KC and Jamil discuss the Divine Nine, particularly highlighting the legacy of historically Black sororities and their importance on predominantly white campuses. They are joined by Dr. Audrey Kerr, professor of African American literature, and Tishana Williams, president of the Sigma Gamma chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho, Inc.  

Transcript
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Hello. Welcome back, everyone. KC, I have been waiting for this day since

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you and I have started on this podcast. Yup, early days,

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you... This was one of the first podcast episodes

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on the Divine Nine on Black Greek letter organizations. You said,

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"We have got to do an episode about this," and it has been

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on our long list, but recently, we bumped it right up to the

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front. So there was something that happened on our campus, and we said,

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"You know what, we need to have this conversation

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right now." Yes. I'm sure, as many of our listeners know, and even

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if they do not, SCSU has received a lot of social media

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pressure about an incident that occurred on our campus. There was a video

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that was widely shared and spread of other organizations that are predominantly

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white mocking our D9 on campus. And so I won't go into too

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much detail about the incident itself, as it has been widely covered in

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other areas of our campus and there has been statements put out by

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our university. However, I do think, instead, this is a beautiful moment

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for us to uplift black women, to uplift our Divine Nine organizations on

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our campus and throughout universities across our nation, and also for us

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to discuss the legacy and the importance and the history and the culture

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of these organizations. Absolutely, and it's Black History Month.

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It is Black History Month. And it's very clear.

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Myself included, I feel very... I've been kinda clueless about

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Greek organizations in general, and certainly these, and I've learned a

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lot, just preparing for this episode today, and it's humbling. And I think

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there's a whole lot that people don't know.

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And we're not gonna answer every question in this episode,

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but we are gonna go into the history, legacy, significance, richness of

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these organizations today in a way that I think will honor their members

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and the impact that they've had. Yeah, especially as a predominantly white

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institution, this is the perfect time for us to reflect about how do

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we provide Divine Nine organizations with the dignity they deserve? How

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do we ensure that the spaces in which Divine Nine organizations exist are

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safe? How are we ensuring that they're safe? How are we protecting black

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students? How are we making sure that black students are feeling that sense

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of belonging on their campus? And we could talk about, historically,

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what does that look like, but I think, especially for us here at

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SCSU, this is a good moment for us to think critically about our

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involvement as we evolve as a social justice institution, what does Divine

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Nine look like as a part of that process? And so I'm glad

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this conversation's happening. And, KC, we have two fantastic guests to

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help us talk about this topic. Because I am not

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a Greek... I'm not part of a Greek organization, I'm not part of

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any Divine organization, so we had to bring in some other people to

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help us have this conversation. Yeah, so we have two guests from Southern

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Connecticut State University with us today, and we also have some folks

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who do... Who are gonna join us via audio clip.

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Our first guest is a professor, Dr. Audrey Kerr. She's a professor of

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African American literature, author of a couple books. She's done a lot

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of historical ethnographic work around Greek letter organizations. And we

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have Tishana Williams who's a senior student. She's an RA, she's a campus

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leader, she's a social work major, and the president of Sigma Gamma Rho

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here at Southern Connecticut State University. So to both of you, welcome

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so... We thank you so much for being here on Real Talk. 0:04:03.4Dr. Audery

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Thanks for having me. Thank you. Yes.

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This is a special moment for me. Tishana and I have been great

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friends for quite some times, ever since she started as an RA in

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my building. And Audrey was my first and only black professor at Southern,

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so I will give her that credit because that's true. Wow,

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I'm surprised to hear that. Yes. And I picked her class specifically before

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I left because I wanted to ensure I had a black faculty member.

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Oh, the pressure. Yes. Oh, no, no! Listen, it was a great class

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and it was a great time, it was a great time.

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I'm glad to hear that. But. Yeah. Four years of education,

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and you had to really try to have one class with a black

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professor. Yes, and it was not in my

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requirements. I believe it was elective, so... Wow. We tried hard and we

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got it. Well. We tried hard and we got it. Black women are

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still hovering somewhere around 4% of PhD's, so

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the odds were not good starting out for you

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to find one of us, but we're... We're a needle in a hay

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stack, but we're here. So, Audrey, I'm wondering if you could talk a

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little bit about where these organizations started, what was the impetus,

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what was happening in the world that led to the founding of some

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of these earliest organizations? Yeah, sure. So before the Divine Nine,

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there was actually... There's one black Greek lettered organization that

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predates those, and it was founded in 1904,

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and it's actually Sigma Pi Phi, also known as Boule. And this was

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a very, and still is, perhaps the most elite, prestigious, closed membership

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organization of black men in the country. It was founded in 1904,

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which is two years before the first member of the... What became the

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Pan Hellenic Council, which is Alpha Phi Alpha, evolved. I know Tishana

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knows this history as well. Founded in 1906. And Boule was peopled by

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the most distinguished black men in America of the time. So Dr.

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Du Bois and Martin Luther King, Vernon Jordan now, Charlie Rangel.

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If you are a renowned black senator, very well respected black doctor,

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judge, philosopher, these are the men who still gather in this organization.

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It is not an organization you can seek out; they seek you out,

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kinda like Skull and Bones. Okay. And... But they are a separate entity.

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And then the AKAs kind of had a... One might call it a

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fissure where there were some members who were...

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Who wanted to have more than a social grouping, and it was a

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primarily social organization at that time. Keep in mind how... Where it

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would have been in 1908 for Black women to actually be getting

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a college education, and they're at Howard University, and these are quite

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distinguished women. But then a group of women were looking for a different

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type of experience, and a few members and then some other women joined

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a second Black sorority that they called Delta Sigma Theta, and they were

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the first incorporated sorority, that was in 1913.

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So then moving forward with just the women, that was followed by Zeta in

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1920, and then Sigma Gamma Rho in 1922.

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And Tishana, do you wanna say a little bit about your organization?

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We wanna hear about your Sorority. Of course I would love to. So

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Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated was founded November 12th, 1922 at

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Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. We are the only Divine Nine

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sorority that was founded at APWI. A little bit more about our organization.

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We were founded by seven young Black educators,

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and originally our organization's first few members that we were bringing

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in were all also educators. Another big part of our history is the

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fact that it was founded in Indianapolis, Indiana. And during the time,

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Black women specifically were facing a lot of sexism and a lot of

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racism, so something that a lot of the members of our organization take

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a lot of pride in is the fact that these incredible young Black

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women were able to create an organization to benefit the community during

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the time where they were facing a lot of challenges. Yeah. And I

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think... And to Misha, and I think... I'm sorry to Tishana, I think

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this is related, that each of the four women's organizations were actually...

