Uh my name is i’m a lot for all those that wanna know got a youtube stepping insta that i named the omo show where i clearly spit the flow show you around the life i chose so add me if you wanna see how far the story goes peace my
Beautiful family welcome to the omo show i’m omo the afrocentric creatures here to raise the vibrations of the entire black nation and today is real talk tuesday so i thought it would be a perfect time for me to talk about my thoughts on black greek life the nphc
Which is the national panhellenic clan cell for those who don’t know and that kind of thing given that this seems to be a taboo topic within the greek community but also our community in general people feel like it’s something that’s supposed to be very very secretive
Um i’m not gonna be revealing a lot of information as far as secrets quote unquote but i am gonna give those who are in college those who are about to go to college or those who are not in college anymore and just are interested in a topic some ideas as to what the
Pros the cons and what i believe about black greek life given that i am greek i’m not going to talk about my organization because i honestly don’t want you to feel like this is a message that they’re agreeing with or that i’m saying this on behalf of us or anything
Like that if you know what org i’m a part of that’s great if you don’t well i’m not going to mention it here i might mention it in some other video i’m not sure so anyway let’s just get into it some of the pros about being greek and i
Have a few notes down here just because i didn’t want to miss anything i have four main pros and this is not my my my whole list of course y’all i just want you to know that i’m just really really simplifying this information just so that i can get the main points
You know understood and taken in so um the number one thing or the first thing that i would say is a pro about greek life is that it really did build my resume like while i was in my chapter or active in my chapter when i was in college i really learned
How to plan events i learned how to do budgets i learned how to make proposals i learned how to pretty much do anything that is business oriented i learned how to do you know all types of organizing and stuff like that just by having experience in the organization and that’s something that i
Can still put on my resume today as a part of my experience um my chapter is a really really small chapter so with that everybody has some type of leadership position versus like you know white greeks who have like 100 200 plus members and not everybody has a position within my organization we
Always stayed under like 13 so everybody pretty much had a position within the org and that’s also something that you can put on your resume as your leadership qualities or your leadership experience if you understand what i’m saying i got a lot of time public speaking in the event so that’s
Something that i talked about or that i put on my resume i had a lot of time performing in the event as far as like theater is concerned doing step shows that kind of thing that’s something i get to put on my resume especially my performance resume given that i’m now
Pursuing my artistic endeavors being greek saying that i know how to step that i know how to dance or make up choreography and different things like that has been very very beneficial um second thing would be that it’s a character builder um for me this is one of the biggest things that i
Really really hold on to within greek life um outside of my relationships but character was built uh throughout the process and also um actually just being inside the organization like there were certain things that everybody within my org who came through my chapter we all learned
The same history we all had the same kind of knowledge so there were certain points of character that we were all meant to have if that makes any sense i’m just going to give you an example um one thing that greeks say a lot is like what are excuses like
You know when they hear somebody saying excuses they’ll be like what are excuses and every greek or every black greek uh organization has their own version and every chapter even has their own version of how they speak or how they say what excuses are and for us we would say
Excuses are the tools for the weak and incompetent they build bridges to nowhere and my monuments of nothing and those who use them will never ever ever ever and i say make it in life because it’s something that’s um applicable why you you know why you’re in
Like why you’re active in your chapter but also applicable when you leave your chapter excuses is probably one of my favorite favorite pieces and also do do is something that uh is like do or don’t do there is no try you know um to learn those things
And to have to live by those things in an everyday basis can be difficult at first but now they just become so much a part of me that i can i know for a fact that if it wasn’t for me joining my greek organization i wouldn’t have the
Character that it is that i have now i wouldn’t have the the the drive the fire none of what i have right now and how i act on what i what i act on i wouldn’t have it if it wasn’t for my experience coming through my organization if that makes sense um one
Of my favorite my favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite piece of history which is something that every greek pretty much knows every black greek pretty much knows um it’s called it’s a poem called invictus and um the poem and i actually have not on this arm
But on this arm uh me and my line sisters we actually have uh okay i received a phone call my bad y’all so like i was saying me and my lss we got the last two lines of the invictus poem tattooed on us all together as a lion which i love i only
Have four uh it’s only four of us three lion sisters and there’s four four of us all together but anyway i’m just gonna spit that poem for y’all right quick or at least the way we spit it um out of the night that covers us black is the
Pit from paul to po we thank whatever gods may be for our unconquerable souls and the failed clutch of circumstance we have not winced nor cried aloud under the bludgeonings of chance our heads are bloody but unbowed beyond this place of wrath and tears looms with the horror of
