5 minute read
When Asian Americans Go Greek
Overcoming stereotypes in sororities and fraternities
When you think of a sorority girl, what do you picture? Maybe a blonde white girl in an oversized t-shirt clutching onto her Starbucks. What about a frat boy? Possibly a shirtless white boy chugging a beer. Although these descriptions may fit some people in Greek life, there is a large variety of students who are not fully represented in this social aspect of college.
At the University of Florida there are a total of 64 fraternities and sororities, with a total of four councils separating them. These include the panhellenic council, the national panhellenic council, the interfraternity council and the multicultural council.
The panhellenic council accounts for over two-thirds of the total organizations in UF’s Greek life. Although each council represents something unique, there is 6 | spring 2020
still an underrepresentation of Asian Americans and other minority groups throughout Greek life at UF.
Pi Delta Psi is one of the only Asian American fraternities in the multicultural council at UF. When asked to describe the brotherhood of Pi Delta Psi, Andrew Pero, the president of the organization, compared his experience at Pi Delta Psi with his time at Sigma Pi, a large panhellenic fraternity his brother founded at the University of Central Florida.
Pero said when his brother returned to the fraternity he founded a couple of years after graduation, no one really knew who he was. He contrasted this with the tightknit brotherhood at the UF chapter of Pi Delta Psi. In the Pi Delta Psi chapter at UF, there are only about 20 active members, in comparison to the panhellenic fraternities and sororities with over 100 active members per organization.
Lili Tzou, the president of alpha Kappa Delta Phi, shared a very similar experience. She said that alpha Kappa Delta Phi, an Asian American sorority in the multicultural council, only had about 33 active members.
Tzou also emphasized that although the size of her chapter may not be as big as a panhellenic one, their sisterhood is very strong. Tzou compared some panhellenic pledge classes of over 80 girls who may not know everyone’s name to the 32 people she sees and spends time with every week.
Along with being underrepresented in numbers, Asian American Greek organizations face other issues such as stereotyping. Pero addressed this issue
The “model minority” stereotype, as defined by Tolerance Magazine, perpetuates the narrative that Asian Americans are “a polite, law-abiding group who have achieved a higher level of success than the general population through some combination of innate talent and pull-yourselves-up-by-yourbootstraps immigrant striving.”
This stereotype perpetuates the idea of the “Tiger Mom,” whose main job is to push her children to be smarter than everyone else, and the “whiz kid” archetype which presumes that all Asian American children are either mathematicians or musical geniuses.
As President, Pero was determined to aid Pi Delta Psi’s mission of breaking down stereotypes.
“These stereotypes are not true and we’re just individual people working hard at the end of the day,” Pero said.
He mentioned how Pi Delta Psi members strive to be leaders in their community. By becoming leaders in the community, members of Pi Delta Psi are teaching and implementing values that eliminate the model minority stereotype.
Tzou spoke about the various events that alpha Kappa Delta Phi is involved with in the community. One of which is an annual cultural panel. The 2019 panel was called “Complex Conversations” and it focused on being Asian American in today’s society and the different facets that come with it.
Besides culturally Asian American fraternities and sororities, there is a small population of Asian Americans in panhellenic organizations. Some Asian Americans, such as sophomore Lauren Lee, find it more suitable to be in a panhellenic sorority rather than a cultural organization. Lee is a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at UF, which is a sorority in the panhellenic council.
Lee said a reason why Asian Americans might decide against joining a panhellenic organization is that they might feel scared or judged during the rush process, which is a panhellenic sorority’s recruitment process.
Lee said that she felt more at ease with rushing because she has been referred to, especially in her hometown, as a “white-washed Asian,” which is a term used for Asian Americans who are seen as “Americanized” and atypical from the model minority stereotype.
This sentiment is extremely problematic because it implies that, for Asian Americans to be comfortable with being in a panhellenic organization, they have to assimilate to the American culture. Lee said she saw the lack of diversity a lot more when she was rushing to be in a panhellenic sorority, than when she was in a sorority. However, she did mention that there was more diversity than she thought there would be for a big southern school and also went into the stereotype about how only “white blond girls” rush. She said this wasn’t the case, but when asked if she felt Asian Americans were underrepresented in the panhellenic conference, she replied, “For sure, like 100 percent.”
Lee said joining a sorority was her “first instinct” as an out-of-state student wanting to make friends in a new place. She wanted to join a panhellenic sorority instead of a multicultural one because she wanted to join something big.
Although multicultural fraternities and sororities are not small, she thought a panhellenic sorority would give her more connections and networking for job possibilities. This line of thought could be a possible deterrent for other Asian Americans who have to make the choice of dedicating their time to a panhellenic or cultural organization.
Lee brought up the fact that Greek life carves the way for multicultural organizations to embrace their culture in American universities. While minority groups have come a long way in finding their own space in Greek life, the separation in Greek councils along ethnic lines reveals room for progress in integration.
