Posts Tagged ‘Delta Sigma Theta’

DELTA SIGMA THETA SORORITY, INC.

A Public Service Sorority Founded in 1913

Cerritos Area Alumnae Chapter

P.O. Box 3853, Cerritos, CA 90703-3853

(714) 517-7909

PRESS RELEASE:

Special Invitation To All NPHC Organizations

Join the Cerritos Area Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., as we present “Club Delta” at the Skylinks in Long Beach, California, featuring D.J. Mr. Quick from 7pm-Midnight.  Dress code strictly enforced. No tennis shoes please. Upscale attire. The cost is $25.00 in advance and $30 at the door.

To purchase tickets or make a donation, please call Yvonne Robinson at 562.805.1849. Proceeds will support the Projects, Programs and Scholarships of the chapter. This event is partially funded by the Marcedes Lewis Foundation.

For additional information about this event, please call Maya Fykes at (310) 490-5758.

Anyone with information can call Plano police at 972-941-2148, Corinth police at 940-498-2017 or Crime Stoppers at 1-877-373-8477.

_______

Police in the Dallas area are hunting a suspected serial rapist who appears to be targeting alumnae members of one sorority, and each of the victims told investigators the assailant seemed to have personal knowledge about them.

Four alumnae of the same sorority — black women in their mid-50s to early 60s — were raped in their Dallas-area homes over the last 11 months, apparently all by the same assailant, according to an alert sent out by the Plano, Texas, Police Department.

The most recent of the attacks occurred around 9:15 p.m. Friday in Corinth, police said.

The police statement did not identify the sorority, but the Dallas Morning News reported that it was Delta Sigma Theta, and that the sorority had sent out email alerts to alumnae.

Some alumnae of the sorority told ABC News that they themselves had not received the email alerts, but said they had heard about them from others.

Besides the attack in Corinth, in  Denton County, two of the rapes occurred in Plano and other in Coppell, both of which are in Dallas County.

The suspect, who is seen in a surveillance video released by the Plano police, is described as a black man, estimated to be in his late 30s to mid-40s, 5 feet seven inches to 6 feet tall and 250 to 300 pounds. He has a trimmed beard and short hair, and possibly a receding hairline, police said.

(Surveillance video below)

Each of the four attacks happened between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. According to the Morning News the alerts also advised that police have requested a full list of each chapter’s members.

“I am sure this is alarming and the area DFW Chapter presidents have received many phone calls in reference to these incidents,” the email said. “Our National President, National First Vice President and Regional Director are aggressively gathering information to distribute to the chapters.”

Anyone with information can call Plano police at 972-941-2148, Corinth police at 940-498-2017 or Crime Stoppers at 1-877-373-8477.

The Mo’Kelly Report is a syndicated politics and entertainment journal.  Visit http://mrmokelly.com for the latest from Mr. Mo’Kelly and contact him at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

Follow The Mo’Kelly Report

This has been forwarded to me by a number of people.  Mo’Kelly is NOT the author, although Omega Psi Phi fraternity is prominently featured throughout the editorial. I agree with some parts, disagree with others.  Some parts seem to be historically accurate, others not.

Nevertheless, the commentary is worthy of further discussion.  The text is posted as well a link for you to peruse on the original site.  The author is Abraham Lincoln Reynolds III.

http://reynoldsrevelations.com/2009/07/24/freedom-of-speech-a-fundamental-right-in-the-bglos.aspx

__________________________

Since I am a great grandson of a slave and had a grandfather who was born just a few years after the slaves were freed in this nation, I am adamant when it comes to free speech and American democracy.  My grandfather died in 1960 but I have never forgotten the stories he told about the conditions of slavery that his mother had shared with him.  How as a slave you kept your eyes to the ground and never looked up at the master.  How you only spoke when given permission.  How you did what you were told and never dared ask questions.  How if you expressed any thoughts that were other than those of the master’s or mistress, you were severely punished.  Some even experienced expulsion from the plantation, by being sold and hence separated from their families and existed for the rest of their life in exile just for communicating their thoughts and ideas to other slaves.

