My name is Jordan Peyton and I’m involved in a Panhellenic affiliated Greek house as a minority. I won’t go into much detail on how this question popped into my head, but I wanted to know, “What made minorities join Panhellenic/IFC Greek life opposed to Multicultural Greek life?” I knew my answer but I also wanted to ask those around me who fit into my situation of being a minority in a Panhellenic/IFC Greek life. I reached out to fellow students at Kansas State University for answers and this is what they had to say:
*I blurred out the names of the houses with 5 stars, allowed people to remain anonymous or state their name, and denoted a change in their quote with a star surrounding the beginning and end of the change to make the quote more general than specific to their situation.
“I think I chose to do Panhellenic Greek life because it was the “popular choice/option”; more people are doing Panhellenic than Multicultural Greek life. Also, I wanted to join Panhellenic so that I could be someone that “stood out” more amongst the rest.” – Anna Faust
“I originally wanted to join a *Multicultural* Fraternity to help ease the bonding with brothers since we come from a somewhat similar background. K-State didn’t offer one so I chose the next best thing: the most diverse fraternity. Not only did it have to be diverse, but the reputation behind the Fraternity and what it symbolizes had to mean something of value to me too and so I joined *****. My pledge class was one of the most diverse pledge classes on campus.” – Anonymous
“I joined a traditional fraternity because I believed I would have the most success in a traditional one. I had more friends and knew more people in traditional Fraternities than in Multicultural Fraternities.” – Victor Valdez
“Well if I’m being honest, I never saw a reason to consider joining a Multicultural Fraternity just for the sake of me fitting into the demographic. I don’t join organizations or groups with the mindset that my cultural background should be a driving factor of my decision. That being said, I hadn’t looked extensively into different kinds of Greek options. A good friend at ***** joined before me and I hadn’t even considered doing Greek life until he had me come to certain events and such. I connected with the active members and embraced all the positives that came out of joining a fraternity without ever feeling like my ethnic background had anything to do with why the men at ***** would want me or why I would want to join *****. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have considered a Multicultural Fraternity given similar circumstances.” – Jesse Chen
“I didn’t know that there was Multicultural Greek life until after I went through Panhellenic Recruitment. While it would be nice to connect with people in Multicultural, I like my sorority and I have formed friendships with the girls in it.” – Anonymous
“I decided to join a National Fraternity instead of a Multicultural one because I did not know the Multicultural ones existed.” – Jackson Wright
“I didn’t know much about Multicultural Greek life until recently and I felt like there wasn't *one that ethnically fits me* one. If there is, then I don’t know who they are and another thing is I feel like all the attention is towards Panhellenic. As bad as that sounds, I feel like it is true.” – Anonymous
My answer to this question:
I joined an Panhellenic affiliated Greek chapter because I wanted to help change the stereotype that Panhellenic Greek life was “just for white people” and “always was and always will be white.” As a minority who wants to inspire others, I want to inspire other minorities to help break these stereotypes and be the change. I want to encourage minorities to explore both Panhellenic/IFC and Multicultural Greek life before they decide. Like others, I also did not know Kansas State University offered Multicultural Greek life until it was already too late. Yes, I do blame myself for not researching more into the topic but like others I found my forever home and I wouldn’t change it even if I could.
There was no right or wrong answer to this question. Although one thing we can take from these quotes is that most minorities on campus that want to get involved in Greek life don’t know Kansas State University offers Multicultural Greek life. Another problem that I have found on campus was that others and myself get caught up in complaining about when things will change. Contributing to the complaining will only deepen the problem: we need to be the change and act.
As Honore de Balzac said, “It is easy to sit up and take notice, what is difficult is getting up and taking action.”
