Me...and my sisters...at Rhodes College...
I really don’t want to believe it.
I really don’t want to believe that doors are still being
closed to students of color at the University of Alabama.
Yet that’s exactly what major news outlets are alleging:
Sixteen “traditionally white” sororities are said to have refused to extend
membership invitations to young African-American women at the university during
this year’s rush week.
I really don’t want to believe it.
Not in my home state. Not at the “jewel school.” Not in
2013, fifty long years after then-Governor George Wallace used his own body to close the university’s door to
prevent African American students from entering.
And certainly not when one of those sixteen “traditionally
white” sororities happens to be my own, and when the women inside that house are
my sisters – members of Alpha Omicron Pi.
This is why I really don’t want – can’t bring myself – to believe
this story: because I know that on college campuses across the country, young
African American women are today – and have been for many years – pledging AOII
and many of the rest of these sororities, and experiencing these lifelong bonds
of friendship and sisterhood.
I really don’t want to believe this story because on the campus
of my alma mater, Rhodes College, even over thirty years ago, young African
American women, Jewish women, and women of Asian descent have been welcomed into
Greek life.
I really don’t want to believe this story because I am one
of those women who found no door closed at Rhodes College.
Although I had no idea what my prospects might be, at the time that I went through rush on the Rhodes campus, I
was fortunate enough (naïve enough...!) to have had no concept of just how unusual it might be for
a “traditionally white” sorority to extend a membership invitation to a young
woman of color…that is, until “bid night,” when a girl from my home town, who
was pledging another sorority, came up to me in the happy mayhem around “sorority
row,” hugged me, and told me just how special I must be to have been offered a
bid at my "first choice" house.
In that instant, I knew. And the value in my eyes of my new
sisters, who were welcoming me, a Jewish woman and a woman of Chinese descent
into their house, went up exponentially.
Today, my heart is breaking over allegations that beautiful,
talented, young African American women were turned away from sororities at
University of Alabama, told that they
were unwanted, told that they were less than desirable. It isn't true.
I’d like to be able to hug all of the young women who have
experienced this disappointment and tell them not to allow this one horrible
moment to define their lives or make them believe for even one moment that they
are second-class citizens. I’d like to
beg them not to let this one rejection to cause them to lose faith in the goodness
of God’s people in the world.
For today, I need to believe something more than these allegations. I really need to believe that, should I visit the
University of Alabama campus, I would be welcome in the AOII house. I really need to believe that, should our
daughter decide to attend University of Alabama, she would be welcomed
not only into the AOII house, but any other house that she might decide to
pledge.
I really need to believe that no more doors will ever be
closed to students of color at the University of Alabama, or any other college
or university.
Please, O Lord, let it be so.