When a District Representative, which is a managing officer in Omega Psi Phi Inc., accuses a member of “Conduct unbecoming an Omega”, solely on the bases of what that member has written, then  expels that member and removes that member’s life membership paid for years in advance, I am reminded of my great grand parent’s slavery days.  First of all, “Conduct unbecoming an Omega” is a charge and accusation that is purely subjective with no written criteria to measure its accuracy and projects several different faces depending on what group of Omegas you know.  I have seen faces of those serving time in prison with Que brands that symbolized their membership and at similar times I have seen judges presiding over courts who were also members of that organization.   Both represent behavior found in the organization and maybe even found in some of its officers’ behaviors today.  When I was Vice President of John Howard and Associates, an international watchdog agency that monitored correction departments, I would on occasion visit prison sites and sometimes I would encounter two types of Omega men, those who were security guards and those who were prisoners.  Not having written criteria and since both hold membership in the same fraternity, one has to ask which behavior is characteristic of the organization.  This is an especially fair question since both prisoner and guard could be holding membership in the same fraternity at that time.  This, along with the fact that Omegas are known to be referred to as Dogs, a nickname acquired by them when the song “Atomic Dog” hit top music list back in the sixties,

(Mo’Kelly – No, Atomic Dog was from the 1982 album Computer Games…NOT the sixties)

would make it very hard to say what “Conduct unbecoming an Omega”, means as a rule or law.

Secondly laws or rules such as these have been used to oppress black people for generations.  Slave owners used oppressive tactics to deprive slaves of their dignity, thereby instilling a sense of fear and trepidation within them in order to control their thoughts and speech.  A slave’s most common offense was the crime of “Imprudence” and imprudence was almost anything.  It was just according to the whims of the master, mistress or overseer at the moment and is comparable to attitudes, whims and actions of some representing the Ques as well as several of the other Black Greek letter Organizations today.

The difference today is that the Thirteenth Amendment ended

Legalized slavery in the United States, a fact seemingly not recognized in some of the fraternities and sororities in terms of freedom of speech.  Members are not slaves compelled to keep their mouths shut and not speak their opinions.  They have a right to speak and express their views.  They have the right to expect Robert Rules of order to be the order of the day and the decorum by which meetings are conducted.   They have a right to receive an accurate and complete yearly financial report completed by an independent Certified Public Accountant.   Just as they have those rights, these same members have the right to debate, express their opinions and to have others write their opinions in official minutes.  All members have the right to challenge what they deem unreasonable, unjust or insane.  In this respect, all brothers and sisters are created equal and no master, mistress, overseer or elected black Greek officer can take that freedom away.

There is an interesting comparison between the suspension documents, used by the District Representative to try to suppress my freedom of speech in Omega Psi Phi, and the document of the Black Code that was enacted after the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment.  The Black Code was enacted by the Southern States to make useless the Thirteenth Amendment.  The Code restricted the rights of freed men under vagrancy and apprenticeship laws which in many opinions really served as a catch all phase for “I’m still your master and you are still my slave to do with what I want”.  But it was legal “imprudence.”  As a result of the enforcement of the Codes, freed men were imprisoned and punished for “insulting gestures,” or “seditious speeches.” This is a perfect example of a bias and self serving, subjective measurement of behavior established by those in power who fantasized that they are the masters of others and believe they hold and represent some invisible and mystical power that can prevent intelligent and free minds from speaking their opinions.

When compared to the suspension documents that I have seen coming from Omega Psi Phi Inc. a similar phase is referred to i.e., “committed acts that are unbecoming an Omega Man”.  It appears that the mentality of those thinking this way believed my behavior was an insulting gesture and a speech against them and the organization, so they enacted their own Black Code.  But unable to use vagrancy and apprenticeship laws, in a fraternal organization where such doesn’t apply, they used the exile from the village to a distant island concept, a no brainer, non starter so totally unenforceable, that a mosquito on an elephants’ behind would have more of an impact.

It is obvious that other BGLOs are practicing the same hypocrisy with this worthless imitation of the Black Code.  Zeta Phi Beta and Alpha Kappa Alpha, two of the black Greek sororities, have cases pending in the courts in part for similar expulsions.  And in an unrelated court case, Omega Psi Phi has just lost a libel and slander case in Illinois, where the court’s Decision found in favor of Attorney Gerald Scott McCarthy, an Omega and the plaintiff in the case.

All of these cases and the courts’ findings will be spot lighted here as ReynoldsRevelations shines its light on the darkness of depriving person’s of one of their God given rights the freedom to speak and even the anointed BGLOs must not be allowed to take that away.

When it comes to Omega Psi Phi, I think the Founders, one of whom I was honored to have spent time with personally, i.e. “Brothers Cooper, Coleman, Love and Just” would agree that all Brothers are created equal and therefore have an equal voice.  I think they also would agree that it is a travesty to send out the message to young black men that they don’t have freedom of speech.  That is not a good idea.  And to show by example that they don’t have that right, is even worse.

