In june of 2020 six women co-signed a letter to the k.u panhellenic association known as pha with demands to create change in the greek life community when they refused to say the words black lives matter the email was sent on june 5th and received no response
To some this may feel like a general oversight a decision not to disrupt a group of disgruntled feminists during the peak of the black lives matter protest this past summer and hoped that they would forget they even sent the email in the first place but to us this silence was validation of
A system content in its privilege and happily oblivious to its role as the oppressor my name is anissa brantley one of the co-writers of that original letter and co-founder of the strip your letters campaign on ku’s campus according to the new jersey institute of technology 85 percent of fortune 500
Executives 76 of all senators and congressmen and 85 percent of all supreme court justices and all but three presidents were involved with greek life even in this past administration vice president pence and donald trump jr were both brothers in phi gamma delta now before we ponder what mike pence was
Like at frat parties let’s first understand why these numbers are so important what if i told you that only two percent of the american population are members of greek letter organizations why is it that only two percent of the american population hold the majority of power in our society
Some of the earliest greek letter organizations like alphata omega sigma nu and the model for modern social fraternities the kappa alpha order was founded for white males only directly after the civil war these organizations even at their inception gave membership exclusively based on status and wealth and were
Intended to be secret societies and places for distinguished gentlemen to meet on college campuses to provide a social element to the college experience all three of these fraternities collectively referred to as the lexington triad were founded exclusively by confederates in fact the kappa alpha order names robert e lee as their spiritual founder
And even maintains friendly ties with another organization the ku klux klan who based their own rituals off the kappa alpha order initiation as women entered college campuses in the 1800s they were excluded from these organizations and forced to make their own this led to the founding of historically white women’s organizations
Like gamma phi beta alpha delta pi and phi mu these organizations too were founded on exclusivity in white wealth now coupled with ideas of femininity and purity all with bylaws excluding people of color and non-christians from their organization some chapters even listed being a full aryan blood as a requirement for
Membership all the way up until the 60s and 70s greek life became a haven for elite social circles on college campuses and justified their exclusivity as religious based and value-based organizations as people of color entered college campuses they were met with strict exclusion and segregation from residential housing recreational spaces and greek houses
The divine nine fraternities part of the mphc originated at historically black colleges and universities but made their way to predominantly white institutions and became safe havens for people of color these organizations were founded out of exclusion in fact pha sororities at the university of alabama did not formally desegregate until 2013.
When stripper letters began in july of 2020 the only mention of race in k-u-p-h-a bylaws was about not wearing racist symbols on clothing on ku’s campus sorority women are required to put heat to hair and get a spray tan during recruitment leaving women of color in an uncomfortable spot recruitment strategies like matching
Processes where people of color are almost exclusively matched with people of color and jewish women with jewish women an obvious show of tokenization other women of color plus size women and women who do not otherwise meet strict eurocentric beauty standards are not allowed to recruit and literally kept in
The basement after spending hundreds of dollars on matching outfits during recruitment potential new members are forced into overcrowded buses in august heat where they sit on the laps of women they do not know they are forced to stand in the rain run up ku’s hilly terrain and heels
And some even faint and puke from dehydration and exhaustion people with disabilities are carried downstairs instead of allowed through an ada accessible door women are not allowed to call their families and many cry succumbing to the pressures of the week it is hazing sickly disguised as recruitment paneling sororities thrive on visibility
And on their ability to market sisterhood love and lifelong friendship to the next freshman class of women recruitment after all is the biggest marketing event of the year panhellenic does little advertising on its own relying on its members to post testimonials and cute pictures to their social media for the next pledge class
Of women to see for an organization that historically relies on vanity appearances are everything panhellenic refused to say the words black lives matter until strip your letters put out our first post condemning their silence so much of what pha does is an attempt to signal solidarity and awareness rather than doing transformative
Diversity equity and inclusion work activism is used as a marketing strategy to distance modern pha from its exclusionary history every year women express frustration over various issues of discrimination to leadership in their chapter but every year each issue is brushed off as if it were an isolated event a
Mundane decision that left someone upset often chapters and individuals face no accountability not even a conversation which leaves countless others feeling marginalized and excluded from the group this is a result of panalynic’s frozen system that does not work to create a fair and just institution but rather one that maintains the status quo
Ku panhellenic is not the decider of all decisions it is just one link in the chain within greek life there are numerous compounding hierarchies within a chapter there is a council who must answer to an advisory board and a housing corporation they must answer to their national
Council who must answer to the national panhellenic conference and you can’t forget the university’s panhellenic association who answers to parts of the university and to the national panhellenic conference but at each level each organization has sovereignty and cannot be told what to do by other parts without a unanimous decision
Confused that’s the point this web of hierarchies makes it nearly impossible to create change and allows for all parties to escape nearly all accountability for wrongdoings when everyone is on a different page there is little to no transparency and the parties lower on the hierarchy are unsure of what power they actually hold
In their office only when everyone agrees does the hierarchy produce tangible momentum in a system that is nearly homogeneous with tiny groups minorities those voices quickly get lost in the system and are forced out minorities are offered a seat at the table a table that is fundamentally broken
However when you are dealing with the group that relies on their appearances and marketing strategy and the way that white supremacy does there is room to create change externally when you utilize the court of public opinion the collective voice marketing is how brands connect products to the consumers however if the product
