Brotherhood or brothers in the ‘hood’? Debunking the ‘educated gang’ thesis as black fraternity and sorority slander

Abstract

In this article the author explores the controversial thesis that African American Collegiate Fraternities and Sororities, also known as Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs), are ‘educated gangs’. First, the author examines this polemic as a ‘truth claim’ and compares BGLOs and gangs through: (1) hazing; (2) rape and substance abuse; (3) social constructions of black masculinity and femininity; (4) social structure; and (5) cultural aesthetics. Second, the author finds the legitimacy of the ‘educated gangs’ thesis untenable due to the racist nature of the discourse itself. Third, the author argues that BGLOs are deemed ‘educated gangs’ via a nouveau ‘culture of poverty’ ideology, the exaction of ‘symbolic violence’, and the propagation and protection of a normative and pure whiteness that is constructed relationally to a demonized and vilified blackness.

Keywords:

• African Americans
• racism
• gangs
• fraternity
• sorority
• identity
• culture

Acknowledgements

Portions of this paper are drawn from Hughey 2008a.

I thank the editor David Gillborn, editorial assistant Cate Knowles, and the remainder of the staff at Race Ethnicity and Education for their assistance with this manuscript. I also thank the anonymous reviewers for their detailed and insightful comments. Special thanks are eternally due to my fraternity/chapter brothers of the Rho Beta chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. G.O.M.A.B.

Notes

1. The most notable BGLOs are the nine member organizations of the National Pan‐Hellenic Council (NPHC), which is also known as the ‘Divine Nine’. These nine member organizations are: Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity (1906), Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority (1908), Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity (1911), Omega Psi Phi fraternity (1911), Delta Sigma Theta sorority (1913), Phi Beta Sigma fraternity (1914), Zeta Phi Beta sorority (1920), Sigma Gamma Rho sorority (1922), and Iota Phi Theta fraternity (1963).

2. ‘The Talented Tenth’ was written by W.E.B. Du Bois in September of 1903 and published as the second chapter of The Negro Problem: A Series of Articles by Representative Negroes of Today (New York: James Pott and Company).

3. The ‘Jena Six’ is a moniker for a group of six black teenagers who have been arrested and charged with crimes related to their alleged involvement in the assault of a white teenager in Jena, Louisiana.

4. It is important to mention that I concentrate mainly on Black Greek fraternities, and not sororities, as the critique of BGLOs as educated gangs is usually directed at men. However, this does not discount or exclude female members. I say this to acknowledge the gender dynamics that make the fraternity and sorority lived experience very different from one another, although they are still lived within the overarching context of blackness.

5. Usually these signs are made by formation of the fingers on one or both hands to make some sort of symbol or letter. It can also serve to relay more specific information, such as what set they represent within a larger gang or in which activities they are currently taking part. The Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity and ‘brims’ gang sign is performed by extending the index and pinky finger, and the universal blood sign and sign for Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity is performed similarly to the ‘OK’ symbol of touching the index finger to the thumb and holding the remaining three fingers upright.

6. The Chad Meredith Act (HB 193) crafted by Rep. Adam Hasner (R‐Delray Beach, Florida), is considered by many as the strongest anti‐hazing statute in the nation. The law is named in honor of a Kappa Sigma pledge who drowned as a result of hazing at the University of Miami in 2001, and went into effect on 1 July 2005. The legislation, signed into law by Florida Governor Jeb Bush, makes branding a form of ‘serious bodily injury’ and a third‐degree felony.

7. Proposition 209 was a 1996 California ballot proposition that amended the state Constitution to prohibit public institutions from discriminating on the basis of race, sex, or ethnicity. It had been supported by the California Civil Rights Initiative Campaign, led by University of California Regent Ward Connerly, and opposed by pro‐affirmative action advocacy groups. Proposition 209 was voted into law on 5 November 1996, with 54% of the vote.

8. Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244, was a United States Supreme Court case regarding the University of Michigan undergraduate affirmative action admissions policy. In a 6–3 decision announced on 23 June 2003, the Supreme Court ruled the university's point system was too mechanistic and therefore unconstitutional. However, that same day in Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306, the Supreme Court upheld the affirmative action admissions policy of the University of Michigan Law School by a decision of 5–4. However, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote; ‘We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary’.