Hazing has been around in our society for quite some times. Actually, according to some sources, hazing has been around for centuries. Hazing was apart of the American academy since the beginning of higher education in the United States dating as far back as the Cathedral church schools. During this time, upperclassmen would often haze freshmen students in a sense of "initiation" for them entering college. Terms such as "crabs" was adopted to belittle freshmen students as they had yet to earn the name "upperclassmen". Today, hazing is more associated with membership, whether formal or informal, into a particular group such as military, athletic, fraternties, sororities, etc. More recently, bands have been in the highlight of this contemporary hazing phenomenom. However, as one thinks of hazing today, it is more associated with fraternity & sorority life. Therefore, given this and the topic of this blog, I will focus hazing on fraternity and sorority life, particularly with BGLOs (Black Greek Letter Organizations).
Given that my background is in Higher Education Leadership emphasizing in student development, I enjoy examining and encourage you to look more into this subject from a student development standpoint through the lens of the William E. Cross Model of Pyschological Nigrescence. Now, for you non student development scholars, this model defines the resocializing experience in which the student's identity is transformed from one of non-Afrocentrism to Afrocentrism to multiculturalism. The five stages, Pre-encounter, Encounter, Immersion-Emmersion, Internalization, and Internalization-Commitment. Some black students entering college may come with the belief that college is supposed to be open to a diverse body of opinions and ideas and that their race will no longer matter and become unimportant. However, some students go through their first few weeks of college and may begin to realize that their race does matter. The university, whether in the classroom or through programming, may encourage the student to embrace his diversity, recognize and celebrate his difference or, the student may experience and/or recognize racism from his/her classmates and/or roommates for the first time. According to the Cross model the aforementioned experiences would move the student to the Encounter stage, which destroys the students view of the world and pushes the student to think and view the world in a different way from before the experience. Students in this stage may often feel the need to associate themselves soley with their culture and BGLOs often provide this cultural support and belonging that students often feel the need to associate themselves with. Now, I won't go too much more into details with this theory, however, I encourage you to look more into how hazing and this theory coincide. (http://www.stophazing.org/devtheory_files/devtheory9.htm)
Within the culture of fraternities & sororities, particularly BGLOs college life, being "real" and being "paper" are two contrasting ways of becoming a member of an organization. It is the culture with fraternities & sororities that pride, dedication, and respect will be instilled into aspiring members who are "real" vs. those who are "paper" For the sake of this blog, "real" is defined as a greek member who went through more than the sanctioned intake process of the particular organization they're aspiring to be a member of. "Paper" is defined as those members who went through the sanctioned and legal membership intake process.
There are constant arguements on which path that one should take in order to be a "good" member of these organization. "Real" greeks state that there is no way that one can learn or earn respect from the organization unless one is made "real". In contrast, those who are considered "paper" often didn't choose the process that they were taken through as this process was chosen for them by members who took them in. On a more important note, Hazing is considered illegal in 44 of the 50 states (www.stophazing.com). The only states that currently do not have hazing laws are Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wyoming. In each of the divine nine BGLOs, anything outside of the sanctioned membership intake process for that particular organization is considered to be hazing. Therefore, in essence, being made "real" as it relates to the standing orders and constitutions of BGLOs is illegal.
On a more comparative note, being made "real" or "paper" have neither been proven to retain initiates as active members in their organization. Therefore, there is no researched data that proves which process makes better members of our organizations. However, there is statistics that show that risky hazing behaviors, or making "real" members damages the organizations fiscally and as it relates to public opinion more than making "paper" members.
Speaking from my personal experiences, I have yet to read anything concerning the founders of my organization, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. that would suggest that our membership process should be one that physically abuses an individual. All membership intake process should be in place to teach aspiring members the significant aspects or the organization along with helping to develop aspiring members into more productive leaders on campuses across the U.S. Some believe fraterities & sorories, particularly BGLOs, have become nothing more than mere street gangs for college students who brutalizes each other, disrespect themselves and the opposite gender by doing things that harms themselves and others.
The mission of most BGLOs are to bring a closer bond of support (brotherhood) amongst its members, uplift the communities they are in through service, and promote scholastic achievement both in college and in careers. Therefore, I think we have to often think to ourselves as we're participating in membership intake processes..."how does doing this to an aspiring member prepare them to carry out the mission of the organization they are aspiring to be a member of and how is this bettering them as individuals?" So, could "paper" simply mean that you are a member of your organization on paper and that you are not contributing to your organizationa and community? Could being "real" simply mean that you are contributing to your organization and community?
That's my opinion! What is yours?
