Black "Greeks"

When I (Justin) was in my freshman year at Morehouse, a family friend told the members of a certain frat at Morehouse that I was “interested” in joining their fraternity. While I was technically interested, I had never actually thought it likely I would pledge. This family friend was very high up in the fraternity hierarchy, and, essentially, his life revolved around the frat. Late one night, about 2 a.m., I was resting in my campus dorm room when I heard fierce banging on the door. “Open up, n-gger! Open up!!” When I opened the door, there were three drunk fraternity members standing in the hallway. They grabbed me and slammed me up against the wall and accused me of claiming to be a member of their frat. At first, I was scared, as I had no idea what they were talking about. Then they came into the room and started tearing off my bed sheets and going through my drawers, claiming to be looking for “paraphenalia.” By this time, my roommate was awakened. It quickly became a tussle. We ejected the frat guys from our dorm room, throwing them out into the hall. Quite forcefully, I might add. (Smile) For weeks and months after that, frat guys would show up at my dorm room or follow me in the halls or the parking lots. They would call and threaten me. I rarely travelled outside my dorm alone. It was total negro bullshit. Not the group of “upstanding men” they were supposed to be.

As time went on, I let them know that I didn’t want to be a member of their frat and that I wasn’t going to be intimidated by them. Over the years, a distant respect eventually emerged between us. Funny, a few years back, long after we’d all graduated (it took them much longer than most), I saw a few of them in an L.A. restaurant. Damn near 30 years old and still wearing fraternity garb. We laughed about the old days when they hunted me. They even asked me to pledge grad chapter, but I declined. The frat thing just isn’t for me.

TheStateOf . . . Black Frats and Soros. Are fraternities and sororities good for black people? Is it a crutch for personal insecurity, or a strong networking bond?