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They envisioned themselves as building a different type of tradition or

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adding to the tradition, right? So we think of Black community when we

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use the term Black community as monolithic, but this is really about Black

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women having different interest, having different desires, it's about the

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AKAs really looking for a kind of social network of women,

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and then the Deltas saying, "No, we really wanna have a community service

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agenda, we wanna be incorporated. We don't wanna just be the girl group

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of Alpha Phi Alpha, we wanna have our own identity as a professional

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women. And then the Zetas pushing back in some ways and saying,

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"We are concerned about what some viewed as elitism

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in the Black sorority culture, and we wanna create an organization for

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educated women that sort of leans more towards...

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More heavily in public service." And then Sigma Gamma Rho that also builds

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on that tradition by being a core and a center for women who

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are in a very particular way invested in education.

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So they all had unique orientations, although the traditions and the rituals

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are very, very similar. I have noticed that when

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people tend to talk about why they joined organizations, they're typically

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values based decisions. Like, "Certainly like I wanted a community where

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I connected to people, but I... These are my values, and that's why

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I wanted to join this particular organization." And I just think that

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that is distinct from Greek organizations broadly. I don't know that

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in other organizations, that people are joining specifically because of

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values. And a lifetime commitment, when you join a Black sorority,

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it is not a... An... A college exercise, you... It... You hold your

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membership for the whole of your life, and there is even a very

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intentional ceremony that happens at the time of death

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that is part of transitioning members into what is known generally as the

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Omega Chapter, or the chapter of the hereafter. So it is a forever tradition

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in all of the rituals, all of the rituals are

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deliberate, intentional and sacred. Yeah, I think that seems to me to be

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one of the pieces that I think generally speaking... Like the incident on

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our campus, I think, is an example of this, is really not understanding

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that sacredness, or not respecting it, I guess. But just in name, Divine

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Nine, I'm sure that's an intentional signification of

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the sacredness of these organizations. This is not a... Just a social

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club or a college age thing, but it really is a sacred group,

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it's a sacred act to join. And I think... It's a honor to

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join too. Yeah. I don't think a lot of people that are

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outside of the Black community or outside of Greek Life intentionally think

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about. It's a honor to be a part of a Divine Nine organization,

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people carry that honor really highly. It's hard to join this org,

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so people really value that once they're in it.

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These are international organizations, there are global networks of people

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all around the world that are a part of this org. There are

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so many famous members of this organiz... Of these organizations, this is

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a large, widespread thing. And it has stood the test of time.

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So many organizations. Especially new ones, haven't had a chance to stand

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over 100 years. These organizations are historic to our foundation of Black

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scholarship. When I think about a Divine Nine organization

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across the board, there may be differences between values and founders and

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mission statements and even people that join these orgs, but one thing that's

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consistent is academic achievement, priding theirselves on academic excellence,

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priding themselves on community service, priding theirselves on uplifting

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Black communities. 'Cause one thing about Divine Nine organization is they're

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gonna give back to the community, they're gonna be there fighting for...

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Fighting back against voting suppression, they're gonna be there during

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critical moments of our history and are still are. And so I don't

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think many other organizations are thinking about the legacy of these orgs

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but also the constant work that current members are putting in to keep

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those orgs alive and thriving. Yeah. Some people would argue, and I think

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there's some legs to this argument, that Kamala Harris was able to

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achieve what she achieved, because she's a member of a Black sorority.

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That that not... That didn't just mobilize her sorority, but it mobilized

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a base of support among Black women in different sororities.

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And it was a moment of acknowledgement. Let's keep in mind these organizations

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are emerging during the reconstruction, it's the rebuilding of America,

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it's this moment where Black folks are really trying to define

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who are we in America going forward, what's the relationship between the

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North and the South. And at the place where the north and the

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south meet, at this... In Washington DC, you have these roots taking place

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on the... In the mecca of Black learning,

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where Black folks are doing different sorts of

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meaningful organizing. Everyone from Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson,

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Michael Jordan, you just... The list goes on and on and on.

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Many, many acclaimed celebrated Black folks have roots in these Greek lettered

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organizations and remain active. One thing I think about is

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the importance of having D9 still. Some people may not understand why do

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we need D9s on a predominantly White campus? Why are they still something

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that's important, that needs to be active, that needs to be protected?

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Maybe we could talk a little bit more about

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how it's still relevant. So speaking for myself specifically,

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as a Black woman who attends a PWI cannot express how important representation

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is. Like for example, I've never had a Black

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woman professor, I've never experienced that before. So representation is

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something that is very, very important. And that was something that drew

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me to a Divine Nine organization. Especially at a PWI, I can't express

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to you how many times I've been the only Black girl in the

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class or one of very, very few. And that's something that is a

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very, very, very common experience amongst me, my staff members, my siblings,

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this is something that we all experience, 'cause we all attended Southern

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as well. And that was something that did have an effect on me

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in the beginning, because when you're a young Black girl, and you're on

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a college campus, and you're not seeing anybody who looks like you,

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it's hard for you to confide in people, 'cause they're not understanding

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the shared experience. So that was something that really drew me to my

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chapter and something that I think is really important to remember about

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Divine Nine organizations, especially on PWIs, is that we don't have the

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same level of representation, and also a lot of the national programs and

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initiatives that our organizations do are geared towards communities of

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color and Black communities. So they speak to us in a very,

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very, very personal way that other organizations don't. So yeah, the representation

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is something that was very, very important for me.

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And there's this other piece of it, Tishana, that I would add to

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what you just said, which is that it is about

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tradition, and it's also about ritual, it's about the importance of rights

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of passage at a certain age. That you have the ability to go through

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a process that allows you to bond with other women, you bond through

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your physical closeness, through the way you walk up with each other,

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through your learning steps together, through the call and response, the

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tradition that comes from the Black church, through stepping, through strolling,

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which you look at Black sororities doing their stroll, it's like you could

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be watching Diana Ross and The Supremes. The traditions borrow so much from

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each other and instill in us this very strong sense that we are

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not rootless as a people, that we have traditions, we have ways of

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doing things, we have ways of bonding and connecting, and those bonds cannot

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be broken or challenged in the face of racism or in the face

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of any obstacles that we have. It's a link.

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And in fact the other Black women's organizations that are non sororities

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have similar philosophies, like The Links, which is another Black women's

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organization. The Girlfriends, the Chums, Jack and Jill, there are all kinds

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of Black organizations, all of which are asking the same question,

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"How is it in the face of racism,

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in the face of a nation that it feels as though it disinherits us,

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every generation in a different way, how do we maintain a sense of

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strength and community?" And the Divine Nine is an important part of that,

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especially the ritual. And something I think of,

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even if you're not a Greek member, people that are in Divine Nine organizations

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make space for other Black folks, regardless of their membership.