********Just a pragmatic and realistic great grand son of a slave who says, “Only those who call for silence fear what is to be heard!”******

_____________

The Divine Nine BGLOs

UPDATE 7.30.09: NEW Discussion Piece – Freedom of Speech in the BGLOs, but with Omega Psi Phi in the center of the discussion.  Click HERE

_________________

Let Mo’Kelly say right off the top…this is NOT going to be a popular piece.  But Mo’Kelly never writes according to what might be “popular” only what needs to be said.  Let the hate-mail flow, but this needs to be said.

By now you’ve heard the news that historically Black fraternity Phi Beta Sigma has had a slew of high-profile honorary members inducted into the fraternity.

President Bill Clinton, Rev. Al Sharpton, Stevie Wonder, Martin Lawrence and other notables have been ushered into the ranks of the Phi Beta Sigma brotherhood.  All obvious jokes aside, the continuing discussion surrounding the complex and arguably controversial nature of honorary/celebrity “members” is part in parcel of the larger debate about the contemporary relevance of historically Black Greek-Letter Organizations (BGLOs).

There is a common blood line which runs through all of the “Divine Nine” BGLOs. All of their respective roots, traceable back to a time and place in which African-Americans could neither attend the same schools nor join the same collegiate organizations as Whites.  Their “need” and relevance were inarguable at the turn of the 20^th century and their direct impact on American history is unparalleled.  Most of the civil rights leaders and Black historical figures we know and celebrate today are/were members of these organizations.

In many ways, America “is,” because BGLOs “are.”

BGLO members are/were our teachers, our pastors, our soldiers, our mothers, our caregivers our doctors, lawyers et. al.  You likely can not meet anyone who hasn’t been positively influenced by a member of a BGLO.  It’s just not possible.

Yet somehow, some way, somewhere…the world of BGLOs was turned upside down on its way to the 21^st century.  There used to be a time in which the organizations developed future leaders and way-makers, their future success and achievements serving as a perpetual advertisement of their importance and influence.  In 2009, it is standard operating procedure for many of the organizations to simply seek out the already successful, already famous and of course considerably wealthy in the hopes of pinning their respective letters on them.

In lay vernacular, it’s become ass backwards.

There used to be a time in which the bond of brotherhood and sisterhood would have bound all members together, irrespective of era.  The rivalries between the organizations were intense but invariably respectful.  Yet ever since 1990 when most of the organizations first abolished officially sanctioned pledge programs, the strength of brotherhood and sisterhood largely devolved into “pledged vs. intake,” “real/made vs. paper,” “undergrad vs. graduate (initiated)”  The inter-organization rivalries were then supplanted by the intra-organizational elitism.  If there was one seminal moment in which we can point to the organizations having begun losing their collective way…it was in 1989 with the death of Morehouse student and Sphinxman (Alpha Phi Alpha pledge) Joel Harris.  The National Pan-Hellenic Council (the collective governing body for the BGLOs) abolished pledging across the board in response in 1990.

Of course, something needed to be done to address the spiraling costs of lawsuits and the financial havoc they wrought.  To some, the complete eradication of sanctioned pledging was an overreaction and knee-jerk response.  Unfortunately though, it signaled a separation and segregation arguably little different than the Jim Crow segregation which the most prominent members of the civil rights era fought against.  It’s doubtful that there was any more compelling example of the BGLOs earning the “elitist” criticism.  The same classism they collectively fought against; had in effect become the norm and status quo.  “Separate but equal” moved out of the deep south and into the Black supposed aristocracy.

In lay vernacular, it became ass backwards.

In the 21^st century, honorary members have become both the norm and for many the notoriously ridiculous for BGLOs.  If you are a famous singer, actor, politician or just a regular business person with ungodly amounts of money…it is quite likely that your name has been submitted for induction into one or more of the Divine Nine.  Gone were the days of the individual first seeking this fraternity or that sorority.  Gone were the days of the fledgling youth hitching his/her wagon to the star of the sorority or fraternity, hoping one day to become one of the “greats” listed in the annals of its history.  The 21^st century is the age in which the organizations have “sold out,” trading in their legacies to ride the coattails of the rich and famous.

The organizations want big names, big checks and instant status upgrades, calling into question where our collective priorities lie.

Yes, “our” collective priorities.…even my fraternity, Omega Psi Phi.

This isn’t a critique of any particular organization, but the recent high-profile inductions by Phi Beta Sigma fraternity offer the

"Blu Phi" Terrence Howard

perfect entry point into the discussion of the direction of the nine members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council.  All of our organizations are intertwined, and the future of one invariably affects all, as history has shown us.

