Black, Greek, and read all over: newspaper coverage of African-American fraternities and sororities, 1980–2009

Abstract

Moving out of the shadows of their secret roots, African-American fraternities and sororities or ‘Black Greek-Letter Organizations’ (BGLOs) have recently witnessed an explosion of attention. From Hollywood depictions to academic scholarship, BGLOs' form and function, in a world increasingly hailed as ‘post-racial’, is increasingly interrogated. Activists, members, and scholars commonly argue that BGLOs suffer from a dearth of quality media representation; they are propelled into mainstream discourse only in relation to tales of violent hazing or coverage of stepping. Yet, no empirical work to date has considered this topic. Moreover, given current theoretical debates over either the one-sided framing or the fragmented state of racial media representations, we examine a random sample of the last thirty years of US newspaper articles on BGLOs (N = 1,917). While findings are mixed, we illuminate clear patterns that simultaneously constrain and enable the representation of BGLOs and African-American civic participation.