The shade and yet the menace of the years finds and shall find us unafraid it matters not how straight the gate how charged with punishments the scroll we are the masters of our faith we are the captains of our soul you know so that’s why god we are the captains of our soul
You know that poem and to this day gives me freaking shivers like it means so much in life you know just to never allow anything to break you down don’t let anything break you down you’re always gonna be the master of your fate the captain of your soul you
Know you have the power to make it through and you have the power to stand up with your head strong you know no matter how bloody you are you know so at the end of the day that poem really meant a lot to me and my ls’s and that’s
Why we got it tattooed on us so that’s just another example um last thing or number three would be that greek life is really really a relationship builder as i’m talking about me and my ls’s um i know everybody doesn’t have this experience with their ls’s and stuff
Like that ls means lying sister the people who came into the organization with you um but me and my ls’s we are really really close we are super duper close i live with one of my ls’s today um i have a nephew by one of my ls’s today um we do
Raise our children or that’s the plan is to raise our children as um nephews and nieces of each other um we are just really really close they my best friends i really don’t have any closer people to me because there’s nobody in this world who went through an
Experience with me as such as they you know and it really bonds you for life to these people you know if if y’all really love each other i guess but i do understand that not everybody i’m not saying that everybody loves their their line sisters or their lying brothers or
Whatever the case may be not everybody has a very very close relationship with that you know with them but for me i’m just really appreciative that greek life introduced me to my line sisters um one of them was already my best friends before we actually became lying sisters but the
Other two i’m so happy that greek life introduced me to them because i would have literally never ever met them if it wasn’t for greek life and i would tell you that they’ve been the blessings of my life one of them being the one who lets me stay here with her and her
Family took this day you know and we would do anything for each other and we just mean everything to each other so i’m just really really appreciative to have sisters like that you know um mainly my ls’s you know um and then the sisterhood becomes even
More when it comes to everybody that’s a member of your organization you’re supposed to see them all as sisters but i will say that for me i just have a closer relationship with my line sisters which is why i talk heavily about that last thing is that i love that greek
Life has so many african aspects whether it realizes it or not like strolling the history of strolling you know strolling is when you dance and align with your organization y’all stand in a straight line and y’all do the same exact moves or whatever the case may be
And the thing is you’re not supposed to allow anybody to break your line nobody is supposed to come between if y’all are strolling say you dancing yeah i’m dancing and then somebody tries to cut in between the line that’s going on you’re not supposed to allow that there
Is no breaking of the line and what i learned through my org is that that entire experience of strolling doing the same exact move in a line has to do with our history and slavery how we were chained we had chains that were shackled to our feet but also the feet of every
Other african behind us and in front of us thus there was no way that we could move without moving as one because being on or uh being a part of a line or being in greek life is all about moving as one so it’s like there’s no move
That you do that they don’t do because if it is then it just breaks up everything if you think about africans being enslaved and them having shackles on their feet and then somebody making the wrong step everybody’s gonna fall down so you have to just be protective
Of your line you have to make sure that you all don’t fall um i love that stepping is so african you know they took the drums away from us um in many different states uh within the u.s given who had uh colonized our land they had took the african drums away
From us historically during slavery thus we had to come up with a new way to make rhythms um that meant something to us and one of the ways that we did that this was way before greek life was through stepping we call it stepping today but i’m sure it was called
Something else back in the day but either way it still has very very african and historical significance to black people that i feel like many times we don’t realize or understand so this is when we get into our cons my first kind is that i believe that there is so much that we
Learn through the process of becoming greek through our greek life experience that we are unaware are actually african or are actually black things versus being greek things i think that many times greeks think that they came up with something they think that strolling is just something that they should be a
Part of or they think that stepping is just something that they should do personally i don’t believe that and the only reason i don’t because i once did but the only reason i don’t is because now i realize that those were actually african um traditions that we brought into greek
Life you know we brought those things into greek life and with that being said i believe that all africans should be able to be a part of and know the significance of that experience you know um instead of it being like this separation which is my second point as
To what my con is is that i feel like greek life creates it can create a separation between us and the rest of the black community you know because many greeks that i know at least on my yard we all stuck within our orgs or we stuck with other greeks versus actually
Being open to having friends that weren’t greeks or actually going to parties that weren’t greek parties or going to events that weren’t greek events it was just like your life becomes a greek life instead of it being something where you’re actually connecting to the people within the
Community and if we are supposed to be community leaders then why wouldn’t we be connecting to the people that are actually a part of the community instead of feeling like we are superior to them you know because in many ways there are many greeks that believe that somehow by having greek
