MLK In Historical Context

In the beginning of February, George Washington University’s sorority Alpha Phi has started lots of controversy. A girl in the sorority posted a Snapchat story of two of her sisters. One was holding a half-eaten banana. The caption to the snapchat was “Izzy: I’m 1/16 black”. We, at Rhodes, can assume what the reaction was to this, especially because of the Sock Monkey incident that happened about two years ago. By the morning the picture had been shared with thousands of people including school official’s, sorority senior officials’, and of course all-around campus. GW tweeted the next morning that they will “look into it”.

Imani Ross was one of the first students to ask GW to investigate the incident. “When one person acts up, everyone is responsible for correcting that behavior and everyone goes down for that behavior when it comes to a sisterhood and when it comes to a family as a whole. They are all responsible for it” said Ross.

The Black Student Union at GW called it a “shame that February, which is black history month began with posts from students containing racially insensitive content”. The next day there were talks planned by the Black Student Union, Multicultural Services and more that had over 200+ people in the audience. Ross also made a statement claiming that Alpha Phi never accepts anyone into their sorority but white girls. That is a pretty big statement, Ross. Personally, I take that with a grain of salt because there is always something someone else hates about a sorority. For further proof go to greekrank.com and almost any school you are looking for will have had a current, or former student write, mostly hostile, things about all the sororities and fraternities.

Overall, students of GW are demanding change. One student said “I would accept an apology and I could move past it. We can all I’m sure could move past it but first it has to be addressed.”

The three women who were involved in this Snapchat have been kicked out of the chapter. GW’s provost, Forrest Maltzman issued a statement, “Whatever the circumstance, or true intention of those involved, the image was disturbing, hurtful, and not reflective of who I know we are as a community”.

What do you guys think? Do you agree with everything Ross said, that its everyone’s responsibility to stop this from happening?