







Originally published at Cue the Rant. Republished with permission from the author.





Tierra is a proud Mississippi native who obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Journalism from The University of Southern Mississippi and recently graduated from Louisiana State University with a Master of Arts degree in Higher Education Administration. This educated and southern socialite currently resides in Atlanta and works in the University System of Georgia as a Student Affairs Professional. Her interests include access into higher education, social justice, and mentoring high school and college-aged students.

As a black woman, who also happens to be member of a historically black sorority, I’m confused about and in awe of the elitism of my peers. After years and years of Love & Hip Hop, Basketball Wives, and other Monday night foolery on VH1, now you all want to be upset at VH1’s portrayal of black women because it finally hits home? Really? Wake up.To my fellow black Greeks who claim the show is a misrepresentation of what your sorority stands for: you need to step back and take a look at that statement.You may not act like that (of course you don’t), but there’s someone in your sorority who does. How do I know? Because they signed up for a show like “Sorority Sisters” and I’ll bet that there is more where they came from. I would like to think that because we choose to join these organizations with principles like scholarship, respect, servitude, and leadership everyone will choose to reflect those principles and preserve the dignity of those before us in their daily lives, but I’m not naive.This is not to discredit anyone’s feelings about this show and their sorority because you are entitled to feel the way you do. I feel that my sorority has taught me and continues to teach me about sisterly love, service, scholarship and finer womanhood. My hope is that this light shines through me to positively impact others around me regardless of the letters. My hope is that these Greek letters are not used as a tool to divide us (black people) even more. But to some extent they do.It’s time for Black Greeks to stop acting like they are better than other Black people. Being in a Black Greek Letter Organization may equate to a, generally, higher socioeconomic status because all of our beloved organizations were founded at universities. This gives members of our organizations a sense of superiority and results in an “Us vs. Them” mentality.If this show is what it took to hit home for you the issue of misrepresentation of black women via media, then I guess that's a good thing. Sometimes it takes people getting angry to bring about change. However, my concern is that you still won’t see the bigger issue. Now, if I see someone who is also my Soror acting a fool on TV, should I disappointed? Yes. But I’m more ashamed, disappointed, and upset to see the repetitive images of any black woman acting a fool on TV.It’s sad that your moral barometer is only activated when your letters are disrespected and not when your womanhood is.Girlfriends was one of my favorite TV shows growing up because it gave me something to look up to as a young black woman (shout out to Mara Brock Akil). I hate that there is nothing for me to watch on TV that celebrates the sisterhood, struggles, friendships, life, and love between black women, whether “reality” or “scripted.” Now, let’s make a petition about that.