believe.  Anyway, I’ve started to see a lot of things in the Black Greek community that leave me shaking my head in shame.  Its 2008 people.  Can we stop the BS and stop feeding into each and every one of the worse stereotypes of black Greek organizations?  It’s really getting out of hand and it’s disgusting.  Get it together people.  Here are a few Do’s and Don’t’s of being in a fraternity or sorority.

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DO get to know your old school.  I feel that if most knew their old school and talked to them on a regular basis, then I wouldn’t have to write this post.  Old school wouldn’t allow half the crap I see posted on the internet.  If you don’t know your old school I don’t care how much you think you pledged…you still a skater.  Knowing your chapter’s history should be part of your first step into your journey.

DON’T teach other organizations how to step.  While I’m not stupid enough to think that stepping is a BGLO thing, I’m getting tired of seeing “tribute” steps being done by your everyday, run-of-the-mill student organizations.  If they want to step and have step teams…fine.  Let them learn themselves and come up with their own steps.  I don’t want to see NSBE doing a Serious Matter.  I’ll be honest.  I wanted to slit the throats of those AKAs teaching those white fraternities and sororities to step.

DON’T brag about your process on the Internet.  Okay, let me be more specific, don’t self incriminate yourself.  I know I know.  We all, myself included, like to take stabs at skaters every now and then.  However, posting set pictures, bragging about how much wood you took, how long you were on, etc…that’s just stupid.  That’s like bank robbers creating a discussion board and bragging to each other about the banks they robbed, with full details.  Anything posted on the internet is likely to be available to the public FOREVER.  Don’t get mad when it gets posted on the Greeks Gone Wild or Funny Greek Stuff Facebook groups.  It’s your own dumb fault for putting it out there. It’s like putting a sex tape out on Youtube.  Ain’t no coming back from that.

DON’T be a super neo, 5+ years into the game.  We get it, you love your organization.  But you’re an old head now…act like one.  There is no reason why you are more hyped than the young kids on campus.  Your old ass shouldn’t even be in the stroll line, more less leading it.  Due to youngsters misinterpreting deference and just keeping it real, they don’t want to tell you that you creep out all the young chicks they hang with.  College days swiftly pass…they swiftly pass.

DO keep your auxiliaries in check. Look, I understand some organizations put their auxiliaries through a little process.  Fine.  But you need to make sure they know their place.  I’m not above hitting a chick with a Muay Thai elbow if she gets a little full of herself and has the audacity to challenge me and my process.  Get three letters first and then we can talk.  If you value your single letter auxiliaries and don’t want to see them get knocked out UFC style, then I suggest you make sure they know their place and shut their mouths, particularly around me.  Homie don’t play dat…

DON’T wear double or triple nalia.  Now it’s cool if you have on a shirt and a key chain or something like that.  That’s not double nalia.  However, wearing the shirt, matching hat, the scarf, the tube socks and the custom made shoes is just a little too much.

(I’m gonna catch heat for this one but…)
DON’T make huge lines a regular occurrence.  I understand that sometimes times call for…okay…fuck that.  No I don’t understand lines of 100. I can’t even try to find a way of making that sound like there are exceptions to the rule.  Honestly, I can barely wrap my brain around lines over 20.  The process, whatever process is set forth (whether it’s legal or illegal) should be about the bonding of those individuals going through their process together.  On a line of 100+, there’s almost no way that #51 knows #81.  If for some reason, that I just cannot comprehend, that it is unavoidable to have a line that big, then for the love of God, break the line up into manageable numbers and then assign numbers that way.  Go from 1 to 20 then start repeating numbers.  Cause I cannot help but go into full blown clown mode when I see chicks with triple digit line numbers.  My line brother actually got chastised once for thinking a chick was #127 when she was really #124.  Come on.  Does it really matter at that point?  Does it???