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They're putting on programs on this campus, and they're pulling in other

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Black students to provide that sense of belonging. These organizations are

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filling gaps in which our university's not filling for us. They're having

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programs for us. We're talking about our hair, our roots, our ancestors.

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We talk about our experiences being the only Black person in class.

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It's taking that gap away. So our experience at predominantly White institution

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doesn't feel isolated, doesn't feel alone. And that's why... One of the

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reasons I hold Greek Life to such a high regard, Black Greek life,

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because it's not this closed circle all the time. It's something that all

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Black folks can feel a part of, not as a member,

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but as a member of the Black community, allowing that space to be

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open, which I think is such... Something so beautiful. That's so beautiful

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to hear, because we all think... All Black folks think about the gaps

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that are created when you separate off, 'cause there's so few of us

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already, right? So when we separate off, and you join this club,

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you join this club, you do this, you do this, then where is

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our core? But, Jamil, it's so encouraging for me to hear you say

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that, No, no, no, it's drawing us into

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these traditions. It's allowing us to witness, to talk about hair,

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to have parties, to watch those. So that it's the opposite.

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I'm thinking of homecoming as the perfect example.

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Black homecoming at our campus is a big thing. But it's mainly big

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why? Because a Black Greek Life. They host those events, they call in

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their alumni. And so that allows other Black students to be in community

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with them. So now you're talking to alumni of color who happen to

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be Greek, but you're invited into this space. You're not feeling like you're

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isolated, like you're not invited because you don't have letters on your

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chest. You're able to be in this space, to network, to be in community.

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Some of... Growing up, I didn't know Black men

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with degrees. Some of the first Black men I've ever met in my

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life with degrees have been a part of a Greek organization,

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because I'm attending events that Greek Life is putting on. And so even

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for Black people that are not part of a Greek organization,

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Greek organizations are important to them, whether or not they choose to

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join or not. No, no. Go ahead. No. Please. Well, I think

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this is a good moment to hear from a few of...

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A couple of Tishana's sorors who are alumni,

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have graduated, but talk a little bit about that piece about so you join,

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perhaps, as undergrad, and what happens after that in that alumni

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connection? So I'm gonna play these for us

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to bring them into the conversation. Alright. Here's the first thing.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:22:04

Hello. My name is Dr. Natasha Wright. I am

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:22:09

a member of the illustrious Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated. I serve

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:22:14

in the local chapter of Iota Chi Sigma in New Haven, Connecticut.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:22:18

Sigma Gamma Rho, founded in 1922 at Butler University, represents sisterhood

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:22:25

scholarship and service. However, for me, it is service.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:22:30

We come together locally and abroad to service women and their families.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:22:36

We have several programs such as Operation Big Book Bag, sworn 1922, we

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:22:41

have a Women's Health Initiative. It is a service for me that I

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:22:46

am able to unite with women across the world to serve our local

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:22:51

communities. I am proud to be a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:23:09

Hello. My name is Danielle Monteque, and I am a member of Sigma

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:23:12

Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated. How do my sisters make me better?

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:23:17

I would say that while you're an undergrad, your sisters are there to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:23:20

help you to represent yourself well and to represent the organization well.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:23:26

They help keep you accountable 'cause you're not just walking around on

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:23:30

campus, representing yourself. You're representing something larger. And

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:23:33

it's helpful that your sisters are there to support you and keep you

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:23:37

accountable during those times. I would say, after you graduate and you

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:23:42

become a part of an alumni chapter, your sisters are there to support

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:23:46

you through all the different life events that you go through.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:23:49

And as you are new to your career path, there's gonna be others

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:23:54

in your chapter who are either on the same path as you or are

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:23:58

in similar careers, and they provide guidance, they provide advice, they

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:24:02

provide mentorship. And those are the things that help you... Help make

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:24:06

you better in your career. So one thing that I hear

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:24:23

in their responses is just really... I do hear that the legacy that

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:24:27

we're talking about, the continuity through different life stages, I hear

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:24:33

that, of course, a lot of pride. But also,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:24:38

that piece of a real deep commitment to service.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:24:47

I don't know if Tishana is frozen, but I just wanna note the

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:24:51

big smile on her face when she listens to her sorors. Just hearing

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:24:57

their voices makes her smile. I don't know if she's frozen right now.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:25:02

Service is... Service Is such a big part of the Black sorority movement.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:25:13

And when you think about... In order to be in a Black sorority,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:25:17

you're college educated, and... But we recognize that

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:25:24

Black community often needs support outside of our

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:25:29

opportunities or our experience. And so everything from early education

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:25:35

programs, maternal health programs, mobile vans, mobile dental vans that

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:25:45

go into inner cities and make sure that children are able to get

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:25:48

their dental check ups, scholarship funds. Every single sorority has some

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:25:55

type of scholarship fund. So, yes, there are all kinds of ways that

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:26:00

beyond the college years, well into adulthood, well into being

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:26:06

grandparents, through your entire life. I know families that have three

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:26:12

or four generations of women who are in sororities.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:26:18

So, yes, it is... They are organizations that literally, as Tishana's soror

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:26:28

noted, speak to every aspect of every part and every phase of your

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:26:34

life, and every phase of the needs that

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:26:38

exist in external Black communities. And on top of that...

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:26:45

'cause I've been to events hosted by Greek affiliated folks.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:26:50

They follow you through each step of your life. A baby shower,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:26:54

if you've ever been to a baby shower

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:26:56

by someone who's a part of a sorority, a Black sorority,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:27:00

what I mean to tell you, hundreds of people are coming.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:27:04

You got your bassinet, you got diapers for the next 14 years.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:27:09

The support when people hit milestones. A wedding? Don't let you get married

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:27:15

and both of y'all are in a Greek organization, the level of support

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:27:19

that that organization will carry you on into your adult life is not

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:27:24

something you see in many organizations outside of a historical Black organization.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:27:29

I've seen that also at funerals, and it really

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:27:35

staggered me, actually, witnessing that kind of sisterhood and community

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:27:41

support for someone in their moment of grief. Just

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:27:45

the way that she was held through that worst time of her life

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:27:52

with dozens and dozens and dozens of people who came from all over,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:27:56

and that she was fully held supported, taken care of by her sisters.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:28:02

Yup. Yeah. Yes. I have seen people travel from out of state

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:28:09

to go support their soror, to go to event that they're hosting, travel

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:28:14

from Jersey to Connecticut, from New York to Connecticut, coming from all

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:28:17

across different states. It really seems to be something that connects Black

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:28:23

people and holds 'em dear. Yeah. I can tell you, my dad

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:28:27

came to this country as a foreign student in 1956,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:28:33

and he was at a very small Black college in

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:28:38

Little Rock, Arkansas called the Philander Smith, no one's heard of.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:28:42

