Greek Life members address race, stereotypes

Throughout the country, sororities and fraternities alike have a stereotype attached to them concerning an underrepresentation of minority students within Greek Life.

Students from different ethnicities, religions or sexual orientations can be deterred from joining a Greek Life organization because they feel like they don’t belong. A lack of representation within the organizations and financial obligations, such as the explicit and unsubsidized fees that go into keeping up with the appearances of Greek Life, including letters and giving gifts to littles, can oftentimes prevent people from low income families or different backgrounds from wanting to join.  

Greg Ohadoma, URI senior and former president of Theta Chi fraternity, said he thinks his position in the fraternity definitely helped promote diversity. He said that he was the first African American member in his fraternity since he has been at the university.

Ohadoma said that if more people from different ethnic backgrounds join the fraternity, then it turns into a cycle and others will see that the organization is more diverse and be more willing to join. As for other fraternities, Ohadoma said that he sees a lot of fraternities that are less diverse than they should be, and that there is a very small community of ethnic members in Greek Life.

“A lot more fraternities, as well as sororities, should be open to men and women of different backgrounds,” Ohadoma said.  

To ensure that fraternity members have varied backgrounds, Ohadama said that he encouraged his brothers to get out of their comfort zone and talk to all of the men rushing, not just a specific group

Diversity is equally as important in sororities, such as Kayla Berrios, a junior at the University of Rhode Island, who tries to promote diversity in not only her sorority, but throughout campus. She is a tour guide, was formerly the community service chair of Cape Verdean Student Association and a member of Uhuru Sasa and is now a third-year veteran and media specialist at the Gender and Sexuality Center. On top of her involvement in various groups throughout campus, she is also the president of Chi Omega sorority.

When Berrios first joined the sorority, she was aware that she was joining an organization that is predominantly white, but this did not deter her from rushing. She said that from her own experience, the URI Lambda Beta chapter never turned away certain girls from joining because of the color of their skin, religious affiliation or economic status, but she said she still hears microaggressions and derogatory remarks all the time.

Berrios added that she doesn’t like to speak out every time she hears a derogatory remark because she hopes that other people will speak up on her behalf.

“It doesn’t always have to be the woman of color who speaks up,” Berrios said. “The predominantly white students here on campus [should] call each other out and not make it so it’s not only the person of color or the Jewish sister or the Muslim brother that has to say ‘Hey, that’s not right, you probably shouldn’t say that.’”

Berrios said that she heard people say before that they had been to Freak Day or another Greek Life promotion event at the university but were never spoken to by any of the sorority members based solely on what they look like. She explained that a few women she knows in other organizations have such an offput approach to joining a sorority.

“Joining as a woman of color, I felt a sense of pride that I’m multi-racial because it’s something different from the majority, especially on this campus,” Berrios said. She added that despite what anyone said, she knew she would land in a sorority that accepted her and would teach them a little more about herself and change how they look at different things. .

Timmy Badejo, a sophomore and pledging member of Theta Chi, said that “diversity can add a different perspective,” and “a fraternity or sorority filled with all people who think and act the same would be boring and would go no where.”

Having different voices and people from different backgrounds and experiences to share their voices allows the organization to expand on the core values of philanthropy and acceptance that the Greek life systems were founded on.

“Diversity is very important in any matter of life because it shows that everyone is welcome,” Badejo said.