Once they pick on one group that one group fought back they go well let’s go to the group that rarely fights back yeah it’s just one of those it’s just one of those situations and isn’t fighting the group that doesn’t fight back but it’s just you would think that at
This time because it’s happened i totally agree with lynx and it’s one of those things that it’s happened thousands of times at this point where you keep trying to ignore the small group of the group of people getting picked on and then every single time it bites you
In the ass exactly when it comes to eight when it comes to hiv when it comes to crack when it comes to so many things when hiv came out it was just the gays and nobody cared and then it spread you know when it came to crack it was like
Poor black people and did nobody care and then it spread and like oh my god you know and the same thing with the gang situation you know ice t talked about that how you know one white girl got raped uh got by a gang and like all of a sudden
200 different gangs popped up in the la county you think they just popped up overnight when that white if you would deal with this [ __ ] when it happened and quit thinking like it’s just their problem it would solve a lot of problems you know it’s kind of like an ounce of
Prevention as a pound of cure type of deal which is that’s just like oh well you know well we don’t care and i’m like you should care if all the dilemma is going to swing around the pendulum is going to swing around you we do it all the time exactly
I’m like anywhere that community is in denial about being gay on top of of of being in all about racism but that’s the thing even in spite of that like even if they’re like hey i don’t like gay people and that’s fine but what what they’re doing to them is gonna
Come around to us if we don’t stop them now each other and instead of just sitting by watching what first of all what is the black community my thesis has always been there is no more black community what used to be the black community is so fragmented and
So you know just absolutely just beat down i don’t even see any coherent black community we can’t even control what gets marketed to our to what we call our community we get you know whatever people feel like they want to sell to us it gets done whatever they want to
Broadcast about us but our culture it gets done we don’t have a coherent community anymore we’re just people that are all trying to survive independently and we have no solidarity whatsoever our culture has completely broken down since the since the 60s civil rights movement i don’t see it basically we
Can’t protect ourselves let alone another group yeah i mean you know but i think that’s i think that’s the community i don’t know i think there’s a black community but i think that’s that unfortunately i think that’s just the um the culture of the community as it stands right now is um it
I do believe that there are aspects of it being disjointed i do think there’s a lot of miscommunication i think it’s there i just think that it’s it’s in disrepair we could we could use some help no we could use real leaders but every time you get them they die
Yeah but i would not say we don’t have a black community we have a black community i just think it’s in repair we need some we need some help we need new think tanks we need completely new think tanks to challenge the old think tanks
From the 60s and 70s or from the turn of the century i mean you know going back for two fraternities look at the fraternities look at alpha phi alpha fraternity that’s my fraternity i felt that when i pledged uh at the time that i pledged and i and i pledged
Admittedly because the men were really fine and alpha my dad’s in alpha and i didn’t realize that was a legacy at the time but i pledged alpha because the men were fine as hell and they were all so intelligent i know that’s a horrible reason to pledge and
They threw the best parties it was really bad at all i’m pretty sure you are not alone in that i’m pretty sure you’re not alone yeah i know i remember like in that thread about the the guy who was um denied the fraternity it’s like they just didn’t want the dude crashing their
Parties you know let them know the gig is up that we’re all closeted because we just like true it’s it’s it’s it’s very true yeah i never saw the need to pledge i was one of those guys where like i was i always thought that it was kind of you
Know hey i do my own thing i do what i want to do when i want to do it i don’t care about what other people think which is pretty much why i say whatever the hell i want to say you know i kind of have i’ve always had that
Thing where i don’t care what you say what you think about when i say or whatever else and it kind of felt like what it felt like was that people who were in these fraternities really had to become part of a of a you know a collective conscious you know
That’s kind of what it felt like to watch like as an outsider looking in it was like what do you not think for yourself anymore like what happened you know oh well my plan yeah i’m pledging i can’t do this oh well so-and-so said i can’t do that or someone’s so sad i
Can’t talk to i’m like what yeah i i just saw it as another form of control that i couldn’t i was not willing to give up i was definitely on that totally on the bandwagon like now in retrospect as i’m older i definitely look at it a little
Differently but at the time i was definitely like it’s a it’s it’s a it’s a cult i thought it was like sort of like a like a weird high school lunch table cult of people just trying to fit in with the mean girls at the time
