Sororities Told To Increase Diversity

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/us/alabama-sororities-told-to-increase-diversity.html?ref=education

Category: Discrimination

Level: State

Concerning: Finding new ways to create diversity in sororities.

Ways it affects families: This is a family issue because we want our college students who join any group to not discriminate against others. Anyone should be given the same opportunity as others and feel comfortable that they will not face this separation when they start at a university.

I have gone back and forth on whether I am in favor or not of sororities and fraternities. On one side you have great connections for the future and also a ton of new people who are your “brothers” and “sisters” for life. They can help new freshman as well as upper class meet friends and start relationships which help with jobs and other networks later in life. On the other hand, I have seen the discrimination that goes on within some of these societies. I do not believe that all of them are this way but I do know that it happens pretty frequently. I do feel like it is important to create more diversity and acceptance so that people do not feel discriminated against. I am happy that Alabama took note that this was a problem and made steps to help correct these flaws. When I was a freshman I was discussing with a friend about how they make the decisions in their fraternity on who gets in and who does not. During this topic he discussed with me a recent situation where a really nice African American gentleman had been rushing their fraternity. What really made me made was when he told me he went through the whole rush process just to get denied entrance into the fraternity. When I asked why he said “because there was already a black person and they had met their quota”. I was disgusted that people still were so racially discriminatory and that this was the only reason he did not get it. I believe that acknowledging this type of behavior and making changes will help our society grow as a whole. One’s race, sexual orientation, or any other differences should matter to an organization. The person should be judged on their character and whether they will benefit that group or not. I think it is a great idea to recognize that we need more diversity in these types of groups and do something about it. It saddens me that certain people did not stand up but said that they had seen this anonymously. When discrimination is happening in an organization that you are involved in I do not see why someone would need to be anonymous or hide their identity. In situations like this it is important to stand for what you believe in and speak out to prevent the continuation of discrimination.