And he pledged Alpha Phi Alpha while he was there.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:28:46

I remember as a kid him telling me some of the crazy things

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:28:49

he had to do. He came to this country with his best friend,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:28:52

also from Jamaica, who was a member of... Who became a member of

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:28:55

Kappa Alpha Psi. And then when they integrated Little Rock High School

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:01

in 1956, so two years after Brown versus Board of Education,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:05

they sent all the foreign students up north.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:08

So my father wound up at the University of Connecticut where there were

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:11

no fraternities, and he became inactive and got married and had kids,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:15

was never active again a day in his life.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:18

My father died 10 years ago. And when he died, I called the

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:23

local Alpha chapter. They didn't know my dad.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:27

He was living in Maryland, where he'd retired. They didn't know me.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:31

I just picked up the phone and called Nationals, and I said,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:34

"Hey, I'm looking for a local chapter where some brothers can come out

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:39

and do an Omega ceremony for my dad. He was never really active."

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:43

And within, I'm gonna say, 15 minutes, my mother's phone rang,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:47

and it was a dentist in Washington DC, who at that time,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:50

I think, was the President of the Montgomery chapter... Montgomery Maryland

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:29:55

chapter. And we had calls every day from brothers offering to bring us

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:30:02

food, flowers, do we need any help. And then

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:30:07

at my dad's funeral, lines of Alphas. This is a man,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:30:11

again, who had not been active since 1957.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:30:17

Just Alphas as far as you could see for a stranger,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:30:20

someone they didn't know. They comforted us, and it was... I tell you,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:30:26

it was incredible. So, yes, that was why my... As someone who was

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:30:33

not American, he was looking to build ties in this country.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:30:40

And they came through for him in the end. So it was really

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:30:45

beautiful. Wow. Yeah. I wonder if we could talk about some of...

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:30:51

Ritual and practices that are passed on, because I think, in part,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:30:59

that's what happened in the incident on campus was that... A misunderstanding

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:31:02

of the significance. So we're not gonna talk about that specifically,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:31:06

but just this... What is a stroll. Why do these rituals,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:31:13

physical rituals in particular, why does it matter so much? Yeah. So one

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:31:19

of the most... Perhaps the most sacred part of the process of being

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:31:24

initiated into an organization and even after you become a member,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:31:28

is that your lines can't be broken. So this is the...

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:31:32

It's metaphoric, it's symbolic, but it's also literal.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:31:36

So when you're pledging, you and you are with your line sisters,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:31:41

after you cross they become your sands 'cause you cross the burning sands

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:31:46

together, which means you enter into Greek dom together. So a stroll is

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:31:52

usually a series of dance moves that's organized by each of the organizations

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:00

by its members, and when it's done, it's done by all of the

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:04

members in a line. It's a choreographed dance. One might say it's analogous

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:09

or looks like a line dance, and part of respecting the organizations is

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:15

that you never, ever, ever break the line

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:19

of a dance when a black sorority is doing their stroll.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:24

Stepping is different. Stepping is usually in one location in a place.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:29

You can think of stepping if you've seen videos of say,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:34

African tribal traditions or... Nelson Mandela well described it when he

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:39

said, "When Africans dance, they don't dance from the middle of the body,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:43

up. They dance from the centre of the body, down," which means your

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:47

connection to the land and to the earth is actually the thing that

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:51

is supposed to ground the dance. So the idea that you're stomping into

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:54

the earth, your hands touch the earth, it's grounding you,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:32:58

and it's very, very close if you look at videos to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:33:03

traditions that come out of different countries in Africa.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:33:08

So, again, you don't interrupt the step. You don't interrupt the ritual.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:33:14

And in terms of the specific moves that

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:33:18

sororities do, which is a kind of sitting move, fraternities have a different

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:33:22

version of that. This is something that would have emerged more recently,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:33:27

I would say. After the 1960s, you went from pledging to this period

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:33:33

that black organizations entered into that was more closely known as hazing.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:33:39

And out of that period in time, around 1963 and on,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:33:43

towards the end of the civil rights movement, beginning of the Black Power

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:33:48

movement, those were more based on calisthenics and strength. How are you

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:33:53

able to physically maintain strength and posture, position?

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:33:58

What's your sustenance? What's your perseverance level? And a lot of those

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:34:04

postures come out of that tradition. So the stroll is where you see

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:34:07

the movement and a line, you never break the line. The stepping is

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:34:12

rooted in one position and it has a connectedness to the earth,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:34:16

and the standing still positions are usually affiliated with strength, strength

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:34:21

of character, strength of the body. All very meaningful. The hand symbols,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:34:27

which we don't do if we're not members of that, of any of

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:34:30

the organizations, I am a member of a sorority, the hand gestures usually

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:34:34

go along with a tradition that the organization affiliates with... Affiliates

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:34:41

itself with. So it could be a symbol that mimics the look of

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:34:46

a cat, and every sorority and fraternity has their own symbol.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:34:51

So for Omega Psi Phi, it kind of looks like a Q. It

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:34:56

looks like they're doing the letter Q. For the Deltas, it looks like

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:35:00

a pyramid. And these are very intentional and it is considered...

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:35:08

It's only used by members of the organization.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:35:12

These are not things that someone would obviously know,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:35:16

and one of the tricky parts of sorority culture is that it's very

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:35:20

secretive. They are secret organizations, and part of being a secret organization

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:35:26

is that outsiders don't know the reasons why

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:35:31

we might have some of the traditions that we have.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:35:37

Yeah, it's very true. A lot of things that take place in black

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:35:41

organizations are kept private, which also makes it special for many folks.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:35:47

So there's a lot of reasons why these things are kept private.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:35:51

But often when you get... When someone asks how do I join a

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:35:54

D9 organization, they say, "Do your research," and people get frustrated

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:35:57

by that. Do your own research, but it's true. It's really important when

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:36:02

you're looking at these organizations. Even if you don't plan on joining

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:36:07

them, to do a little research on why they exist and who they

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:36:11

are, but even more importantly, learn about the chapter that exist on your

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:36:15

campus. These are national organizations, but each chapter has its own origin

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:36:22

story, how it got to that campus. Their members may be unique to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:36:26

this chapter. They may have different community service that that chapter

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:36:31

specifically does. Every chapter has its own culture, their own people running

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:36:36

it, which makes it different from other campuses, so

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:36:40

doing your research is super important. Yeah, doing your research is important

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:36:44

and being able to... You mentioned the importance of

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:36:47

the local chapter, and the other piece of that, I think,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:36:50