Um as i’m older i think i would actually encourage people who are in college to probably take a look at it because some other fraternities are very good um and you know they’re very very worthwhile they’re community-based they do help uh the community um they have a long legacy with an
African-american community at the time i was just so young and full of piss and vinegar that i wasn’t trying to hear all that um i i definitely see the value of a fraternity um but i was so at the time i was so glued on the sort of
The cultish of like you know imq imq i must absorb you know without what these blinders on and them not doing anything but you know just being a member of the fraternity but i think i don’t know i just kind of felt like you know when people say things like oh
There’s perks to being in the fraternity i’m like wait you mean to tell me that it’s not just common decency to treat other people nicely like they’re like oh well yeah you know let me get a job and everything else i’m like dude you should be right damn job whether you
No but do you get it but no it’s the idea of it’s the idea of fraternity of being around a group of people of light like this like male medium line this is a group of people who have a common interest and we
Like each other so if i had a gig if i had if i had a company and i had a job opening i’m probably going to tell you guys before i posted on craigslist or some [ __ ] like that because i know you and i you know and i like you guys it’s
The same thing that goes on in fraternity it’s the idea of being together with a group of like-minded people and friends yeah but that’s what i’m talking about but that’s but that’s what it is but that’s a problem let me intercede for one minute the the problem the the issues that i
See coming up it’s a very it’s a very clear uh it’s a very clear dysfunction in the black american community today um in order to historically you know that the black american fraternities were created because i know alpha phi alpha was created because you had you had seven men that were attending
Cornell university at the turn of the century and uh which was in itself a unique phenomena and these men were in an environment where these professors were trying to fail them they did not want them to succeed in that environment and in order the fraternity started as a social
Studies group they basically had to pull their resources together and study together in order to make sure that they could pass these courses and that’s how the organization started and it spread because if the formula worked because there were many black americans that were facing that same situation at
Different universities black and white where they had to pool their resources and we’re talking about at the turn of the century a very finite resource of black men even today when you look at the numbers of black american men that are even making it to college in the first place if
Those men can somehow align themselves underneath a common banner that is a hallmark of of extraordinary value i mean in spite of the fact that i feel that many of the fraternities have lost their direction in the 20th in the 21st century they know they no longer um have are really
Effective at implementing the things that they did before these fraternities were the civil rights movement when you look at the founders of these black greek letter organizations these are the people who created uh the civil rights movement as we know it today it would not have happened uh
Effectively without them i mean history shows that so we have what’s been lost is the tradition of knowledge now that i think that the black american community is not respect the uh the tradition of the black greek letter fraternities let me tell you why but you know why right i mean it’s
Because what you just said is not being promoted like what you just said is not being part of the promotional folder to college kids in order for them to get them to pledge what they what they are being taught is join us or join the borg you must assimilate or die
Join us because we know how to step join us because we can pull the finest [ __ ] they’re not they’re not being told what you just said and i think that’s why my attitude towards fraternities have change because i get older i’m learning that and i think if i would
Have been taught that when i was uh in my college years i could have been convinced because at the time i was totally with links of like i’m not trying to be a part of this [ __ ] like i’m not trying to fit in and i’m not trying to
Join a clique i would you know and plus it’s just a typical thing of being in the 20s of like i want to be a rebel i want to be different but if there was this opportunity for you to actually make some change and be a part of
You know the civil rights movement and the new millennium i probably would have been convinced but it’s not something that’s really been yeah it’s not it’s not it’s not the way that they’re really promoting themselves well our culture has changed our culture has shifted towards this this you know
Hip-hop this this really you know just you know you know you know what our culture is it’s all about you know getting you know getting [ __ ] and profiling and all this other kind of stuff so they use that as a sales tactic in order to attract people because you
Know quite honestly the uh the marketing techniques that were used to attract uh young uh black men to fraternities when i pledged are just not gonna work anymore because you know it’s a nerd factory i mean you gotta have a certain gpa you know you
Gotta have a certain decor um i do wanna mention uh to mr savage that when i was at hampton university it was an interesting phenomenon hampton was really a culture shock for me coming from washington d.c now i had already pledged alpha alpha when i had got to
