Word association: fraternities. If you just thought “UC Denver,” congratulations. You’re the only one who thought that. And UCD is probably even further from your mind if you think “black fraternities.”
Nevertheless, Omega Psi Phi, a black fraternity here at UCD, is alive and well. Last week, the fraternity brought Rasheed Cromwell, a Washington, D.C. attorney, fraternity researcher, and graduate member of Omega, to talk about the much-maligned practice of pledging and its evil twin, hazing.
Since 1989, the National Pan-Hellenic Council, which oversees the nine national black fraternities and sororities, has officially disallowed hazing, after the widely publicized death of one student during a hazing ritual for Alphi Phi Alpha, the oldest black fraternity. But although pledging is “still technically outlawed,” said Cromwell, “it still goes on.”
Cromwell said, and Omega members at the talk confirmed, that “black fraternity” does not necessarily mean “all-black fraternity”—all races are welcome. All of the “Divine Nine,” however, are mostly black, having begun as symbols of black solidarity in the heavily white academia of the “separate but equal” era. “They started [fraternities] to survive,” said Cromwell.
Over time, black fraternities adopted their own versions of the traditionally “Greek” practice of pledging.
The practice of pledging is modeled on traditional rites of passage, many of which came from West Africa, said Cromwell. He added that the pledging practices of both black and traditionally white fraternities have influenced each other over time.
“It’s a series of tests over a period of time that the young men or young women go through together,” said Cromwell.
The difference between pledging and hazing, said Cromwell, is that pledging is physical, emotional, and spiritual, while hazing is “purely physical, and done with malice.” It’s a distortion, he said, of what the process is supposed to be.
“Pledging has a purpose,” he said. “Hazing does not.”
Jeffrey Smith, one of the visitors to the talk, pledged Omega in 1980 at Lane College in Tennessee. Though he declined to elaborate much, he said he had “a good pledging process.” Smith was born in Denver and currently works here as a financial services manager. He said he came to the talk because the subject intrigued him.
Anthony McCree, an audio engineering major at UCD and undergrad Omega member, and Chris Gantz, Jr., a Metro alumnus and graduate Omega member, both said that they had not pledged.
“I just went through the membership selection, membership intake,” said McCree, referencing the three-day process currently sanctioned by the Pan-Hellenic Council.
In spite of not participating in the full nine-week pledge process of yore, both McCree and Gantz agreed that they’d gotten something out of their membership. Gantz said he had grown up around gangs, and that Omega had given him an alternative.
“I could’ve went that route,” he said. “I chose not to…it changed my life for the positive.”
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