Bama Rush: Everything We Learned About Sorority Culture

The sororities on the College of Alabama have been solely formally built-in in 2013, although the Panhellenic Affiliation stays predominantly white. In keeping with the college’s newspaper The Crimson White, white college students accounted for about 89 p.c of potential new members however made up about 85 p.c of the UA undergraduate inhabitants in spring 2021. Roughly 1.3 p.c of pledges recognized as Black, per the paper, with 97 p.c of the Black PNMs who accomplished the recruitment course of receiving bids—”the next charge than every other racial group,” The Crimson White famous.

Bama Rush briefly goes into the historical past of the Divine 9, that are the 9 traditionally African American Greek-letter organizations, together with Alpha Kappa Alpha, the primary African-American sorority on sorority row. 

Rian, who’s biracial, defined why she determined to hurry exterior the Divine 9.

“To be in a D9 sorority, I really feel like there’s a tie to historical past that it’s good to have,” Rian shares. “Even when I had grow to be extra comfy with who I used to be in a racial sense, I nonetheless really feel like I would not slot in there as a result of I used to be raised by white individuals. I believe they might have accepted me, however I believe I would not have accepted myself sufficient to get the sorority expertise I might have been proud of.”

Nonetheless, Rian famous she had handled microaggressions, whereas one of many doc’s featured PNMs, Mikalya Miller, opens up in regards to the battle of being a biracial girl. 

“Everybody simply appears to be like at you, when you’ve got any drop of colour in you,” Mikalya says. “It is simply awkward, I assume.”