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?
Personally, I don't think it's even important man. From my perspective,what matter is that the person is committed to the cause /purpose of the organization.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the great depth of knowledge displayed in this post. Too often I read blogs on similar topics that have no or little “research”. In this case your presented a model to support your thought process. I personally feel that the fact that we label our members “real” or “paper” is antithetical to what we all were founded on. Our organizations were formed to serve as support systems for like minded individuals who were trying to make their way on a college campus in an collegiate environment that was neither “made for people of color” nor very welcoming for people of color (at times). Somehow the focus has shifted to the “process” of acquiring membership. Who are the people we revere most in our organizations….in most cases, our Founding Fathers or Founding Mothers right? Who hazed them? To my knowledge, no one did. But they are given respect because they were visionaries and they were dedicated to creating an avenue for men and women to come together for a common purpose and strive to achieve greatness. I honestly feel we spend way too much time worried about how or if someone was “made” when we should be focusing on things that actually matter like how much RELEVANT community service we are doing?; How are we serving as advocates for the black students (both Greek and Non-Greek alike) on our campus?; Are we leaders both inside and outside of the classroom?; How are we supporting our brothers and sisters and providing the sense of belonging that research has shown to be critical to the success of African American students, especially at PWI’s?. There is so much more to BGLO’s then bragging about how “hard” you went. And as far as respect is concerned, I respect all of my friends and I also greatly respect my brothers and sisters in Christ. I did not have to beat them or get beat by them for the mutual respect to occur. It happened over time as we learned about each other and when we were put in situations where we had the opportunity to show each other that we “had each others back”.....
ReplyDeleteThe problem is we (BGLO’s) want to create those opportunities in controversial ways. We also want to make the bongs occur in 3-5 months. That is not realistic. I am sure anyone in a BGLO could name a brother or sister who was “made” that did/does nothing in the name of the organization after gaining membership. I am also sure we all could name a brother or sister who is “paper” that has not done anything in the name of the organization after acquiring membership. My point is…what does Hazing tell you about the person beside whether or not they can take physical pain and psychological stress? In my humble opinion, what type of member a person well be it is a direct reflection of their mindset coming into the process of attaining membership. Meaning, the way I serve my organization depends on my intentions for joining. If I am joining to be “seen” and to be social, then that is where I will exhort my energy if and when I become a member. If I am joining to uphold the founding principles of the organization, then that is what I am going to exhort my energy on if and when I become a member. I think we should spend more time educating the men and women who are interested in our organizations so that they know what being a member of a BGLO is really about. Too often men and women join our organizations for the wrong reasons and when it is time to hold them accountable for not living up to the ritual (that we all took as dully initiated members of BGLO’s) in most cases, no one wants to call their brother or sister out. Why? Because he or she was “made” and they earned their right to be here. I chose to live by a different philosophy; I earn my letters everyday that I wear them because the true work of dedicated fraternity men and sorority women never end. There is always work to be done and in my opinion, our processes, or Hazing rather, puts a finish line in place so that after you are “made” you feel like you have done your part and now you can coast and let the neos do all of the work because you have “put in your time”. Joining an organization is a lifetime commitment.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree. From viewing various intake processes with different people, it seems that a line of "made" brothers still have different levels of dedication no matter how "made" they are. Honestly, I believe that people know how dedicated of a member they intend to be before they apply and physical and mental abuse is not going to change that.
ReplyDeleteI think that hazing creates members that feel they've "earned" their letters before the earning actually begins. As members of BGLOs, we need to understand that you do not begin earning your letters until you are allowed to wear them. No matter how many times you can "take wood," how many jumping jacks your can do, or how creative you can be with developing a greeting, that still has done absolutely nothing in regards to the founding principles of our organizations.
I do feel that because of some people's ill behavior, our organizations have created processes which limits brotherly bonding and minimizes learning. However, I do not think that supplementing it with illegal activity is the answer. We all have to realize that learning does not stop upon initiation. Being intentional with education and mentoring thereafter would make for a much better process and limit thousands of people placing themselves, their livelihood, and our organizations at great risk.
No empirical backing, just thoughts of a young professional ;~)