Performative Action in the UNC Panhellenic Council
At the height of the George Floyd protests over the summer and the rise of activism for the Black Lives Matter movement, many organizations at UNC released solidarity statements with the movement. Some of the organizations included sororities and fraternities, who have also released Instagram statements that have expressed sympathy and shared resources.
I never fully understood what performative action meant until coming to UNC and noticing the trends over this past summer regarding the Black Lives Matter movement. I was surprised about the amount of statements that filled my Instagram feed who started to share their regrets and resources from Panhellenic Council sororities and the fraternities of the Interfraternity Council (IFC). There have been multiple accusations of racial profiling and racial exclusivity of people of color almost all IFC fraternities and Panhell sororities. Over the summer and even during this semester, it is still evident that though they may stand with the Black Lives Matter collective, they do not further their stance past their social media posts.
Almost all Panhellenic sororities have posted solidarity statements, repeating the same words in the same order: “deeply saddened,” “regrets,” “hard to see.” Kappa Kappa Gamma released a statement on their Instagram that their sorority started donations of at least 50 dollars to donate toward the Black Visions Collective. Their dues, according to the UNC Panhellenic Council’s website, are between $1,500-$3,400 per semester, with at least over 35 members. With the amount of money per sister pays to be a part of her sorority that pays for their luxurious houses and multiple mixers, there are other minority sororities that don’t have their own house on campus nor any money to have events. These minority sororities have donated more than the amount of their own dues. Kappa Phi Lambda and Alpha Kappa Delta Phi, both Asian-interest sororities, a part of the Multicultural Greek Council, with dues under $800 and with less than 35 members, donated all together over $5000.
According to this Twitter thread of photos, UNC’s Alpha Delta Pi’s new pledge class did not feature any women of color. In their recruitment video that they posted last month; I did not see one woman of color featured in that post.
The Panhellenic Council, in response to the activist movement, created a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee in order to “address the racial, economic, and social injustices, and the overall lack of diversity, in [their] community,” according to their page caption on their website. Out of the 17 members of this committee, less than seven are women of color.
While the Panhellenic sororities at UNC make a great effort in utilizing their platforms to show support, spread awareness and provide resources to help toward the Black Lives Matter movement, it seems almost hypocritical and forced to do so. They do not have a large inclusive community, have a highly ironic and uneven diversity and inclusion committee, and they lack involvement with the other Multicultural Greek organizations on campus. When I look through their Instagrams, I rarely ever see any women of color. I rarely ever see women of color rush. When I go on their Instagram posts, they’ve limited their comments to their own sisters and turned off the comments in some posts. Over the summer and the semester, I have been really confused about how inclusive and active they are in including and sympathizing with the Black community, when there is a low percentage of women of color, especially Black women. I am confused when they refuse to be held accountable for their actions and only make excuses to have the lack of inclusivity as they do. I am deeply burdened and upset that there is no further action to show that they are against the racial injustices other than with an Instagram photo and a paragraph caption. I applaud organizations like Epsilon Eta, the environmental fraternity, who abolished their organization “as the most direct course of action to dismantle white supremacy.” Historically, fraternities and sororities are a part of a racially biased system that, at first, excluded people of color, until the National Panhellenic Council and Multicultural Greek Councils were formed. Before coming to college, I didn’t think sororities and fraternities for people of color existed. I never wanted to join a sorority because I, at a younger age, internalized that sororities were only for a specific race and I wouldn’t be included. If the Panhellenic sororities are so adamant about creating a diverse and inclusive space to educate their sisters about systemic racism and have diversity, why do I still picture white women when someone mentions a sorority?
Image source: @unczta