Race in America: Alumni of Sorority Block Black “Ideal Candidate” From Joining
“Are we really not going to talk about the black girl?”
The question - asked by Alpha Gamma Delta member Melanie Gotz during her chapter’s sorority recruitment - was greeted by silence. The sorority’s active members and a few alumnae gathered in the room to hear the unexpected news that there would be no voting on potential new members that night. The chapter, they were told, had already agreed on which students would be invited back for the next round.
Gotz and several of her sorority sisters, however, were far from satisfied. They wanted to discuss one potential new member in particular.
By any measure, this candidate was what most universities would consider a prime recruit for any organization, sorority or otherwise. She had a 4.3 GPA in high school, was salutatorian of her graduating class and comes from a family with deep roots in local and state public service and a direct link to The University of Alabama.
The recruit, who asked to remain anonymous, seemed like the perfect sorority pledge on paper, yet didn’t receive a bid from any of the 16 Panhellenic sororities during formal recruitment. Gotz and others said they know why: The recruit is black. She and at least one other black woman, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of personal safety, went through formal recruitment this year, but neither was offered a bid.
A good reminder that we are nowhere near a ‘post-racial’ society, but also the hopeful note sounded by the fight of (at least some) of the current members against the racist alumni. I know there are plenty, plenty of young racists in the US, but I honestly was so pessimistic about race relations when I was younger, that it is still heartening to see the young fight.
However, it’s an excuse for the other sororities:
“We’re one of the few sororities on campus that alums are allowed in the voting process, which also kind of breaks my heart, because some of the other sororities that didn’t have to deal what we dealt with,” Gotz said. “Why didn’t they take this awesome black girl?”
She’s still been rejected, has been reminded that there are people who think she is worth less than they are no matter what her accomplishments, simply because of her genetics. She also probably has a much better grasp of genetics than these bigots.
Racism is anti-science, anti-education, and anti-American.