Jamil, is figuring out whether or not you are able to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:36:56

feel a connectedness to that chapter and also the national mission of the

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:37:00

organization. One of the things that I mentioned to you

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:37:05

previously is that before she died, I spoke to one of our founders

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:37:11

in my sorority, which was such an honour to get to do an

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:37:14

interview with her for my research, which was on black social

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:37:19

and political organizations and... The building of black institutions for

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:37:24

the sustenance of higher education. And I interviewed Myrtle Tyler Faithful

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:37:30

who was one of our founders, and I interviewed her actually shortly before

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:37:34

her death. And one of the things that I found really awesome about

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:37:38

that conversation was her talking about being a student at Howard University,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:37:44

walking around campus, seeing what the other sororities were doing and deciding,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:37:48

"Oh, that's not for me for this reason." But just as a

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:37:52

19 year old girl, right? Not as our illustrious founder, just as a

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:37:59

19 year old girl saying, "There's something I want, there's something I'm

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:38:03

looking for. There's a way I think about black womanhood, and I don't

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:38:07

see it here in the way that I want to express myself as

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:38:10

a black woman. And so I'm going to create my own tribe."

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:38:14

Right? And she does. And we talked about some of the reasons and

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:38:19

what needs she felt Zeta filled that didn't already exist.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:38:23

Every one of these organizations has a story, we all have a story,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:38:30

and their stories are recorded, and Howard University has their papers.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:38:34

You can go to Howard and see papers on almost all of the

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:38:39

organizations, you can read the letters they wrote when they were disgruntled

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:38:42

with... You can read the letters they wrote when they were

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:38:47

going through a difficult time and they were asking the university for assistance.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:38:51

It's just incredible to imagine that they were

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:38:55

like you, like Tishana, they were just young people

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:39:00

wanting to figure out how they define their blackness in their time and

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:39:05

place. Well, Audrey, I would love to play... I actually have two clips

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:39:09

from Zetas who are current students, and I would love to hear...

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:39:13

You've read these letters from 100 years ago. I would love to hear

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:39:18

how you make a connection between what students

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:39:21

in the organization are saying today and then what people were thinking

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:39:24

and talking about back then. So I'm gonna play this for us.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:39:33

Hello everyone that's listening. My name is Gene, and I am a part

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:39:39

of the supreme and sophisticated Psi Omicron Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:39:44

Incorporated here at Southern Connecticut State University, and I joined

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:39:48

this organization in fall of '20. So what had me join this organization?

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:39:54

I had joined the organization simply off of the fact of the principles

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:39:57

that the organization has. I thought they just really connected to me in

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:01

my everyday life, and I just felt joining this organization would really

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:05

help me build those principles that I had already instilled in myself.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:09

But also just help build me to become a better person and just

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:14

a better woman in general. And I think that ties with the next

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:18

question of how has this organization made a difference in my life?

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:22

Simply off the fact that they've just helped me find my voice,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:25

I feel like. I was always someone who was very outgoing,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:30

I was always very active, but I was also always somebody who didn't

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:36

really speak up for myself much. And I never knew how to really

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:40

find my voice in the crowd, if that makes sense. And this organization

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:44

has just really helped me find my voice. I know that...

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:48

I advocate for myself, now a lot. I know that it's okay to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:52

express how I feel when I'm not okay with something.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:40:56

So it's really helping me find my voice to say like,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:00

"I don't like this or I like this."

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:02

Just really helped me boost my confidence in myself.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:06

And if there's one thing I can say about Greek Life in general,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:10

if you are interested, don't be afraid to really get out there.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:15

We want to know you as much as you want to know us.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:18

So if you are interested, don't be afraid to say hi or reach

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:21

out to us because we're all pretty friendly

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:25

and do your research. That's my one tip.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:29

Thank you for listening. Hi. My name is Jarayah Macintosh. I'm a senior

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:39

social work major. I am a member of the supreme and sophisticated Psi Omicron

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:44

Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated. And I became a member in

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:49

my freshman year of spring 2018. I joined Zeta Phi Beta because I

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:54

knew it was the right fit for me.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:41:56

I became familiar with the Psi Omicron Chapter members at the time,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:42:01

during meet the Greeks of my freshman year.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:42:04

During the breakout session, I felt very welcomed by their presence,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:42:08

because everyone in that room... The members at the time had their own

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:42:14

different personalities and backgrounds, and it made me feel that I was

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:42:19

safe and accepted in the space to be myself.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:42:23

After the breakout sessions and meet the Greeks I did my research about

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:42:27

the organization. Looked at the principles, the history, all that, so I

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:42:32

acclimated with the organization. And I just knew immediately

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:42:37

I could possibly have great potential while being a member of the organization,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:42:42

and eventually I was right. This organization has changed me in an amazing

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:42:47

way. I used to be so introverted in high school, we never talk

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:42:52

unless spoken to, be introverted and shy. Over time, having different positions

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:42:58

on campus, and in my chapter encouraged me to break out of my

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:43:01

shell. If the old me saw what I was doing now,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:43:06

she would probably be so surprised, just being in this organization has

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:43:10

helped me to become a beautiful finer woman.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:43:13

I found my sisterhood, I have opportunities that I never thought I had,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:43:18

connections and relationships too. I want a young woman who started out

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:43:22

just like me, shy, introverted, barely spoke to eventually be in my shoes

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:43:30

because it is possible. For anyone interested in Greek Life, listening to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:43:35

this, "Don't be afraid. We're not scary people.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:43:40

We wanna get to know you, just like you wanna get to know

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:43:43

us. Do your research." That is a very important tip, because this is

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:43:48

a lifetime commitment. This just doesn't end when you graduate college,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:43:53

it continues throughout your lifetime. And finally, most importantly,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:44:00

be yourself. We wanna see the real you, don't pretend, like, you have

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:44:06

to be someone, you're not. Just be yourself.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:44:18

I love that. I think one of the things that happens when you

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:44:25

become a member of any of the Divine Nine organizations, you have to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:44:31

know a lot of history. You have to know all of the history

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:44:36

of your organization. You also have to learn

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:44:39

History of the other Divine Nine organizations, there is tons and tons of

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:44:45

history, and I think doing your research is really important,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:44:51

not just about the organization you're interested in, but really knowing

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:44:56

a little bit about the traditions of all

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:44:59

the organizations, it's Black History, it's important and it's exciting.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:45:09

