When I was 15, my high school counselor told me I needed community service to get into a good college. A few weeks later, a friend of mine asked me about joining the Jackson, Mississippi chapter of the Sigma Beta Club to get some community service hours. I didn’t know much about what those words meant, but I needed those service hours.
Sitting in that first meeting in the Northside YMCA, I learned that the Sigma Beta Club is a mentorship program in which members and alumni of Phi Beta Sigma, one of the “Divine Nine” Black fraternities and sororities, work with kids to get involved with their communities. I spent the next two years of high school around kind, patient, inspirational Black men — men I grew to admire, men who poured positivity into me. Men who took time out of their own lives to change mine.
When I got to college, I wanted to pay those two years of love forward. So in 2005, I pledged Phi Beta Sigma. I cherish my decision, the friends I’ve made, and the ways I’ve been able to touch lives through that organization. My reasons for joining, and the experiences that came after, are dear to me.
Are you going to choke someone out at Pier 1 Imports because they’re wearing your letters? These can’t be the aspirations of organizations based on being college-educated and service-oriented, right? What are we even doing here?
I get it; Greek Letter Organizations aren’t for everyone. “Every time I almost joined a fraternity,” my uncle used to say, “I’d remember that I can get girls and I have friends on my own.” I’d laugh, just like I laugh when I see that sentiment repeated on Twitter. Just like I spent all day Thursday laughing my entire ass off because Baton Rouge’s own Boosie Badazz went to some mall in Atlanta, bought himself a Kappa Alpha Psi shirt (another Divine Nine fraternity), and wore it courtside at an Atlanta Hawks game.
For those who don’t know but can probably guess, wearing a Black fraternity or sorority’s letters is reserved for the actual members of those organizations. If you’re caught on a college campus wearing the paraphernalia without having pledged, then someone is going to approach you (probably aggressively). It’s one of those things we’re supposed to take seriously — but man, how can you see Boosie in that red shirt and not get some jokes off? Sure, easy for me to say; he didn’t wear the letters from my organization. But I’d laugh just as hard if he wore a blue-and-white Phi Beta Sigma shirt. And I think a good number of other Black Greeks are finding the comedy in this, too.
But then there’s the internet. And the internet has a way of amplifying the loudest people with the most outrageous opinions.
https://twitter.com/polemarchMEP/status/1215293431846768640?s=20
Some Kappas (as well as members of other organizations, in a show of solidarity) flooded Boosie’s Instagram feed to voice their displeasure, demanding that he either take the shirt off or delete his Instagram post. Guys, it’s not that serious. And the more we try to make it a big deal — or treat the gesture as some disrespectful affront to the sanctity of Black Greek life — the sillier we all look.
I’m guessing informed Black people aren’t going to cling to their appropriated Greek Letters with the same fervor as a White woman to her box braids and hoop earrings.
Seriously, what’s the endgame here? How do you tell someone that they can’t buy something that’s widely available in any Black mall in America? How do you then tell someone not to wear a shirt that they purchased with their own money? Then what happens when they violate those sacred orders? How is this actually enforced? Is anyone going to run up on Boosie and throw hands? Even if it’s not someone like Boosie. Are you going to choke someone out at Pier 1 Imports because they’re wearing your letters? These can’t be the aspirations of organizations based on being college-educated and service-oriented, right? What are we even doing here?
While we may think of Black Greek life is ubiquitous, it’s a small enough subset of society that most of the country has no clue about the basics, let alone the nuances, of the culture. The best option in these instances is to explain to Boosie (or said Pier 1 shopper) the history and importance of the letters and what they mean. Most would return the gesture with respect and understanding and probably not even want to wear the letters anymore, because most people are decent humans who don’t go out of their way to disrespect others. I’m guessing informed Black people aren’t going to cling to their appropriated Greek Letters with the same fervor as a White woman to her box braids and hoop earrings.
This shouldn’t be hard to work out — especially because threatening Boosie Badazz is quite literally the least sensible option. He’s only going to double down the way he did on Instagram Live all Thursday night. Hell, I’d do the same if some strangers on the internet told me I couldn’t wear a shirt. I’m an entire adult.
It’s been difficult enough to get people who didn’t pledge any of these organizations to see the appeal of Black Greek life; the institution has been a big enough punching bag on social media. I get it, especially if you think about it from the outside: a bunch of men or women who wear Greek letters for whatever reason, do synchronized dances at parties and have weird ceremonies and secret handshakes, all after spending weeks getting paddled. And it seems even more ridiculous when you see a bunch of grown-ass men and women fussing at a man for wearing a shirt.
When I first pledged Phi Beta Sigma, I was told that not everyone would support, understand, or even care about the choice I was making. Maybe that’s why I don’t trip over the jokes. Joining a fraternity was about me, about something I wanted to contribute to the world; it had precisely zero to do with what strangers thought. I wish that more Black Greek brothers and sisters remembered this, because spoiler: we’ll never win an internet argument. We’re outnumbered! More importantly, being secure in our own decisions means not caring about convincing other people why we made them.
The situation, hilarious as it is, does provide an opportunity: Maybe it’s time for us to really consider why there’s such a negative characterization of Black Greek life, and actually work on to rectify those issues. There are the excuses we like to use — it’s just haters who couldn’t get in — and then there are the real issues. And believe me — the elitism, respectability politics, hazing abuse, and sexual misconduct that persist on college campuses today are vastly more urgent than which rapper wears whose letters in public.
Boosie Badazz wearing a Kappa shirt, going on IG Live, and shimmying while going on one of his epic rants is one of the funniest internet moments we’re going to see this year. Being offended or angry is a waste of time — especially when just enjoying the comedy is better for all parties involved.
https://twitter.com/kyrahlovee/status/1215716512755015683?s=20
See this? This is more like it. This is how you take the situation in stride, show you can take a joke, and educate folks at the same time. More of this, 2020.