Injustice in Initiation
Many vie for acceptance letters.
Too many die for acceptance and letters.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 16, 1963)
Over 50 years later, Dr. King’s words continue to echo around the world.
Known for his role in the advancement of civil rights for many communities through nonviolent civil disobedience, Dr. King leaves behind a legacy as a symbol of peace and justice. In addition to being a renowned proponent in 1960s Civil Rights Movement, King is also known for being initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. — one of the nine Black Greek Letter Organizations.
BGLOs recognize the injustices of the past which motivated their inception as well as the injustices of the present which they combat through their service, but one thing that many chapters fail to recognize is the injustice that manifests in their initiation processes. Fraternal organizations that haze their pledges do so with the goal of building solidarity and ensuring loyalty, but whether or not it works, these processes are not the best way to achieve it. Hazing is abuse and assault (which have always been unlawful), but it required the raised awareness of civil and human rights over the last several decades to be seen as a violation of those rights. Although 44 states and the District of Columbia have explicit anti-hazing laws, many fraternities and sororities across the country (not just BGLOs) continue to subject pledges to various hazing rituals.
Officially, the National Pan-Hellenic Council cracked down on hazing in 1990 in response to a death of a student named Joel Harris who died while pledging Alpha Phi Alpha at Morehouse College. According to Hank Nuwer’s list — a detailed chronology of 183 deaths among U.S. college students as a result of hazing, initiation, and pledging-related accidents between 1838 to 2014 — Harris’ death was just one of 11 cases involving BGLOs. Subsequently, the NPHC agreed to disband pledging as form of admission in their Joint Position Statement against Hazing,* but instead the process went entirely underground.
Today, every organization claims to forbid hazing in its membership process, and many of them are telling the truth. Nevertheless, in the most comprehensive study of hazing to date, researchers found that more than half of college students involved in clubs, teams, and organizations experience hazing. Students often decide not to report the abuse they experience in hazing and the members keep themselves from getting caught through careful discretion.
Acceptance is a need. People accommodate, compromise, and endure for inclusion. In hazing, sacrifice is a prerequisite for earning and proving loyalty in an organization. According to dissonance theory, hazing increases the subjective value of the group, which is why even when someone is severely abused and humiliated, they will go to great lengths to convince themselves it was worth it.
Hazing practices have been around for thousands of years among various cultures around the world. One example is the tradition among Tsonga groups in which boys attend “circumcision school” to undergo initiation (though it is not as common today). In addition to learning history and marital duties, they also endure severe hazing by men in the community before they are admitted adult membership in the group. Anthropologists Whiting, Kluckhohn, and Anthony (1958) provide a vivid description of a boy’s experience in the three-month ordeal:
The initiation begins when each boy runs the gauntlet between two rows of men who beat him with clubs. At the end of this experience he is stripped of his clothes and his hair is cut. He is next met by a man covered with lion manes and is seated upon a stone facing this “lion man.” Someone then strikes him from behind and when he turns his head to see who has struck him, his foreskin is seized and in two movements cut off by the “lion man.” Afterward he is secluded for three months in the “yard of mysteries,” where he can be seen only by the initiated.