The college sophomore with a 2.5 GPA with his heart set on Phi Beta Sigma and dreams of changing the world dancing in his head may not be selected for induction into the fraternity, but the actor Terrence Howard who attended the Pratt Institute (an art school), zero notable contributions to society and a questionable disposition towards women is freely given membership?  Martin Lawrence who has never seen the inside of a college classroom as a student is the

"Skee Wee" Alicia Keys

educational example Phi Beta Sigma fraternity wants young African-American men to emulate?  Alpha Kappa Alpha is somehow elevated by inducting Alicia Keys who dropped out of Columbia to pursue to her music career?

Really?  Honestly?

That’s ass backwards and it sends a troubling message, one that’s loud and clear.  Young people hear very well and recognize hypocrisy in all of its forms.

Beyond the manner in which members are chosen, selected or “pledged;” there has been a sliding scale in terms of the leadership.  It is illogical to think a person, the likes of vulgar comedienne Sheryl Underwood would have ever

Sheryl Underwood

become the face and voice of Zeta Phi Beta sorority twenty or more years ago.  It would have been simply unacceptable and surely the organization wouldn’t have sent out a press release “celebrating” her election.  Zeta would have had the good sense and home training to be too embarrassed to do so.  “Finer womanhood” and “Sheryl Underwood” simply could not and would not co-exist in the public space in previous generations.

If the 80s were the age of the hazing lawsuit, then the first decade of the 21^st century will undoubtedly be remembered as the age of embezzlement.  Although Zeta Phi Beta and Alpha Kappa Alpha sororities have most recently publicly battled its own leadership with lawsuits alleging all types of financial malfeasance and mismanagement, the same types of issues are bubbling under with most if not all of the other seven.

All…yes, all.  YOUR BLGO too.  Mine, yours, errrbody’s.

The argument can be made that as we collectively move further and further away from the principles of brotherhood and sisterhood and closer to big business, these are the inevitabilities.  The deficiencies in our brotherhood and sisterhood quotients have borne themselves out from the top down.

On the undergraduate level you hear more and more how it becomes harder for the lay person to distinguish the fraternities from the gangs, for often times the behavior is just that, indistinguishable.  Having nothing to do with our “hand signs,” the stepshow altercations between organizations have increasingly become the rule, not the exception.  Maybe the caliber of membership has decreased relative to the sheer numbers of African-Americans in college, which have also dropped.  Maybe the talent pool is just too shallow or maybe…just maybe, our organizations have become too shallow in and of themselves.  I will say without a doubt that there is a measurable and despicable criminal element within my very own Omega Psi Phi; an element in direct contradiction

Founders of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity

to everything my founders Oscar James Cooper, Frank Coleman, Edgar Amos Love and Dr. Ernest Everett Just championed.

Yup, I said it and I meant it.

It’s not the popular thing to say, but it needed to be said.

To be clear, there are many chapters of many BGLOs which are doing wonderful work in the community and around the country.  To allege otherwise would be simply untrue.  At the same time, there seems to be a growing trend of community inactivity.  This may be a function of the multi-cultural evolution of this country and the changing landscape of universities.

The all/majority Black Greek-letter organization doesn’t necessarily hold the same appeal to a college freshman in 2009 that it did in 1989 or even 1969.  Kids can “step” in high school (which aggravates Mo’Kelly to no end).  They don’t need to go to college and definitely don’t need to join an organization to reach the dangling carrot of stepping anymore.  Membership used to have its privileges, now people can get the privileges without the “inconvenience” of membership.  For instance…

http://www.highschoolstepshow.com/

Not only that, the big business of college athletics has also short-circuited the recruitment of members on the undergraduate level as many prized college athletes are forbidden from joining BGLOs.

President Clinton

It’s not lost on Mo’Kelly the need for our organizations to evolve as business entities.  But the foundations in which we all are built have noticeable cracks.  The solution is though NOT found in President Bill or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, First Lady Michelle Obama or whoever is the next unaffiliated star comedian or actress.  The solution is simply going back to the original intentions of our respective founders and highlighting educational and community service achievement, not fame and celebrity.

What does it say when in the latest round of Phi Beta Sigma honorary inductees, only the White man above has a degree from an accredited 4-year college or university?  Just ‘what’ does it say is being ‘honored’ with these ‘honorary’ inductions?

It says, it won’t be long before all of us are irrelevant and then extinct.