Is exposed as undesirable consumers will reject the product when a brand fails to make change internally leveraging weaknesses in the brand’s marketing strategy can put pressure on the institution to create change as it leaves them at risk of being left behind this was precisely the plan for strip your letters
Even at its inception we asked women to disaffiliate until k-u-p-h-a met the demands we asked members to take away their advertising power by doing so and providing overdue transparency of problems in the panhellenic chapters through educational posts and testimonies we have been able to successfully create pressure and begin a transformation in
Both the panhellenic system and its culture what has worked so well with stripper letters is the commitment to remaining leaderless and denouncing hierarchies in our own organization in favor of empowering of individuals to create change as they see fit and through the decision to collectively amplify marginalized voices within the group
The use of the phrase leaderless organization is important and correct it is the term that is used that characterizes the structure of impactful movements like black lives matter and occupy wall street and it’s in direct opposition to hierarchical structures that are entrenched in logics of white supremacy and other violences
Blm terms themselves as leaderful and values the idea of no one speaking for anyone else occupy wall street sits on the ideal of conscious raising which is exactly what stricter letters does we provide a safe environment to share and talk freely about personal relegated stories and then bring awareness to these underserved groups
Our decision to amplify marginalized voices is key here we ensure that people of color disabled folks jewish women survivors of sexual violence and lgbtq plus individuals feel heard and respected one of the ways we do that is by working as advocates and understanding what that role is we get dozens of submissions about
Discrimination in greek life and we want to empower those individuals to share their story the way they best see fit sometimes that means we don’t share the story at all sometimes people are fine with us sharing names and certain details to our page and other times it is somewhere in between
The agency is up to the survivors who are normally avoided by other institutions regularly we get white women who come into our comment sections or our dms telling us that we are liars that what we posted about did not really happen or that we have no proof about the certain
Events that went down however this is a view of greek life through an incredibly privileged lens to accuse someone of lying further marginalizes individuals and continues to harm them we are not investigating these people’s trauma or the truth of their experience in greek life if they go anywhere else with their
Reality their legitimacy is constantly questioned we are there to amplify and uplift that individual story in the way that feels best for them because it is their lived truth because the stripter letters team believe survivors of hazing and sexual violence we believe trans women we believe black women and we believe
All other minority women that have been wronged in some way now it is one thing to say that all people will be heard and respected but it is another to do the work to ensure that they are we must foster and nurture that environment it does not just start out
That way no one has an official title and there is no specific member that gives the green light on a project rather it is a collective effort there are some noticeable challenges that come with this way of conducting an organization some of those include trusting one another to pick up the
Slack or to stay on top of projects giving access to group workspaces and making sure that small mundane decisions are given the deliberation of the whole group this forces our intentions to not only stay true to our vision but also takes precious time that sometimes we cannot afford
The process of dei work encompasses everyone’s ideas and insights in such a way that we constantly grow and evolve to be better people and stand for what is right the two are intertwined and coming to terms with changing yourself to continue to urge others to change is not for the faint of heart
Often many question our motives and see us as a threat to greek life itself we do not want to abolish greek life altogether we intend to advocate for reform at the current deliberate injustice and silence voices of color almost all women involved with strip your letters are active former or alumni
Of greek life we hold first-hand experiences of how amazing these organizations can be for building friendships academic success and career guidance we believe that everyone should have access to these opportunities the strong societal power that is held in greek life could be utilized to help marginalized communities cope with structural violence
Now there are some qualities that should never be tolerated and need to be abolished recruitment norms that are hazing or any form of hazing discriminatory bylaws and legacy preferences the belief of strip your letters is that this can be done without scrapping the entirety of the organizations
The collective voice could shed a new light on greek life through this new lens it would give a voice to all people of color involved it fosters and solidifies the very idea of what all historically white greek councils think they are already doing focusing on inclusivity and believing
People of color experiences and using that for change instead of staying shrouded in their white fragility the panhellenic organization is designed to protect white wealth they have networks of hundreds of thousands of professionals all willing to give opportunities to sister graduates this coupled with its historically racist past creates a super highway for
White supremacy from the undergraduate level to the most powerful offices in america if panhellenic organizations improve and become a more accepting body disregarded communities might have a fighting chance to be regarded as equals the most valued companies and organizations rely on hierarchies and weaponize that logic to rule every aspect of our world
There is so much talk about change but the willingness to do so is obsolete the work is only hard because our society is not up for the challenge of introducing something new the possibility of all voices being heard fresh ideas a collaborative exciting environment and the promise of
Continual growth is what a collective voice offers we witness the effectiveness of blm and occupy and it is the new way to begin a true revolution the collective voice gains followers brings awareness and snatches the attention of all who evade reform exclusion is quite literally the antithesis of collective thought and it
Has created a white vacuum of ideas which over time bred a culture where any attack on greek life is bullying and not an attempt to call out white supremacy in action strip your letters and many other newer movements demystify the idea that organizations cannot govern without a head opposing traditional hierarchical
Structures creates and encourages change and can be the key that greek life and every other space in our world as needed all along
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