Letters you become superior or you become more than what you were before and i will say this there is definitely a refinement that takes place through a greek experience if it’s done right but at the same time we ain’t no more than our people you know just because we have these greek
Letters on and i feel like we really really need to understand that um so third con would be that some greeks like some greek organizations that i know they refrain from doing social uh change events type like activate uh they don’t they don’t allow their members to be activists within their community with
Their letters on you know um that to me is kind of weird when you don’t want when you are a black organization and you don’t want to have your members or you don’t want to be classified or held with your members when they are at a protest for black people or when they’re
Doing whatever they’re doing within the community for social change not wanting to be a part of that or not wanting your greeks to be labeled as whatever your greek organization is that’s kind of weird so the refrainment from us actually participating in social change i feel like has really been
Something that differed from when our orgs were first created when our orgs were first created many of us were so so much of leaders and activists within our community we you know took place in pretty much every single movement that existed until you know at some point
My theory is that we became infiltrated by others um we don’t just allow ourselves within the organization anymore yes black greek life is historically black greek life but it’s not only black greek life anymore and by in like this infiltration that has been done whether it be by
Other skin complexions or other races or whether it be by other white organizations that ended up funding our orgs for whatever reason that we don’t know about because it’s a lot of conspiracy around this concept around you know our greek organization is being funded by white orgs or something like that
Which has kept them in a place where they have to be silent or they cannot promote certain uh black rights or whatever the case may be you can’t just be black anymore and i don’t like that you know we are historically black organizations we should be all black organizations but at
The end of the day we’re historically black and we should be able to have organizations that take the lead or to to show they face as to being actually for black people you know but right now when you don’t have people wearing a letters at social change events you believe that there’s nobody
There that is greek and you believe that greeks just really don’t care about the social issues which may or may not be true you know but the fact that it seems that way is a problem to me you know um moving forward last reason or the last con that i have
Is that we given that given that we are not allowed to or that our orgs majority of our orgs don’t make it a mission for us to have a black message or to reach out to black people they don’t put that in our heads they don’t say yo this is your community
This is who you’re targeting this is your purpose of being a black greek not doing that actually distracts us from the real social issues that exist within our community and actually pursuing those issues as our own you know um many times i see greeks having events that are so purposeless like i’m
Not going to say purposeless as if they’re not fun but you doing hella stroll offs or hella dance competitions or whatever the case may be does not solve the issues within our community community service just picking up trash within a white community that your school is located in
Does not do anything to serve our exact community which is the black community um i went to school that was a predominantly white school but many of the black people that went to my school they all are from the black city that’s near my school i don’t understand why more greeks don’t
Actually go to the city to do social organization or do community service versus just doing it right there to say that they did it you know like wanna we what one thing that me and my org did was we used to do like uh volunteering at splash parties for white
Kids and stuff like that and i’m not saying that that’s not community service because technically it is but for me i i wasn’t fulfilled doing that because i knew that that wasn’t the community that i was here to serve i’m here to serve my own people so i loved it more when we
Actually went out to the black cities and fed the homeless or when we actually did do something that just seemed meaningful you know what i mean instead of being distracted by other things so now i’m not here to just talk about problems i really really have solutions
Or things or or things that i believe that greek life can offer and does offer us when it comes to a greater future and like i say a lot of that has to do with the character points a lot of that has to do with the
Relationships a lot of that has to do with what i learned um through my experience so here are some of the things that i feel like we need to be doing moving forward for me i believe that the fact that there’s even any type of infiltration that has been done through
Through our orgs or to our orgs which it has been given that majority of our orgs or many of our orgs have been here for over 100 years have you thought about any other black organization that has been around for over a hundred years i can’t think of any i can’t think of
Any that are as strong as greek life that have been around for hundreds of years you understand what i’m saying many times whether it be black panther party whether it be uh you know the civil rights activist or snake or whatever the case may be when we organize somehow it gets dismantled you
Know somehow people get involved and dismantle it so you have to wonder why black greek life hasn’t been dismantled has it not been dismantled because it has shown not to be a threat to the greater society and that’s kind of like how i feel you know i feel like the fact
That nobody is trying to dismantle it it must mean because the infiltration has already happened and given that those are my thoughts and the thoughts of others maybe that are in greek life or maybe not i believe that we need new new things you know we need to start fresh
