Lexicality

How come I was never taught about Shirley Chisholm in school?

Young Sorors droppin knowledge, warms the cockles of the cynic’s heart.

daniellemertina:

so-treu:

daniellemertina:

I am almost ashamed to admit how much black woman’s history I learned when I pledged Delta last year. I should have known it before that. But Shirley Chisholm, Dorothy Height, Fannie Lou Hamer, Nikki Giovanni, Barbara Jordan…

I should have known ALL of that. When a lot of those women I only knew cursory details about.

^^ (*waves* hey Soror!) & not to derail, but this is why i have little to NO patience for white folks critiquing black greek life or black colleges/HBCUs, or black institutions in general. because a lot of problematics, yes, BUT these spaces are one of the few where black history is maintained and disseminated. like, how much LESS would we know about black history if it weren’t for these institutions? and folks generally don’t know the extent to which HBCUs and black greek groups supported things like the Civil Rights Movement, anti-poverty activism, feminism, anti-colonialism, etc. meanwhile the folks pooh-poohing HBCUs and black greeks don’t know who Dorothy Height is or why she matters or why it matters that they don’t know.

and i have lots of feelings about the MLK memorial at the Mall, but the only reason why it’s there to begin with is because of Alpha Phi Alpha. a black greek group. like, nooooobody else was even concerned.

BAM. Black Greeks do a whole lot. Scholarship assistance, supporting black women’s organizations/ black men’s organizations, after school programs, buffering other associations like the NAACP… the amount of black Greeks in politics right now. 

And at PWI’s, the NPHC and other multicultural orgs provide a space for non-white students. Colleges are so exclusionary and racist and just plain uncomfortable a lot of the times when you live, eat, study, and everything there. And black groups make up the backbone of a lot of black student’s lives. It creates safe spaces where you get to hang with other black students but also accomplish things that make the campus a more inclusive place.  

And Black Greeks give black students an opportunity to experience Greek life without having to deal with the racism/ othering you’d experience in the majority white Greek groups.

(Source: toulouselastartrek)