Let's Clarify This Hazing Thing

I’ve e-mailed a few people about their comments on the post about hazing, and I notice that most people agree on this more than their posts indicate.  Or maybe it’s just that I agree with some of the pro-hazing segment of the discussion has to say.
I really don’t see it as being such a bad thing that frats make guys do some wack things to gain entry.  It’s the same way I don’t have a problem with freshmen basketball players being forced to carry bags and things like that.  Seniority based systems aren’t such a bad thing to me.  Of course, I ain’t so keen on doing any of that shit myself, but I don’t have a principled objection to them.
I do, however, have a principled objection to laying hands on someone simply because one can.  And don’t try for a minute to convince me that beating the shit out of someone as part of the intake process isn’t that. What is being taught in a beating?  Someone explain that to me briefly, please.  Where is the lesson?
I also happen to agree that there are few ways to create genuine bonds in ten weeks.  However, I’d also argue there is no way to artificially manufacture a genuine bond in such a short period of time.
But then again, that doesn’t matter.  The days of the ten-week process are gone.  These dudes essentially wind up on line forever, simply because it’s known how badly people want to be in frats.  I’ve watched dudes give up dollar after dollar trying to be down.  I’ve seen them put forth the money the frat “raised” for some charity.  I’ve seen dudes hop up in the middle of the night because someone told them in September to be on some corner with $15 and a dub-sack of weed…for a line that didn’t even truly begin until January…and didn’t cross until April.
My eyes tell me that intake in most frats and sororities is beyond repair.  The biggest problem is the frats themselves have demonstrated no real effort to curb hazing.  Non-greeks know way too much about the hazing that goes on for me to believe the organizations are really trying to fix the problem.  How could I know about somebody that’s been cut during pledging but the governing bodies not know?  Because nobody’s gonna tell!
See, that’s where the problems come up.  Monitoring this stuff requires a serious level of self-policing.  And who is going to do that in the current landscape?  Tell on your “brother” or “sister,” the whole chapter suffers–if not the whole organization–and the person doing the telling gets ostracized.  Tell on the people pledging you and you get ostracized.  And considering how much of this system is built around the desire its members and wannabe members to be accepted, then ostracism is as strong a penalty as there is to keep people quiet.
So, does anyone know a way for this system to remain in place without incidents like this taking place?  And who truly believes this one is isolated?
Here’s my take–even if you think that hazing has its place, you have to admit that doing so properly (whatever that is) in the current landscape is impossible.  To me, it’s like the death penalty–even if you think it’s morally defensible, the system in place now has proven incapable of meting out the sentence fairly and, therefore, should the penalty should be eliminated.
So given the attitudes of those who run these systems and those that willingly enter them, tell me how in the world hazing should be allowed if it’s used so poorly.
Once this is viewed pragmatically, I have no idea how anyone can defend any of this.
None.

6 thoughts on “Let's Clarify This Hazing Thing”

  1. Bo, this is gonna be a long one.
    I think we’re using a few terms interchangeably that we shouldn’t. Being beaten and hazed is not the same thing as being pledged. It’s just not. So I can’t give you a good reason why what happened at FAMU is acceptable – nor can anyone else, hence the judge’s ruling. All I can do is tell you that my process made my organization more effective than our peers on our campus and our brothers on other campuses who were either “hazed” or “paper.”
    All processes are not the same. Standing on the corner to give your big brothers weed is not what this is about; is nothing like what I went through; and definitely isn’t something I advocate. It seems like a big problem is that most people – in the system and those looking in from the outside – just don’t know why these organizations were founded and what they are supposed to be about.
    Most of these organizations actually have taken serious steps to punish those caught hazing. Despite what some may think, getting caught in this type of situation in my organization is not taken lightly. I’m really interested in seeing what Kappa Alpha Psi has to say about this FAMU situation. I haven’t seen anything yet.
    Being pledged – not hazed – properly is VERY possible … it’s just hard as hell. To me, the fact that there are chapters who still do it proves just that. As far as I’m concerned, those who are doing it right should keep doing it, but those who aren’t need to be stopped.
    And lastly, the bottom line is that everything clearly needs to be revamped. Hazing is unacceptable. But filling out an application and submitting a check and being a “brother” in an hour is just as unacceptable. The organizations need to make a concentrated effort to manage ALL processes on a national level. While there are discussions in my organization to move towards that, I honestly don’t see it happening anytime soon – the opinions are to varied. So the only option now is to keep severely punishing those who get caught in extreme situations until they figure something out. What more can they do? They’ve already made hazing illegal.

  2. Fraternities are not service organizations. Our organizations are more devoted to service than white fraternities, but they are first and foremost Brotherhoods. If someone joins these organizations JUST to do service than they really are doing it for the wrong reasons, particularly given the price of entry.
    My opinions on this issue are probably much more conservative/old school than those not in fraternities, but they are much more liberal now than they were 20 years ago. I have always been open to different methods of accomplishing the goal of building Brothers, but now I am more open to the idea of placing severe restraints on undergrad activities. What I understand now, but did not then, is that undergrads are caretakers of their chapters–they are barely in a chapter for two years before they are out.
    What these brothers have done is the exact opposite of what they WANTED to do. They wanted to extend and build upon a storied legacy. Instead they have crippled it, at the local level at the very least.

  3. Although I actually underwent a process, I don’t think for one second that people who don’t are any less of a brother. We are all affiliated under the auspice of a community-service oriented organization. What could be more unifying than that?
    Besides, if you have a problem with doing more than filling out an application and paying a fee to become a member of a service organization, then maybe I should watch for flying wood at NABJ this summer. I’m sure George Curry can throw a n*gga in the cut real quick…

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