What it’s like to be black in a white sorority at Vanderbilt

As of 2015, about 43 percent of people and 52 percent of females in campus are involved in Greek life. With about half the school actively in Greek life, the result is that it has a large presence here on campus. At Vanderbilt, and most schools across the country, both National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) and National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) sororities exist.

The main difference between the two? Race.

The former are historically predominantly full of Caucasian students whereas the latter are historically predominantly African-American students. As a result of the racial divide in sororities, a similar divide is seen at Vanderbilt among the students.

For Simi Odugbesan, a Nigerian-American, growing up in the suburbs meant that Panhellenic sororities were the only sororities that she had exposure to. Most girls who came to Vanderbilt from her boarding school, Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut seemed to rush and end up in Kappa Alpha Theta just as she happened to this spring.

 

What she didn’t expect was the backlash from a member of the strong black community here at Vanderbilt.

This acquaintance approached her while at a friend’s surprise birthday and began badgering her, asking repeatedly, “Why are you here?” Confused, Simi just laughed it off and asked the acquaintance about it a bit later. The acquaintance responded, “I just was trying to make you feel bad, I genuinely didn’t know why you here.” The underlying question being, “Why are you here with black people instead of the white friends that you normally are with?”

Simi takes this criticism with grace. She is aware that others judge her and she understands why they question her.

When Simi first came to Vanderbilt, she said: “I have never seen a racial divide as intense and conspicuous as it is here. I realized that coming to this campus, I was expected to make a choice between my white friends and my black friends.”

Rather than make a choice, Simi sees this as a challenge—to bring together the different communities in her life.

If an outsider were to look at the NPC sororities at Vanderbilt, they would see a mostly homogenous group of white girls. When Simi began her rush process, she was disappointed to see very few girls of color. However, in her first semester, she was able to make a solid group of friends—of various races. This encouraged her to still rush NPC to become the girl that she was looking for when she first came to this school.

She said: “I’d rather make the extra effort to have one foot in both communities and pull them together. I’m not saying I can change 6,000 undergraduates or the social dynamic of this school, but already, I know I can change Vanderbilt for some people.”

However, Simi’s not the first student to come into school with this attitude.

Allison Smith is an African-American student who also has one foot in both communities as a member of Vanderbilt’s cheer team, a NAACP chairperson, and a member of Alpha Chi Omega. As a senior, she has spent the last four years learning how to balance being a member of both communities.

Coming to Vanderbilt, Allison didn’t expect to be in a sorority, but she was attracted to the closeness of the sisters and the opportunity to meet others. She had a diverse group of friends in high school and wanted to continue that instead of closing herself off to one community.

In her four years, she’s noticed that people don’t typically have friends of no color on purpose but rather by accident. People tend to meet people based on the organization that they’re in and many times those are racially homogenous. However, she found that it took until her junior year to fully become a part of the black community.

While she didn’t face outspoken judgment, she said: “A lot of people just ask me why and if I enjoy it. More questions came from my family wanting to make sure if the people in my sorority were treating me well.”

After fully becoming a member of the black community, she’s found the balance that she felt that she was looking for even though it felt like sometimes she would have to make a choice.

Luckily, there’s been no hostility from anyone in her sorority or at any other events. She’s been grateful for her sisters support and appreciated their outspokenness when it comes to topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement.

Raven Delk, another sophomore at Vanderbilt, has had a similar experience at Vanderbilt. A member of Zeta Tau Alpha, Raven rushed NPC because she wanted to meet a variety of people and to take advantage of a new experience. The people she has surrounded herself with have been very supportive of her decision to join Zeta and to even become a part of her sorority’s executive board.

Surprisingly, joining a NPC sorority has actually made her more inclined to make more of an effort to stay connected to the black community.

Like Simi, she sees it as a unique opportunity to bring communities together since she doesn’t want to lose her connection to the strong black community. However, she did admit that it is something that she definitely had to put in effort to achieve and that she wonders what life would be like if she hadn’t rushed.

When asked if she regretted her decision, she responded: “People worry a lot about perception. Will people perceive me differently and as a result, treat me differently if I am in a Panhellenic sorority? But at the end of the day, you can’t do anything about people’s perceptions, you can only control your own experience and do what is right for you.

“When you do that, if your intentions are in the right place, then the right people will not judge you or think differently of you. If people think less of you because of the letters you wear, then their opinions don’t matter.”

As a fairly small undergraduate college, it is easy for people to fall into their tight cliques. As a school that boasts “diversity” and “inclusion”, it is sad to see that many of these cliques coincide with race.

While racially divided sororities and fraternities cannot take the full blame for them, Greek life is a large part of the social scene here. Here is to all those taking initiative to break down these barriers and helping make Vanderbilt a truly more inclusive environment.