Next time you watch a game, KC, next time you're watching football or

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:45:14

basketball or... And you're watching the men play, if you look,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:45:20

pay really close attention, you'll see a lot of brands

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:45:24

all around, perhaps not one of the traditions we talk about the most,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:45:32

but when you're watching a game, you will see people with their Omegas or

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:45:37

with their Sigmas and... Very common. Yeah, Jamal is laughing because

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:45:45

we talk about sports, he never watches sports, and I barely do,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:45:49

but I certainly do want him to know, I don't know if they're better... I

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:45:55

don't watch sports. This is very true. I only watch sports if my little

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:45:59

brother is playing. That's about as much sports I get, but you know Audrey,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:03

I feel like I'm sitting in a master class that you're teaching.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:08

That's what I feel like. I'm sitting in a master class,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:12

but I loved what the Zetas are talking about,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:15

to be yourself. So often as a black people, they were viewed as

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:21

a monolith, they were viewed as all having the same values,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:24

the same thoughts, the same likes, the same desires,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:27

that we have to be a certain way, talk a certain way,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:30

behave especially in predominantly White spaces, a certain way,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:34

but what these ladies are saying is, show up to us as you

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:37

are, and I think as Black people, that can be comforting is to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:43

realize that it's a space for you, and you are good enough for

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:46

that space as you are, and you don't have to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:50

show up as someone you're not. Mm hmm. Not something as black women,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:46:55

we hear enough in the world, and that's something that our black girls

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:00

get to feel and experience that kind of unconditional...

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:05

Yes, the idea that you can just be yourself.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:09

To be a black girl is to live in a world where you

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:12

are always feeling performative because of all kinds of intersectional isms,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:18

because of racism, because of sexism, because of classism, because of ageism,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:23

you name it, it can fall on your plate.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:26

And so I think that distinguishes a difference between these organizations

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:31

for Black women, and perhaps, I can't really speak to others,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:34

but for others, because it can become everything

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:40

in a world that doesn't always provide those comforts

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:44

to Black girls and Black women. And to go off of what you

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:48

just said, when I was first interested in my sorority, and I had

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:53

attended meet the Greeks, I remember they had the little breakout rooms

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:56

and sessions so that you could take out time to ask them questions

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:47:59

about the organization and the chapter, and I stuck around afterwards to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:03

just kind of talk to them and get to know them more on

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:05

a personal level, and there was just that sense of comfort.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:09

A lot of the other girls in the room, they had the same

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:12

major as me, or similar majors they were in the same program,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:14

pursuing the same careers, so I automatically felt that sense of home,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:19

and then we also had some grad chapter members that were also there,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:22

so we could see what that sisterhood looked like beyond undergrad as well.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:26

So that was something that was really, really comforting to me to see

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:29

a chapter of women... Some of them were first generation, like I was.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:33

A lot of them were immigrants from the same country that my parents

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:36

came from, so I did feel that, that sense of comfort immediately with

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:39

them. Tishana, is it still the case that you can't do freshman year?

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:43

You can't do the first semester of your freshman year, you have to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:46

wait 'til you have a GPA. Yeah. What is it typical to join

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:51

in your sophomore year? Most people that I've seen, usually it's

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:48:55

junior and sophomore. Oh, interesting. Yeah, once you're established as

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:00

a student academic record seems really important too, in the sense of the

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:08

university and community who are in the space. And it's also beneficial

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:13

'cause it kind of gives you that time to gain some sort of

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:16

leadership experience before you join the chapter, so you have a lot more

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:19

to bring as well. Yes, I think that's something I get lost often,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:25

I don't think a lot of times people would think about that before

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:28

they try to enter into a Divine Nine organization.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:32

A lot of times people talk about how hard the process may be

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:35

or how long that process may take, without realizing that the real work

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:39

is after you join an organization, which is one of the reasons I

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:43

did not join. I'm sure folks are wondering, Jamal is speaking so highly

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:46

of D Nine, but not anyone. One of the reasons I didn't join

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:50

is because it's a huge time commitment, especially during undergrad, you

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:54

may be sitting on an e board, you may be doing programming,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:49:57

you may be on a fund raiser chair, you may be doing the

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:00

community service chair, that takes hours and time,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:05

and I don't think folks are always thinking about that when they are

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:08

looking towards joining your organization as that time and leadership commitment

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:12

that you're gonna have to bring, but thankfully, there's always a chance

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:17

to join an organization later on in life after undergrad has ended,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:22

but that's a huge commitment afterwards. So that I didn't know,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:26

Jamal. You surprise me all the time, but I wouldn't be surprised if

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:30

you joined, you keep mentioning it, maybe 1 out of 55,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:34

but... So that... How helpful is that to join

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:39

post grad? You always join post grad, many people do join post grad, some

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:44

people join in their grad school. So it's not something limited to undergrad,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:50

and for myself, I always felt a deep connection to black students throughout

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:54

my entire undergrad experience. I probably would not have stayed at Southern

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:50:58

if it wasn't for my fellow black peers.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:51:01

We were a very tight group of people,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:51:04

and that also was true with other people that happened to be Greek.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:51:08

So between that and the amount of jobs I worked and leadership titles I

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:51:11

held, I didn't have the space in my undergrad experience. And that's okay,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:51:16

not every black student has to join a group, like organization to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:51:20

partake in the community, to partake in our community.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:51:24

That's something that can happen later on in life.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:51:26

Yeah, the daughter of one of our founders who actually was not able

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:51:31

to pledge when she was young, became a Zeta, I think when she

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:51:36

turned 95. So there's definitely no expiration date... There's not. Wow.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:51:49

And you know, Tishana, I'm thinking of... It's important that we're having

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:51:55

this conversation because for all too often, I'm thinking about this with

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:51:59

Greek life, a black Greek life, but also with multi cultural groups on

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:02

campus, and I'm sure this is not unique just to our campus,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:05

but I'm sure this is happening in other places,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:10

black people are not often brought to the table of programming when it

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:13

comes to organizations that are predominantly white. They call folks for

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:18

when it's time to do a stroll, when it's time to perform,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:21

when it's time to rap and sing and dance

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:24

for entertainment purposes, and not for a scholarship, not for programs

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:28

that are meaningful. And so I think this is also a good time

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:31

to talk about other organizations coming to the table as us,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:38

coming to the table with black and multicultural groups.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:42

I know I was speaking to Jamil about this before, but this semester,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:46

we really wanted to make it a goal to do programming as black

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:51

women, to make a safe space for conversations of things that we kind

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:54

of talk about more so behind closed doors. So things like the over

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:52:58

sexualization of black women or mental health and how it affects black women.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:02

Those are things that we kind of talk about

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:04

with our friends in our more intimate conversations, but I think it's important

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:07

that we create that bigger and broader space to give other women,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:11

that sense of comfort to educate and also really creating a space for

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:16

non students of color to also learn about our experiences as well,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:19