DO let professionals make your nalia for you.  If you don’t double as a fashion designer or you don’t have skills with Photoshop…then refrain from making your own nalia.  Not only are the crooked, stenciled in letters not a good look, but your placement of them so that they go right across your ass means your designer privileges are revoked.  Leave those iron-on decals alone too.  Also, refrain from using other organization’s colors when making your nalia.  Sure, a Delta can wear pink and green and an AKA can wear red.  But I don’t want to see Delta Sigma Theta in pink and green letters across your red jacket.  That’s not only completely color clashing, but it’s also just plain disgusting.

DON’T perpetrate like you did more in your process than you really did.  If you skated you skated.  There really isn’t any shame in it if you own up to it.  What you do after you earned your letters is far more important.  What pledged Greeks can’t stand however, is someone who lies on their letters.  You will be found out.  You will be exposed.  It will not be pretty.

DON’T pledge your aspirants if you didn’t pledge yourself.  What kind of illogical feces is that?  That’s why pledging gets such a bad name now, you fools who didn’t pledge but want your new line to pledge so you just make up some foolish crap to put them through.  That’s how bammas get seriously injured and chapters get snatched.  Leave the pledging to the professionals.

DON’T think that becoming Greek makes you cool all of the sudden.  You were wack before, you are wack now.  Adding three letters to your chest isn’t going to save you from your fate.  You were born a loser and chances are you will die as one.  You ain’t Clark Kent and that crisp new frat shirt ain’t a Superman outfit.

DON’T give your neos fucked up line names.  Line names are supposed to be something that you can be proud of and have real meaning.  Remember, if they are going to be on a shirt or a jacket, then that’s sometimes a person’s first impression of that individual.  A line name shouldn’t be given to a person out of spite for them or as a joke.  It’s supposed to represent that person’s personality.  If you can only think of insulting or homosexual line names then maybe you should rethink why you want that person to be a part of your organization.

DON’T start spelling words in some kind of retarded Ebonics way by replacing letters in words with the letters of your organization.  You’re a ‘Cool Kappa Chillin’ not a ‘Kool Kappa Khillin’.  That shit is annoying and makes me feel like I’ve killed a brain cell every time I read something by an idiot who does that.

DO realize that ho-ish tendencies aren’t excused simply because you have letters on.  As a matter of fact, ho-ish acts are magnified because now you’ll be passed around like germs in a kindergarten class.  Ever wonder why you seem to get called to hang out when frat comes in from out of town?  It’s cause you’re easier than a crossword puzzle that’s already filled out.  You can’t claim you are a diva or exemplify finer womanhood if you’re the NPHC version of Superhead.

DON’T treat brands like tattoos.  Getting the story of your process branded onto your arm is likely to result in a horrendous keloid blob forming on to your arm.  It’s not sexy.  No matter how delusional you are.  If you want elaborate artwork embedded on your skin to show how tough you are, get a tattoo.

DO keep your clothes on during parties.  I’m not trying to point out any one particular fraternity but ummmm….yeah, that shit ain’t cool.  It’s one thing if it’s an all female party and you are the entertainment.  It’s another when there’s a healthy (or in this case, unhealthy) contingent of dudes.  I’m secure in my sexuality.  So secure in fact, that I’m 100% sure I don’t want to be at a party with naked dudes.  And to be honest, the ladies don’t really want to see that either.  Think about it ladies, there’s a problem when a dude doesn’t feel uncomfortable walking around a party naked with other dudes.

DON’T be a super pledge if you tried to join an organization, dropped then joined another organization.  Seriously, it’s a pet peeve of mine.  I think NPHC should institution some sort of probation where if a person does that, they are refrained from representing that organization at public events.   It disgusts me when I see these fools repping their org like it has always been in their heart.  You’re a letter whore and just another reason why above ground pledging needs to happen.

DON’T pledge, then have an epiphany about your lack of self control and esteem (issues you had before you pledged), denounce your letters and then blame fraternities and sororities by claiming they are evil and against the word of God.  It just makes you look pathetic.