to be, or not to be greek.

i came to work this morning and was encouraged by a story i found in the online version of the arizona star. despite being in the minority, a group of young black men were honored by another group of black men effectively instilling a sense of hope and community among all who attended. the honors were part of a recognition ceremony sponsored by alpha phi alpha fraternity, incorporated.

while i could use this internet whitespace to reinforce the history and purpose of my beloved fraternity, the larger picture i want to portray to our readers is the symbolism of fraternity and its lasting impact in our community.

when i was in college, the idea of joining an organization seemed slightly useless. i knew they existed and attended some of the parties, but i was largerly jaded to their actual purpose. many times, when you hear about a fraternity or sorority in the news, it was because a young student seemingly made a wrong decision and either seriously hurt or killed another student in the process. not exactly the most favorable picture. even more, i had a lot of self-pride. i did things myself and did not want to be distracted by a group of seemingly assimilated individuals and their traditions.

i knew that my destiny would eventually come to an impasse seeing as how i was destined to pledge as a result of my father’s commitment. what was not immediately visible was the impact of such a commitment and the worldwide influence a group of black, educated people could have.

many times we preach unity and community. often, circumstances play out with a lot of talk, but rare action.

the history of black culture is defined by icons who not only talked about what needed to be done, but went about it in a diligent and focused manner. not surprisingly, those same individuals were part of a larger community that supported and enabled their causes ultimately changing the world we live in today.

in effect, the fraternity did not define them. the sum of their individual efforts defined a purpose for the fraternity ultimately bringing together educated individuals that make differences. the story in arizona is a great real-world example of this. a group of black men decided to honor those that are coming up after them in order to establish a connection. these young men will one day cure cancer, figure out the enigma of world peace, and change lives because of the sense of community they felt that day.

this ideal is something we continue to embody at ybpguide. it is no coincidence that its editors are also part of the first historically black, greek college fraternity and sorority.