Brotherhood or brothers in the ‘hood’? Debunking the ‘educated gang’ thesis as black fraternity and sorority slander

Abstract

In this article the author explores the controversial thesis that African American Collegiate Fraternities and Sororities, also known as Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs), are ‘educated gangs’. First, the author examines this polemic as a ‘truth claim’ and compares BGLOs and gangs through: (1) hazing; (2) rape and substance abuse; (3) social constructions of black masculinity and femininity; (4) social structure; and (5) cultural aesthetics. Second, the author finds the legitimacy of the ‘educated gangs’ thesis untenable due to the racist nature of the discourse itself. Third, the author argues that BGLOs are deemed ‘educated gangs’ via a nouveau ‘culture of poverty’ ideology, the exaction of ‘symbolic violence’, and the propagation and protection of a normative and pure whiteness that is constructed relationally to a demonized and vilified blackness.