'cause this isn't just a safe space for us, as black and brown

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:22

students, we also want... Especially as us being a social justice institution

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:26

and thriving for that, I think if that's what we really strive to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:30

do, it's really important as well about other people who want to be

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:33

allies and want to stand in solidarity with our community. Also take the

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:37

time to come to our programs and learn about the things that we

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:40

experience and the things that we have to say, because even thinking of

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:42

my experience as somebody who wants to be a licensed clinical social worker

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:46

and I'm a black woman, there are already certain things that I understand

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:49

as challenges that my community faces because I went through them,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:53

whereas somebody maybe who grew up in a predominantly white community who

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:56

also wants to be a social worker, maybe they don't see that same

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:53:59

perspective 'cause they didn't grow up in a certain environment. So,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:54:01

it also gives those people that space to understand some of the things

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:54:05

that they or the people that they work with might face as challenges

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:54:08

because they came and they wanted to learn about some of those things.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:54:12

So that's something that we're definitely trying to focus on this semester,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:54:16

broadening our audience and the people that we bring into our programs,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:54:19

'cause it's not just beneficial to us, is beneficial to non students of

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:54:22

color as well. Tishana, that's a real balance between maintaining an enclave

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:54:34

when you are free to be a home space, free to be a

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:54:38

self support one another, where you are so insulated from the pressures,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:54:42

wider pressures at the university and maintaining that. There also... As

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:54:46

I'm listening to you talk... As a music professor at this university,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:54:51

I mean, that's a heavy lift while you're creating these spaces for these

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:54:55

hard conversations, educating your peers, that is a huge service to the

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:01

university and a heavy lift, I just... Yeah. I can definitely say that

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:11

sometimes we put a lot of work into the things that we do,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:13

but you forget how much we're putting into it. And I can even

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:16

think of last week when I had attended a meeting and another black

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:22

RA in another building came up to me, and she said,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:24

"I just want you to know that even though you're not the most

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:28

outgoing person, you're kind of quiet. I just want you to know that

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:31

the work that you put into things and your leadership and who you

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:35

are as a person is not something that goes unnoticed." And it's true,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:38

because we do put a lot of work into our Chapter, into our

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:42

organizations, because we're passionate about it, but for somebody else

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:44

to come up to you and say, "Hey, it doesn't go unnoticed we

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:47

see you. We see the work that you put in." It really means

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:50

a lot, 'cause our goal is to create those safe spaces for other

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:53

people to be able to learn and feel comfortable.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:55:56

And you know, that kind of validation, really just be coming from black

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:56:02

people. And throughout my experience, some of the things that keep you going,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:56:09

keep your leadership going and keep you involved, keep you mentoring is

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:56:12

your fellow black peers, 'cause those be the folks that come up to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:56:16

you, congratulate you, tell you doing a good job and make you wanna

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:56:19

keep moving forward, 'cause it can be tough, especially when you put on

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:56:23

programs that are catered for a non black audience, and non black people

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:56:29

don't show up. When you try to put a program on to have

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:56:32

intentional dialogue, but you're having dialogue with the same people that's

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:56:36

involved in social justice already, and are also marginalized themselves,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:56:41

those conversations, if anything, becomes frustrated because it's hard to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:56:45

even get non people of color at these tables, even when they are

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:56:49

invited personally. It can be super frustrating. And so I'm hoping as

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:56:55

we progress as a university that non students of color feel,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:57:00

one, comfortable going to these events, 'cause I don't believe all students

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:57:03

are comfortable attending these spaces, but also critically think about

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:57:07

the importance of attending these kind of events, opposed to something more

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:57:11

social. And I just... To piggyback off that, I wanna say that,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:57:19

these Black organizations have always had White members. Eleanor Roosevelt

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:57:25

is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. All of our organizations,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:57:31

Sigma Gamma Rho has White members. So Black...

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:57:35

Primarily Black organizations are generally not exclusively Black, Blue

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:57:41

Ray is an exception to that, I think it's pretty exclusive.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:57:50

One big piece of this is that Mary Helen Washington was the scholar

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:57:54

who said that Black women often wind up being the domestic workers of

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:57:58

the academy. Which is to say that when there's one Tishana, or when

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:03

there's one Audrey, what happens is nobody knows that you've already been

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:07

asked to serve on 10 other Black committees.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:11

And so you're spread very thin. And the weight of that is enormous.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:16

I remember it being enormous Tishana when I was in undergrad.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:22

And it's enormous, now, it's always big. And there's an invisibility and

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:29

a hyper visibility that's happening at the same time, everybody sees you

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:33

as a Black woman, they see you as whatever they wanna see you as, and

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:36

then also nobody is seeing all of what you're having to do in

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:40

all of what's going on, and all of the hats you have to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:43

wear on a college campus. And the code switching, the code switching,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:47

constantly. You're talking to this person, you're in your sorority, you're

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:50

here, you're there, and you're having to constantly...

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:54

That class where everyone suddenly turns and looks at you because something

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:58:57

Black comes up, it's like it can feel like death by a thousand

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:59:01

little needles. And sometimes it feels like... So I say that to say

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:59:09

that these organizations are powerful in centering, but yes, it is important

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:59:16

that people recognize the particular heavy lifting that Black women's organizations

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:59:20

have had to do. If you took a look, Jamal, I don't know

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:59:23

if you were able to... If you saw the recent

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:59:26

housing protest at Howard University... I sure did. And you will know that

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:59:32

it looked like about 98% of the people

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:59:37

who were fighting against these 60 year leases and tenant housing were

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:59:43

Black women. Boom. So the heavy lifting is kind of everywhere,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:59:50

and so it's important that our organizations, whether they're social organizations,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:59:55

whatever they are, also be places of healing,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 00:59:59

and recognize... This is for people who aren't in the organizations,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:00:03

Black or White, that support is never ever... Support, interest, education,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:00:12

is never rejected. I've never been to a Black event

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:00:16

that was about education where anyone was made to feel that they weren't

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:00:20

welcome, in my life, that I can think of.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:00:26

I'm so glad you bring that to the forefront and that it centers

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:00:31

Black women in that discussion, and I think that's a hard pill that

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:00:34

Black men need to hear, because there is a difference with how Black

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:00:39

women in leadership have to operate in spaces. And I can think about

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:00:43

so many of my friends that were SGRhos, or Zetas, or part of

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:00:47

these organizations that carry so many jobs, you're a RA on campus,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:00:53

you're a OA maybe, you have two different other student jobs or you

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:00:58

work off campus, you do programs on campus, you do programs for your

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:02

job... You're babysitting your cousin on the weekends. You're mentoring

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:06

50 students on the side, you're volunteering at the local high school,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:11

and then every time a situation happens, a racial injustice situation happens

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:17

on campus, who do you see on the phone with admin?

