Whites In Black Sororities And Fraternities

Ebony, Dec, 2000

IN many ways, Damien L. Duchamp is your typical Sigma. He believes in fellowship and community service. He's proud of his organization's history, dropping the names of famous members with the ease of reciting his own family tree. And did we mention he can step? Duchamp, decked out in his frat's blue and white, enjoys getting down with other Black Greeks.

But the 26-year-old from Woodstock, N.Y., stands out in this brotherhood founded by African-American men: He's White. Although he's not the first White member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, some say that his affiliation signals the growing presence of Whites in clubs that once were exclusively Black.

If you're envisioning a bunch of Eminem- and Teena Marie-look-alikes, get ready for the real. These White members fit no easy stereotypes. Instead, they come from all backgrounds--urban neighborhoods, Middle America and even the segregated South. Some grew up surrounded by Blacks, while others had little contact with African-Americans before college.

"Some of my brothers would say I'm probably the Whitest guy they know," says Duchamp, the assistant director for fraternity and sorority life at Longwood College who joined Phi Beta Sigma at Clemson University in 1997. "I grew up in a very Caucasian environment."

Originally founded as a haven for African-American college students against the backdrop of American racism, the national policies of today's nine predominantly Black fraternities and sororities are color-blind. Norma White, president of the nation's oldest Black sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA), told one reporter that diversity is a sign of the times. With honorary members such as Eleanor Roosevelt and members of all hues, she says AKA can no longer refer to itself as all-Black organization. White says the organization remains a sorority founded for and by Black women, but now it s interracial. That s a reality many Black organizations are facing.

People may be noticing White members more often, says Cassandra Black, National President of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc., but they're nothing new. "Our organizations, every one of them, have had some sort of White infusion probably almost since our founding, so to speak, whether through actual membership, honorary membership or support," she says. "Throughout the last decade, it was somewhat difficult to make inroads without having someone part of the status quo in your corner.

Black, a life member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, says Whites make up just a small percentage on the national rosters. But she's not surprised that the numbers are slowly increasing.

"It's happening more now because our organizations offer a couple of things that have turned out to be very desirable for non-African-Americans--perpetual membership and community service to name a few," she says. "We have a moral fabric that is more desirable to some people. Historically, White fraternities have reputations for drinking and other behaviors, and some people don't want to be associated with that."

Lucas Klein says he checked out a White fraternity his freshman year at Northwestern University but didn't feel a fit. "There was no reason to affiliate with people with whom I didn't have much in common other than the color of my skin," he says. "We had no common goals or beliefs."

Klein, who grew up in a diverse California neighborhood, says he had a different feeling when he observed the brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

"I viewed them being real and doing great things, and I wanted to be affiliated with that," says the 24-year-old Jewish-American who is studying for his MBA at Harvard. "I felt like they were the most influential of the fraternities on campus. The president of the student body was a `bruh'; they were always doing a lot of community service. They were very visible doing a lot of things I held in high regard."

Barbara Bartsch-Allen says she felt a similar kinship when she saw sisters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

"I am involved in women's rights and being associated with women who are doing good things is really important to me," says the 29-year-old Southern Methodist University alumna who joined the sorority in 1993. "The Deltas really stood out for doing community service and sisterhood."

Most Deltas embraced her interest right away, she says, though she has been challenged once. But reaction toward White "bruhs" and "sorors" varies in other cases from loving acceptance to curiosity to in extreme cases, agitated resistance.

Allen Pulsifer, a 37-year-old who in 1986 became the first White Kappa at Dartmouth University, says he's received a mixed reaction to his membership.

"Generally, it's very positive," he says, who counts Kappas among his best friends. "But realistically, it can't always happen that way. Sometimes I get a look or sometimes I get questioned. It's interesting. But once they talk to me, they know that I belong."

Martha Riley, a Sigma Gamma Rho who joined Alpha chapter at Butler University in 1992, says she's felt nothing but love.