A Viral Video

This is the video that created an uproar.  It was created by the University of Alabama chapter of the Alpha Phi sorority for recruiting purposes.  A guest editorial by someone named A. L. Baily on AL.com drew the nation's attention to this.  Some of the editorial's invective was:

"No, it's not a slick Playboy Playmate or Girls Gone Wild video. It's a sorority recruiting tool gaining on 500,000 views in its first week on YouTube. It's a parade of white girls and blonde hair dye, coordinated clothing, bikinis and daisy dukes, glitter and kisses, bouncing bodies, euphoric hand-holding and hugging, gratuitous booty shots, and matching aviator sunglasses. It's all so racially and aesthetically homogeneous and forced, so hyper-feminine, so reductive and objectifying, so Stepford Wives: College Edition. It's all so ... unempowering. 

Are they recruiting a diverse and talented group of young women embarking on a college education? Upon first or even fifth glance, probably not. Hormonal college-aged guys? Most assuredly yes. Older, male YouTube creepers? A resounding yes."

The purpose of the video is to get women interested in this particular sorority chapter so they will want to join.  In that respect it seems to have succeeded.  The Huffington Post reports that the number of women rushing sororities at the University of Alabama is at an all time high this fall.

The problem with this video isn't that young, attractive women are showing off their bodies in "Daisy Dukes" and short skirts.  The problem isn't that most are blondes with a few rare brunettes.  The problem is that there is a complete and utter lack of racial diversity.

Now some of you are saying "wait a minute, aren't their a separate group of fraternities and sororities for minorities?"  This is true.  The Inter-Fraternity Council and the Alabama Panhellenic Council are for the 30 frats and 17 sororities who admit few, if any, minority students.  The National Pan-Hellenic Council at this university has 9 Greek letter frats and sororities and the membership of these groups is almost entirely made up of black students.  The "multicultural" and special interest Greek letter organizations are found in the 7 member United Greek Council.

So why is racial diversity an issue at the University of Alabama's Greek letter organizations in my mind?  Because back in 2003 a woman named Carla Ferguson rushed Gamma Phi Beta.  The admission of a black woman to a traditionally all-white sorority was trumpeted in local media as a "big step forward." 

Until nearly 10 years later, no other black women were offered a bid to join a Panhellenic sorority.  Only after the University President, Judy Bonner issued a video statement on the subject, making it clear that discrimination would not be tolerated, did these sororities begin admitting women of color.  But the fact that less than 0.6% of the Panhellenic sororities membership is women of color tells us that no real progress is being made.

We pride ourselves as a nation that we're making real strides in racial equity.  Not in the South, especially not in the Greek letter organizations at the University of Alabama.  Not in a lot of places.  The video below is offensive as hell and I suggest you do not watch it.  But it does show that racism is alive and well in Greek letter organization.  This is the video that got two frat boys kicked out of their frat and their university for their use of the word n*****r in the video.