During the course of his initiation, the boy undergoes six major trials: beatings, exposure to cold, thirst, eating of unsavory foods, punishment, and the threat of death. On the slightest pretext, he may be beaten by one of the newly initiated men, who is assigned to the task by the older men of the tribe. He sleeps without covering and suffers bitterly from the winter cold. He is forbidden to drink a drop of water during the whole three months. Meals are often made nauseating by the half-digested grass from the stomach of an antelope, which is poured over his food. If he is caught breaking any important rule governing the ceremony, he is severely punished. For example, in one of these punishments, sticks are placed between the fingers of the offender, then a strong man closes his hand around that of the novice, practically crushing his fingers. He is frightened into submission by being told that, in former times, boys who had tried to escape or who had revealed the secrets to women or to the uninitiated were hanged and their bodies burned to ashes, (p. 360)
As dangerous and seemingly outlandish as it may appear, the process is actually similar in principle and even in detail to the initiation practices of today’s fraternal organizations — including BGLOs. In order to gain membership, pledges must endure weeks of activities (designed by the current members) that test limits of physical exertion, psychological strain, and social embarrassment. In Influence: Science and Practice, Dr. Robert Cialdini uses contemporary reports of hazing to point out examples of the six trials mentioned above finding their way into modern hazing rituals:
- Beatings
Fourteen-year-old Michael Kalogris spent three weeks in a Long Island hospital recovering from internal injuries suffered during a Hell Night initiation ceremony of his high-school fraternity, Omega Gamma Delta. He had been administered the “atomic bomb” by his prospective brothers, who told him to hold his hands over his head and keep them there while they gathered around to slam fists into his stomach and back simultaneously and repeatedly. - Exposure to cold
On a winter night, Frederick Bronner, a California junior college student, was taken 3,000 feet up and 10 miles into the hills of a national forest by his prospective fraternity brothers. Left to find his way home wearing only a thin sweat shirt and slacks, Fat Freddy, as he was called, shivered in a frigid wind until he tumbled down a steep ravine, fracturing bones and hurting his head. Prevented by his injuries from going on, he huddled there against the cold until he died of exposure. - Thirst
Two Ohio State University freshmen found themselves in the “dungeon” of their prospective fraternity house after breaking the rule requiring all pledges to crawl into the dining area prior to Hell Week meals. Once locked in the house storage closet, they were given only salty foods to eat for nearly two days. Nothing was provided for drinking purposes except a pair of plastic cups in which they could catch their own urine. - Eating of unsavory foods
At Kappa Sigma house on the campus of the University of Southern California, the eyes of eleven pledges bulged when they saw the sickening task before them. Eleven quarter-pound slabs of raw liver lay on a tray. Thick cut and soaked in oil, each was to be swallowed whole, one to a boy. Gagging and choking repeatedly, young Richard Swanson failed three times to down his piece. Determined to succeed, he finally got the oil-soaked meat into his throat where it lodged and, despite all efforts to remove it, killed him. - Punishment
In Wisconsin, a pledge who forgot one section of a ritual incantation to be memorized by all initiates was punished for his error. He was required to keep his feet under the rear legs of a folding chair while the heaviest of his fraternity brothers sat down and drank a beer. Although the pledge did not cry out during the punishment, a bone in each of his feet was broken. - Threats of death
A pledge of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity was taken to a beach area of New Jersey and told to dig his “own grave.” Seconds after he complied with orders to lie flat in the finished hole, the sides collapsed, suffocating him before his prospective fraternity brothers could dig him out.
While each BGLO possesses its own unique history and origins, all nine were established in hopes of cultivating solidarity and increasing opportunities for Black students. After all, American schools were not initially intended for people of color. Gaining the same access to these institutions as their white counterparts required Black people to fight against the injustices set in place to bar them for such liberties.
Of course, the topic of injustice is nothing new to Black Americans. From trans-Atlantic slave trade to involuntary servitude, the old Jim Crow to the New Jim Crow, three-fifths of the vote to two-fifths of the prison, Strange Fruit fatalities to police brutality — injustice rings louder than Liberty’s bell.
Most Black Americans are aware that this country’s institutions were not built for them. Navigating a space as an inherent outsider is uncomfortable and dehumanizing on its own, but trying to do so while seeking inclusion and dealing with the stress of academic rigor is an extremely taxing experience. Research shows that academically and socially integrated students are more likely to succeed in college. Given the historical factors fostering the exclusion of Black students, creating safe spaces and cultivating community is especially vital for their success.
A sense of belonging is especially important since many Black students report feelings of isolation on college campuses. Stephanie McClure (2006) found that BGLOs are among the effective community organizations that play a significant role for both members and nonmembers on campus. This is because these organizations attempt to integrate all Black students, which helps combat feelings of isolation. Undoubtedly, there is value in the connections they make and the service they do, but it does not justify the mistreatment and danger involved in hazing.
Practitioners of hazing consider it to be the “physical conditioning of the mind” with the purpose of building solidarity and ensuring an appreciation for membership. Whether or not one believes that undergoing weeks or months of psychological abuse, severe humiliation, and physical assault fulfills this supposed purpose is their prerogative — but certainly, it is not the best way to achieve it.
Note: The NPHC Joint Position Hazing Statement links to the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. domain because it could not be found on the NPHC website itself.