We don’t need to be constantly um giving in to the ideas of old history or old things when we can be creating something new given that we have new information and new ideas on how we should be moving forward you know we were in a completely different time the 1900s the early 1900s
When these greek uh organizations were established you know that was a completely different time than it is a hundred years later where we’re still in the same pretty much position so it’s really not about infiltrating the system anymore or taking european greek letters and now trying to come up with your own org
Since they won’t let you a part of their greek orgs because that’s really what we are based off of we are organizations who were not black folks weren’t allowed in white greek organizations thus they decided they’re going to create their own i have no problem with us creating
Our own things given that we’re not accepted in certain places but the fact that we took european greek letters why couldn’t we choose letters that actually represent our african heritage i believe that at that time it is because like i said we were trying to become a part of
A system that wasn’t meant for us but we didn’t necessarily know that then that was during the time of reconstruction meaning that people really thought that they were coming into this world they were coming to be a part of society as black folks but now a hundred years
Later we realize that they’re still not that acceptance there i’m sorry white greeks do not really respect black greeks white people don’t respect black people and thus we’re in the same position so why not now start fresh with something that actually relates back to your african heritage so that the black
People that are within the organization realize what they’re doing it for how they’re doing it and why it’s important and realize who their target community is and realize the history around that and we need to allow it to be just a black thing you know like we can’t allow
Other people to have their hands on our history because we need to start learning our lessons from the past that every time we have something we always like to give it to the others thus we don’t have anything for ourselves we need at least something for ourselves so my proposal
Or my belief is that certain things that we go through or certain things that are part of the process of black greek life as i said have really really developed my character a lot and i believe that that should be a rise of passage for black folks in general you know like i
Said within my organization we all have some type of common knowledge common understanding around certain things such as you know excuses doing and not trying uh what our purpose is you know in life uh never giving up you know that kind of thing so with that i believe that if
It stopped being a greek thing and it started being that a process was something that was more of a rite of passage when becoming a better man and becoming a better woman within this africanist society then it will make it so that is way more inclusive for other blacks and way less
Inclusive to other people because this is for us in our experiences our rights of passage it’s a it’s an african or historic historic uh rights of passage just made for us completely you know um and then the last thing around that is just taking the skills that we learn within
Greek life those who are already greek if they do understand my message or somehow feel what i’m saying or feel where i’m coming from us really really using the skills and the things that we learn within greek life to actually better the community to teach more
People within the community to let it be known that certain things should not just be on the hands of greeks anymore because it didn’t start off in the hands of greeks steppen did not start off in the hands of greeks we do not have as greek organizations any rights to step
Stepping step into something that we could be doing within the community building around other kids building around other youth in general on stepping you know people would love to do it especially if they knew the history around it we need to start actually just using the things that we
Learned within greek life to actually make a difference within our communities um i know this message was super duper long but i had a lot to say about you know this because you know greek life had a really really big impact on my life it definitely took me
To that next level and now that i am where i am it’s not that i put greek life behind me because it’s always going to be a part of me but i feel like parts of it is that greeks put me behind them you know because
My focus is not greek anymore my focus is black my focus is african and i think that it just sucks sometimes to know that i’m shunned or i feel shun from a community that once meant a lot to me and should consider themselves black leaders but when i actually try to
Do the work and i actually try to leave from the front you know i’m looked at as if i’m crazy and the only reason that that is is because we are not educated nor are we actually willing to be the leaders that it is that we’re supposed to be within
Our community as greeks as blacks as as as scholars as whatever you know so anyway i understand everybody’s not going to agree with my message and that’s completely fine we can have an open discussion on how everyone feels about greek life those who are part of
It mainly given that you know those who are not this is beneficial for you to watch i wanted to give you this information so you know which direction to go into if you were thinking about greek life maybe this would give you a clear idea of what
You’re coming into you know if you’re gonna go into greek life like i told my little cousin you know if you’re gonna go into greek life don’t let greek life change you you change your org you know if you see that there are things that aren’t going right or that could be
Better within your org you change it you know don’t allow them to change you to be mediocre you change it you set the scene you set the tone for what you want that work to be that’s really my biggest my biggest advice to anybody that wants to be greek
It can be whatever you want it to be okay i write y’all peace love black power all day every day ain’t no other way comment like subscribe do whatever you like hey but i’m finna get out of here anyway okay peace
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