Black Fraternities, Sororities, and Violent Hazing: Lots of Causes, Few Solutions.

By Guest Contributor Shani O. Hilton, cross-posted from Campus Progress

The New York Times reports on the stories of two young women—one in California, and one in New Jersey—who were violently hazed by members of their college chapters of Sigma Gamma Rho, a historically black sorority, during the pledging process:

At Rutgers, six members of Sigma Gamma Rho were arrested in January and charged with aggravated hazing, a felony, after a pledge reported that she had been struck 200 times over seven days before she finally went to the hospital, covered with welts and bloody bruises.

[...]

In the San Jose State case, Courtney Howard, a former student at the university, charged in a civil lawsuit, filed Aug. 31, that over a three-week period in 2008 she was subjected to progressively more violent hazing from Sigma Gamma Rho members. Ms. Howard claims in her suit that they beat her and other pledges with wooden paddles, slapped them with wooden spoons, shoved them against the wall, and threatened that “snitches get stitches.”

Gawker jokes: “Hey, hey—how else will she learn to respect her history?” But the joke is a bitter one.

After all, history is a big part of the black Greek experience. The men and women who founded the nine Black Greek Letter Organizations (commonly called BGLOs) are venerated by members, and prospective members are expected to learn the details of the founders’ lives, in addition to organization history and chapter history. And it’s a lot of history. The first black college fraternity and sorority were founded in 1906 and 1908, respectively, and six of the nine organizations were founded before 1920. This was during a time when higher education options for blacks were extremely limited, and the few who had the ability to go to college weren’t admitted into the secret societies created by whites.

I attended Howard University, a historically black university where BGLOs imbued nearly all aspects of campus life, even though only a tiny percentage of the school’s 7,000+ undergrads were actually members. Perhaps this is because Howard was the founding place of five out of the nine organizations that make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), or, “Divine Nine.” “History” was a frequent justification for the abuse that occurred, spouted off by pledges, members, and wannabe members.

But the physically violent hazing—which should be considered distinct from traditional pledging—that keeps making the news has a rather short history. In the Times article, Lawrence C. Ross points out that it was in the 1980s, when violent hazing increased dramatically, that BGLOs started banning the practice outright. Unfortunately, after that, it just got worse, and went underground where it went wholly unregulated. Delta Sigma Theta, the second-oldest black sorority, proactively lists currently suspended chapters—along with the fines they paid to the organization—on its website. But chapter suspensions in all nine organizations keep happening around the country for varying levels of infractions.

In reporting the facts of the two cases, there are a couple of questions the Times piece didn’t really address: Why this kind of abuse keeps happening, and why pledges put up with it.

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