Hampton and i deliberately did not wear any paraphernalia i didn’t let anybody know what my uh that i had pledged or anything i was just another joe on the campus and i wanted i just laid back and watched and saw what happened i mean that was one of the most interesting
Phenomena you could not attain any office or anything on that campus unless you were greek you couldn’t i mean it was nothing you could do you couldn’t get any respect so there was a young lady whose name i won’t mention uh here i mean it’s not that she’s infamous or
Anything but she actually became the uh the homecoming queen that year and she was not greek which was like amazing we all supported her i never wore my paraphernalia on campus uh because i really didn’t i didn’t like the atmosphere that was there i felt that it was oppressive
And uh that it did not encourage uh the ideals that uh that had caused me to join a fraternity and she actually won i mean it was like this amazing you know turn of events that this woman could become homecoming queen and and not be a greek and not be either an aka
Or a delta i mean that was completely unheard of in the entire history of hampton university and you will be hard-pressed to find any homecoming queen or any hbcu that is not greek that i mean i i can i can almost bet money on that right i guess so i mean there are
Exceptions to the rule well while there are exceptions to the rule i think a lot of that does also represent a generation gap a generational gap because i mean back when i was in college that’s not what they were showing that’s not what they were giving the damn about that’s not what
They that’s just not what they were about they didn’t it wasn’t like oh yeah we get together and you know help each other and help the community and do this and do that and actually work towards making a better worker or a better boss or a better one
None of that it was always about yo who had who’s got who’s got the best parties yo who’s got the flyers [ __ ] you know who’s got who’s got the most stuff because i mean the thing about especially with the black fraternities because what did they create with us
They’ve created a consumer i mean that’s essentially what you described we consume we don’t create you know we’re we’re not providers we’re consumers and that’s exactly what the you know what i saw with these things it was all about material [ __ ] like nothing that was you know
There was the intangibles like oh you know you you get more you get more respect from the girls if you are a beta or an alpha or whatever you know it’s like you get more respect from girls or people don’t mess with you or whatever and that’s what they were
Promoting they were they weren’t they were promoting a gang you know look at all the batman look at all the look at the cars yo we got these high-ass [ __ ] over here and we throw these bomb parties they weren’t they weren’t giving me anything substantial there was and without substance for me
Back when i was 20 or now in my 30s so no substance isn’t very helpful and does more to turn me off than to turn me on and it’s kind of like you know to hear about how fraternities were and what they where they came from only
Makes it even more sad to see what they’ve become and of course it’s not all of them but and and once again i’m not in i’ve never been in a fraternity i’m only talking about outside looking in and how they advertised as an outsider and that it wasn’t it didn’t do anything
For me you know it’s like as an outsider looking just my um i think my opinion has changed over the years because i totally felt the same way but now now i see the value of it now i kind of sort of there is a little bit of
Like you know probably would have been cool if i would have pledged because at the time i was like [ __ ] no but now but now i’m like you know maybe it would have been okay it would have been fun like i’m back in school now and they have you know they have a
Fraternity and whatever and i was like i’d rather just make friends with people that i want to from the fraternity you know like i’d rather just make friends with them people and not have to be bound by this fraternity because i mean if i can make friends with them by
Helping them out like for instance right now you know i’m doing the whole game programming thing and what’s going to happen when a member of that fraternity can’t find a guy who’s a you know he’s an artist he can’t find the programmer but oh he knows that he’s
Friends with this guy outside of the fraternity who’s a programmer and then you know i’ve made my i made my impact i’ve made my impression he moves on to some other company gets some great job and he’s like hey i know the perfect programmer for this like why do i have
To be the fraternity to do that you don’t have to i’m just saying that it helps like nobody’s seeing it it’s a matter of time i guess i’m not saying that i have to but i mean in order to reap the same rewards but i don’t think you could i mean that’s the
Thing i don’t think you can reap the singing rewards why not because that part you’re friends with the people in that particular branch of the fraternity it is a uh nationwide thing right so i mean there is it’s in this international thing yeah because you’re international right so the scope is
Larger based on the fact that you are part of their fraternity and they’ve never met you before and he’s in he’s he’s in the la chapter and you’re in the new york chapter but you just get a job simply because you’re both part of the same fraternity yeah that’s that’s stupid um
I don’t know i don’t think it is i don’t think it is and i don’t think it’s an idea can correct me david could correct me but i don’t think it’s not that automatic it’s not like okay you’re in the fraternity job is yours but it’s the
