Rhodes Greek Life

Roughly 50 percent of Rhodes students, myself included, participate in Greek Life. One of the first things I noticed upon going through rush freshman year was the predominantly white male Greek population. Soon after I began pledging and getting to know the men who would eventually become my fraternity brothers I learned that one of the senior brothers in the house was in fact the first African Americans to ever join the house. In almost a century of existence, the presence of racial diversity remained absent. While I obviously cannot speak for other participants in the Rhodes Greek system, I am still amazed by the racially homogenous nature of our school’s fraternity houses. I have talked to that particular brother on this subject, and he did indeed identify an underlying racial tension that the idea of Greek life as a whole creates. He explained to me that the idea of becoming part of an institution that was founded in the era of slavery made things difficult. I specifically recall a piece of our dialogue in which he referred to fraternities as a white institution. These immediately prompted me to ask, “then why did you join?” The succinct nature of his response and relaxed tone fit perfectly with his words. “Because I can,” he said.

While his response made perfect sense to me at the time, it has only lead me to further question the white-dominated nature of Greek life at this school. In a comment on a separate post a student proposed the idea of equal consideration of all races in Greek life, but in my time here, I have not witnessed or even heard of any events that would lead me to believe that that isn’t already the case. That being said, I am one member of one house, so my perspective is a bit limited here. The absence of an explanation for this situation reminded me of Beverly Tatum’s book, Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race. Her explanation of the question presented in the title, that this stage of life is often when blacks come to establish their racial identity, provided some sense of closure, but I’m not sure it answers everything. Why is the population of the Greek system at Rhodes so incredibly racially homogenous? Does, as my friend explained to me, the roots of these institutions play a role, or does Tatum’s explanation provide everything we need here?