How hazing hurts reputation of black Greek life

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So seven members of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority were charged with hazing a University of Maryland pledge. The Zetas allegedly followed the usual modus operandi, beating the pledge with an oak paddle, pushing her against a wall, and causing what the police say were “severe bruising on the arms and chest”. And now that this has become a police matter, all of the accused Zetas are shocked, shocked I say! that this pledge has been hazed. How did this happen? In the words of one of the accused lawyer, his client “abhors” hazing. Yeah, right.

Now we go through the usual dance of the people saying that these accused Zetas are innocent until proven guilty, and that the pledge shouldn’t have “allowed” herself to be hazed in the first place. The Zetas involved will probably get off with a slap on the wrist, some sort of community service, and the national organization will get a lawsuit that will cost at the minimum, thousands of dollars, and at the maximum, millions. But do you know what I wish would happen? I wish Zeta Phi Beta’s national headquarters wouldn’t wait until the accused are declared guilt to make a decision on their fate. I wish Zeta expelled the accused immediately and without a hearing. Maybe then we could get the attention of black fraternity and sorority members.

You see, hazing isn’t something that you just happen to run into or just happen to do. No, hazing is a very deliberate and specific process. It’s a conspiracy of individuals who all pledge to themselves a code of silence in order to protect themselves. If you’re going to haze pledges, you have to set up an illegal underground pledge program, identify the members of your chapter or organization who aren’t trustworthy, exclude them from knowledge of the illegal pledging, and then figure out when and where to haze your pledges. The idea that you’re in the room where hazing is going on, but you didn’t participate, is as absurd as saying that you were in the pool, but you didn’t expect to get wet. You’re there, you’re guilty, whether you throw a stroke of wood or not.

And that’s why I wished Zeta dropped the hammer on the accused. Forget that the accused ranged in age from 20 years old to 26 years old, or in the words of my mother, are grown a** women who should know better. The very existence of an illegal pledge process, and that the accused participated in it, injuries or not, would be enough for an immediate expulsion.

You see, most black fraternity and sorority members aren’t out there beating people or breaking their oath. Instead, they’re going to chapter meetings, doing community service, in other words, living the promise they made to their organizations. These are the ordinary members, the ones with jobs, kids, mortgages, church, and would no more raise a hand to someone wanting to join their organization than they would expose their secret rituals. But the fact is that we have plenty of members who love to pledge people.

For many black fraternity and sorority members, hazing pledges is a high. Hazing for them is an aphrodisiac of power that has become a fetish that validates their fraternal existence. It makes them feel better about themselves. Oh sure, they mask their reasons for participating in illegal processes under various excuses like, need to bring the pledges in right, or that they won’t respect anyone who doesn’t go through a process, or a million of other excuses. But the facts are that these hazers don’t give a damn about their fraternity or sorority. In fact, their motivation is as self centered as a Charlie Sheen rant.

It’s all about them. It’s that feeling that comes from throwing wood and watching the pledge scream in pain. The psychosexual thrill that happens when you’re able to dominate someone who is submissive to your every whims. That’s what drives hazers. That power that fills the voids in their own lives, and instead allows them to punish the helpless pledge in order to come to grips with their own inadequacies. Let’s face the fact, those who participate in illegal hazing activities are the weak links in the fraternity and sorority. So why not get rid of them sooner than later?

Cull the herd before they do even more damage. If you belong to a chapter accused of having an illegal underground pledge process, everyone gets expelled. Brotherhood and sisterhood is about holding everyone accountable. Why wait until someone gets arrested? If you’re a chapter member and you find out that Jane Zeta, Joe Kappa, or Harry Omega is setting up an illegal pledge process, you better drop dime as soon as you can if you value your membership. You better take so much pride in finding hazers and calling them in, that you’ll take pride in putting “Hazer Snitch” on your favorite fraternity or sorority jacket. You worried about what the hazer will think of you after you turn them in? Get over it, because I can guarantee that Jane Zeta or Harry Omega doesn’t give a damn about your membership as long as they can get away with what they’re doing. You’re just collateral damage.

And if the organizations don’t start expelling members left and right, then you’re going to see a permanent trend of what’s happening on college campuses right now. I’ve been on my annual Divine Nine black fraternity and sorority lecture tour and the decimation of black fraternity and sorority chapters on college campuses I’ve visited has been nothing short of stunning. At universities that used to have seven or eight black fraternities and sororities with ten or more members, you now find one or two chapters, with only three or four members each. Think the various hazing lawsuits, hazing injuries, and hazing deaths aren’t having an impact? Think again. The hazers in our fraternities and sororities are leaving a legacy that will take years to repair, and since we see from this Zeta case that they’re willing to keep hazing after they’ve left school, their damage is both ongoing and consistent.

As black fraternities and sororities, we’ve tried to be cool. We’ve bent over to be fraternal. We tried understanding. We did the suspension thing, the revoking the chapter charter thing. Now it’s time to do the draconian thing I’m not interested in the accused hazers stories. I’m not interested in how good a person they really are. I’m not interested in waiting until the legal system makes a decision. I just want to know: Did you have an illegal underground process and were you there? If so, I’d want your shingle, your paraphernalia and your membership card. Tell your tales of woe about how you weren’t given due process by the sorority or fraternity to someone who gives a damn. Because it’s quite clear that when you participated in an illegal underground pledge program, you certainly didn’t give a damn about anyone except yourself and your own needs. And that’s as unfraternal as it gets.