Idea of it is an extra [ __ ] on your resume there’s something about you that i know more than i know joe blow off the street you’re part of something that i went through we are fraternity brothers so your name is going to go higher up on
The list and that for me i think that’s fair that’s fine i don’t know i think that’s so weird i don’t know i think i think it’s fake i think it’s mine the same way i could put it down to make it very microscopic
The people here in this group if i had a company i would probably offer it to the fraternity of male medial mind before i would offer it to joe blow on the street your this slide this line on your resume would carry a little bit of weight it
Wouldn’t be the determining factor and it wouldn’t be you automatically got it but i would totally slide it to you guys before i would bring it off because i know you i know what you’ve been through i know all the [ __ ] arguments we’ve been through so i kind of know what
We’ve been through with that same thing let me cut in to say that my purpose is not to cause you to suddenly uh accept the black greek letter organizations the black greek letter organizations are by their very nature elitist organizations in that the number of black american males in
The united states of america that are actually going to college and graduating is a very finite number a number that is dwindling as a matter of fact every year so yes it is it’s a very elite group of black men which is all the more reason about that why that their ranks
Need to be memorialized within these institutions whether they are greek letter organizations or some other organization you know a think tank such as the naacp national urban league it’s just a matter of choice the chess club like reality there’s no difference there is a there is a difference that these
There’s a difference between your chess club and the national urban league i mean we’re talking about a very elite group of intellectual and and socially progressive people that have a simple minded objective they literally are a think tank your chess club is not a think tank
But they could operate as one but i mean it’s a chess club you know well there’s and the networking what brees is saying is they don’t have the organization and the networking capability which has always been the dilemma of black americans in the in in america well you see the the networking process
That’s not a fair assessment well we were people who were locked out of the we have we’re people who’ve been locked out of the socioeconomic system of this country so it is essential that we form these networking uh agencies these stink tanks that that have the ability to connect us and propel us
Socially and economically right i guess i guess it’s not a fair assessment in two things one the context of what i’m talking about because the context of what i’m talking about is that you know being a part of a fraternity is from what i’m hearing
Is being a part of a group now it’s a group that’s a national group with different chapters all over the place and i think the other reason the other thing that’s not a fair assessment is that to make the assumption that let’s let’s take a chess club for instance there are
National chapters there are like national organizations of people who play chess same thing with people who do robot stuff like robotics and programming there are groups that are national that do these things so what i’m saying is oh i get it it’s no different than
Being part of a chess club or being part of a group like you know they’re meetup groups that are statewide and if you plan on not moving anywhere else but being in that state well hey you’re in the meetup group and you’d see these people all the time they know you you
Know them you guys have worked on programming skits together and now when you’re looking for a job they might say to that group hey i got a job that’s open yeah so what was your point so what if that’s the case why are you more reticent to
Join a chess group than a black fraternity and why no what i’m saying is i get it is that i understand now whether i would join a fraternity versus another type of group is irrelevant because i mean in order to join the fraternity that was a black fraternity
Or a white fraternity or just a fraternity they would have to do something that i like and what i’m saying is that all these other clubs are really no different it’s just based on what you like so i would join the black chess club before i would join the black fraternity
It’s because you have a common conscience because you have a common interest with the chess right because there’s a common interest there this is what i’m saying i get it so it’s just context under which i wasn’t getting it and the context was i’m not going to join the fraternity
That advertises itself as a party fraternity knowing that i’m not a party guy but exactly yeah right but if the chess club which is like which same thing it could be national and have these and if people know you they’re going to put the jobs out there first
They’re going to tell the people in that group things first well i was soon to join the club that i had something in common with like what about the people who do comic cons you know the you the same group of people who see each other all across the nation
Seeing each other in their cosplay costumes and everything else getting to know each other then before you know it jobs are just you know people it’s it’s it’s networking so i get it is what i’m saying like i don’t necessarily like that particular group’s offering but i get it you know yeah
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