Re-membering Black Greeks: Racial Memory and Identity inStomp the Yard

Abstract

Critical sociological analysis suggests that the film Stomp the Yard immerses its audience in a myopic legend of African American fraternities and sororities. Combining historical photos of Civil Rights leaders, traditions of ‘stepping’, tales of meritocratic social uplift, and romanticized aspects of historically black college or university (HBCU) culture, Stomp the Yard reveals a hyper-individualistic, conservative, and politically blunted form of historiography. Specifically, five ideological mythologies ground the film’s construction of Civil Rights memory and racialized identities. These mythologies decisively fail to interrogate the complexity of black fraternities and sororities. In so doing, they invite a critical blindness to these organizations’ role in past Civil Rights struggles as well as their intersection with contemporary issues such as classism, hazing, and resistance to contemporary forms of racism and racial inequality.