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:20

Black women. Who do you see at the front lines talking to admin,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:24

negotiating a deal? Black women. Who do you see leading protests?

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:29

Black women. And they have been historically, even outside of Greek Life

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:33

organizations. When you talk about social movements, when you talk about

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:37

the cornerstone of families in the Black community, you have to think about

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:41

Black women and that burden that is often put on Black women,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:46

that same expectation is not always shared for Black men.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:49

And I loved how you brought up Howard University because so many Black

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:52

women were out there fighting. And I have said this to a couple

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:57

of my friends before, "Where are the Black men that are supporting these

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:01:59

Black women?" What is our job to support Black women in their fight

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:02:04

for injustice? How are we supporting them in misogyny? We often talk to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:02:09

Black women about racial injustice, but then we're really silent when it

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:02:13

comes to misogyny, like how are we supporting Black women in their fullness,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:02:18

in their entirety, and not just in their Blackness? And sometimes we may

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:02:23

even be absent from that conversation. Well, thank you for saying that,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:02:28

I do appreciate it. Listen. I've been asking the question to myself sometimes.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:02:33

"Where are we at, y'all? Did I miss something in the mail?"

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:02:38

Poor Jesse Jackson was falling down, there are like 10 Black,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:02:42

19 year old, 20 year old women holding him up, taking him to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:02:46

the hospital, all women. Yeah. But that's something Black women have historically

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:02:51

always done without even being asked. They will uphold the entire community,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:02:57

and no one would even bat a eye. And not getting all the

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:01

credit. No. And if you think about Black families, the cornerstone of a

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:06

Black family is a Black woman. When Big Mama dies,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:10

they got the whole family... The whole family falling out, no one got

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:12

any act right. Yeah, doll, black women they run the family,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:17

they run the community, they run the church,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:20

the first ladies in the church with their hats, they'll play,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:26

they're keeping us all together, they're keeping us all together. And they'll

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:30

probably end up being Black sorority, I tell ya. I tell ya. Black

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:36

faculty, Black women faculty, they're on every committee. I don't care what

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:39

committee, they're on every committee. You name it, it got anything social

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:45

justice on it, they're on it, anything non social justice they're on it.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:48

They're at every speaking engagement, they done spoke at 50 of them in

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:50

a year, they're at all of them, then wrote all the books,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:54

then did all the research. Lord. If you could see everyone's faces...

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:03:59

Well, I'm tired just listening to you. I'm just saying. And then let's

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:04:03

not talk about the gender pay gap, Lord have mercy. Y'all, you're starting

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:04:07

another episode. I tell ya, we should. I just had to tell the people,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:04:13

"Listen, black woman are tired, they get tired of us." I'm gonna take a

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:04:17

nap when we're done here. Okay. Well, you're setting us up perfectly to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:04:22

hear from our last person today, who is a black woman and a

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:04:26

black historian professor at our university, talking about her

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:04:31

experiences in AKA. And so, yeah, let's hear from Chivon. My name is

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:04:38

Chivon Carter David, and I'm currently a 21 year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:04:43

Sorority Incorporated. I was initiated through Alpha Delta Chapter at Morgan

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:04:47

State University in Baltimore, Maryland back in fall of 2000, and since

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:04:52

2016, I've been an active member of Beta Epsilon Omega Chapter here in

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:04:56

Clayton, Connecticut. I initially joined the sorority because I was committed

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:01

to the vision that the founders had for sisterhood and service to all

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:05

mankind, back in 1908, and I was also very impressed with the women

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:10

who were on our campus and wanted to be in fellowship with them.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:14

What I've gotten from the sorority cannot be measured.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:17

I have found sisterhood in every city I visit or move to,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:21

I have seen unparalleled leadership training to push me forward in my civic

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:26

activities and in my career, but most importantly, being someone who statistically

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:32

wasn't supposed to make it as far as I had, in terms of

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:35

education and accomplishment, I am convinced that being chosen for this

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:39

sorority and being in fellowship with these amazing women gave me the confidence

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:43

to believe that I could accomplish great things, since my sorority sisters

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:47

could do it, I knew that I could as well. Boo woof, didn't

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:53

she say it though? Didn't she say it?

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:05:59

"I knew I could do it because my sisters did it."

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:06:02

Yeah. And I can listen to Chivon talk all day. All day.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:06:09

She and I are from the same hood, we're both from the Bronx. Oh. And yeah,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:06:15

and both do African American Studies, and she's my sister

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:06:23

as well. And now I have Tishana as a sister, so yeah,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:06:32

we link up together too and welcoming others, it's not just about Greekdom,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:06:39

yeah, so we link up with each other too.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:06:45

Yeah, I'm liking the whole, "Because my sisters could do it,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:06:50

I could do it." Now, we don't often talk about the importance of

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:06:54

peer support. Looking at your peers and seeing what they can accomplish

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:06:59

and them guiding you, and then eventually you guiding another group of students

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:07:04

and that passing the baton of guidance, of wisdom, of support

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:07:10

is so needed in higher education, is so needed in our black spaces.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:07:15

'Cause for so many of us that are first generation,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:07:19

we couldn't do it without our peers, without our black support,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:07:22

and that's why we need to support black organizations on this campus that

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:07:27

are Greeklife and non Greeklife, we need to support them. We need them

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:07:30

on these campuses. So many times people think of, "Why do we even

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:07:35

have these organizations?" Because they're needed. There're so many reasons.

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:07:41

I'm really, I'm so grateful we're having this conversation, it's really,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:07:44

it's humbling, because my long time impression has been associating

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:07:52

Black Greek organizations with excellence. I'm used to seeing

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:07:55

people who are leaders members of these organizations, so I just associate

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:07:59

them with accomplishment. And the depth actually, I just actually, for me,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:08:05

I feel like we're just scratching the surface here, for those of us

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:08:08

who are outsiders to organizations. But the history, the legacy, folks who

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:08:15

are listening, they can hear that sense of...

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:08:20

We're not asking people to say when the organizations were founded or to

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:08:24

speak in particular ways, but you can just hear across organizations that

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:08:29

sense of legacy, connection, commitment. It's really... It really is humbling

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:08:36

to understand that it's far deeper and more significant than I thought and

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:08:41

certainly important to the American society, to our university systems,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:08:47

and really couldn't be more relevant today than it was a 100 years

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:08:52

ago. That's true. And the need for it persists,

0:22:07.1Dr. Natasha Wright 01:09:00

but the function it serves changes with every generation,