Skee-Wee

Destanie Smith
4 min readNov 18, 2019

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. Calling

History

All NPHC Greek organizations have a calling. These callings are done after strolls, hymns, and chants. Every organization has a different calling for an example AKA calling is “Skee-Wee”, Deltas calling is “OO-OOP”, SGRho calling is “EE-YIP” and many different more.

The calling Skee-Wee has been a part of AKA for many years now. In 2014 the launching of the calling Skee-Wee and the pinkie was Dimensions of Service Administration reinstating the usage of Skee-Wee. “On January 10, 2017, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority a sound mark having U.S. Reg. №5,116,853 for the “Skee-Wee” call.”

AKA was not only the first African American Greek letter organization but the first organization to secure a federal registration for a sound mark. AKA calling is a way of showing love towards the organization and having unity with your sisters in the organization.

Twitter Backlash

There was an incident not to long away were a Caucasian report called the Skee-Wee calling a “screeching sound.” Its reporter was not educated on the calling nor why it was done. Sometimes when a sister has spoken at an event when she is done other sisters may respond to her by the calling.

Kamala Harris was doing an event where she was talking about her new book “The Truths We Hold.” Harris went to Howard University and always joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. as well when she was there. At this event Chelsa Janes which is a Washington Post National Reporter was there live tweeting about the book tour. Harris has many of her sisters there from her sorority to support her. Many of her sisters showed love to Harris after California senator mentioned her affiliation with the historic organization. By showing love her sisters did their calling and Skee-Wee.

Janes went on twitter and tweeted “Member of her Howard sorority are in the room and screeched when she mentioned her time there. Did not expect to hear screeches here.” After so much backlash from the black twitter community Janes then goes back on twitter and apologize stating “Guys, I’m so sorry. Had never heard about the Skee Wee call before, but I certainly have now. Meant only to convey enthusiasm in the room!”

Many people are not educated on the Greek life such as what it stands for, what the purpose is, the callings, the letters, the colors and much more. We are easily offended when comments like this are made. It’s understandable that she wasn’t educated on the calling or AKA but it’s a lesson learn before you speak out on something you have to educate yourself first. Lanes received many harsh backlashes from her tweet from members of AKA only defending their organization and educating Lanes on her comment. On of the major comments that caught Twitter attention was “A reminder that white culture is dominant culture so the next time someone asks me why there isn’t a white history month I’ll remind you we know all your Sig Eps and your Alpha Phis but y’all know none of ours & the fact that we had to create them bc we were restricted from yours.”

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. is an African American organization that was founded at the campus of Howard University January 15, 1908 in Miner Hall. If you would like to know more you can go to aka1908.com

This graph gives you the history of each African American Greek letter sorority organization that is a part of NPHC. In each box you will read how they were developed, and you will see each organization calling. As you can see, we all have different callings and were found on different days. At the bottom of the graph you will read about NPHC knowing what kind of council/organization it is. Yes, there are nine organization, but I only listed the African American women organizations on this graph. If you want to know more about each organization, you can go to https://www.nphchq.org/quantum/.

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