When Ellie, a graduate of a California state school, was told that she and her fellow sorority sisters had to wear nude heels for rush, she figured she would have to buy a new pair of shoes that fit her skin tone. But when she came back with tan heels, she was told to exchange them for a lighter pair. She said it was clear to her that to the chapters recruitment chair, nude really meant the shade of white skin tones. Even though the lighter color didnt match her darker skin, Ellie had to replace her new heels to fit in with the rest of her predominantly white sorority.

Throughout the next three years, Ellie, a biracial, first-generation Chinese American student who asked to use a pseudonym to speak candidly, says she became used to biting her tongue when witnessing such microaggressions as well as more blatant forms of racism. While the friendships she eventually gained gave her good enough reason to avoid dropping, she, along with hundreds of student leaders across the country, are now calling for the abolition of Greek life, citing pervasive racism within the system.

Ellies shoe ordeal is just one example of the exclusionary attitudes that she says are commonplace in sororities, particularly during rush week, when houses present themselves to prospective members hoping to snag the most desirable freshmen girls. She recalled hearing members say that their house needed more blonde girls since they looked better in photos; that the ethnics belonged in other sororities.

While even more egregious instances of racism within the institution dominate headlines blackface, cultural appropriation, and bigoted hazing rituals come to mind it is the smaller exclusionary acts, such as those Ellie experienced, that many say expose the racism behind these houses intimidating doors.

Greek life is not a broken system; its exclusive because it was built to be exclusive, Maya, a member of a sorority at Washington University in St. Louis who is now leaning toward the abolishment of the Greek system, tells Teen Vogue. Birds of a feather flock together. You end up breeding these groups of people that are predominantly white and predominantly wealthy that are going to inherently exclude people of color.

This kind of privileged segregation has historically helped carry members to positions of power long after theyve left campus. As University of Kentucky professor Alan DeSantis noted in his 2007 book on the Greek system, at the time of publication, 85% of Supreme Court justices since 1910, 85% of Fortune 500 executives, 76% of U.S senators, and 18 presidents since 1877 were fraternity men.

Greek lifes lack of diversity is no secret. The hefty price of joining a chapter is reason enough for low-income students not to rush in the first place. Maya says her dues amount to $459 per semester, while Ellie paid $310 per quarter to be part of her California sorority. Some of the students we spoke to said the dues essentially work as a filter, resulting in many chapters across the country that are, to put it simply, white and rich. A 2011 review Princeton University conducted of its own Greek system found that 77% of sorority members and 73% of fraternity members were white.

But what if houses took away the costly barrier of dues, allowing for increased diversity and more inclusion? What if they lowered membership prices, made scholarships more accessible, or did away with the costs altogether? Such reform efforts are examples of what Interfraternity Council (IFC) and National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) leaders are currently proposing. The IFC president at one university, who served on the branchs board throughout 2018 and requested anonymity, says that they discussed increasing inclusivity in the rush process. We set up ways to make rush free and figured out ways to get chapters to pay, he says. However, this strategy never ultimately panned out. In the end, they did succeed in increasing the number of scholarships offered to members to around eight to 10 per year. He adds that they would have given out even more money to scholarship pools if it were within their budget.

Read the rest here:

Greek Lifes History of Racism Is Catching Up to It - Teen Vogue