This is pretty far out of the scope about my blog, but I feel the need to speak on it a little. That being said, I won’t spend too much time on this bullshit.
Monday, I am scheduled to give my bi-annual lecture on stepping in an United States folklore class at Indiana University. For those that don’t know, I am a member of a Black Greek organization (Blu Phi!!!) and did step in my undergraduate days. It just so happens that I will be speaking on this phenomenon a week after a white sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, won the grand prize at the Sprite Step Off Competition in Atlanta. The results upset many Blacks who felt that the runner up team, Alpha Kappa Alpha – Tau chapter, were more deserving and only lost due to racial politics. Many feared that one of their beloved cultural productions was being co-opted and even accused Sprite of straight racism.
Ok. I am not going to spend any time discussing who should have won the competition. I’ve watched both performances and they looked about the same to me. What really concerns me is the sudden backlash against Sprite. I had issues with this competition from the very beginning. I saw it as another example of one of our sacred traditions being commodified and mass-mediated by corporate America. I feared that it would lead to us losing control of it. However, the prize money was huge, so how could I really tell an organization not to participate? If I was a broke-ass undergrad, I probably would have as well. But, I would have been aware of the implications.
Look, our Divine 9 organizations were cool with selling-out our traditions and kissing Sprite’s ass as long as the money was coming in. As soon as they felt short-changed, as the AKAs did, they starting crying foul. You can’t have it both ways. By relinquishing the cultural rights to this tradition, which we did through our participation and support, we opened the door for outsiders to step in and establish themselves within it. Actually, because this was a Sprite production, the labels of “insiders” and “outsiders” were skewed or even reversed. If there were any “outsiders,” it was the Divine 9, as ZTA holds more of a kinship with Sprite in terms of power. Stepping left our control and became part of the established American power relations which usually results with us being dominated (or losing a stepshow).
Lets be real. None of our organizations were in the show to uphold heritage. It was about money. I’ve never heard of a sorority having a member of a fraternity as their step-master. Stepping is supposed to be inextricably tied to an organizations history, icons, rituals, and identity. By having a non-member of your org play the role of step-master, you’re placing your heritage in an outsiders hands. This case is especially disheartening because, at least to me, it makes these girls appear to lack the ability to lead themselves. It looks like the stereotypical case of helpless women in need of male aid in order to achieve their goals. I guess when money is involved, though, all sense of pride goes out of the window. You do whatever it takes to fill up your bank accounts, even if that means undermining and dismissing your organization’s fundamental purposes.
Sprite ultimately cowered under pressure and used a bullshit excuse to make the AKAs co-champions. I guess squashing all the negative press was worth the extra $100,000 in pocket change. Congratulations to Zeta Tau Alpha from the University of Arkansas and Indiana University’s Alpha Kappa Alpha. I hope this serves as a lesson of what can happen when you place your heritage in the marketplace.
Str8 G
Interesting read, thank you for sharing with the blogosphere! As a Black Greek & (no stranger to the stepping culture in my undergrad days) I am very disappointed in how most fellow Black Greeks are reacting to this situation. It’s disappointing to see that Sprite jumped stupid & scared when their scoring was challenged bc it clearly didn’t seemed to be an issue of who was “qualified” b4 they began judging or any other point when teams were excelling throughout the competition.
To be clear, just bc someone is Greek doesn’t make them an authority on stepping. Many ppl can distinguish a good show from a weak one regardless of Greek affiliation. Hence why most shows dedicate a large percentage of judging points on crowd reaction/interaction. But that’s not what I’m most disappointed in.
This whole situation begs to ask the cliché, exhausted question: If the ladies of ZTA were BLACK, would it even be a question of how qualified the judges were? I would have loved to go back and claim how unqualified most judges are. At the end of the day, it’s understood that the fate will lie in their hands, regardless of how truly great YOU think you show is (or the fact that they are going to give their org or fav orgs 100% across the board bec they can.)
To claim that Sprite or judges were racially motivated is the most ridiculous accusation as the only way you can proved it, is if each judge actually said “I gave them more points, because they were good for some white girls!!!” And what’s even more troubling is that its been deemed that apparently white women can’t possibly do anything better than those that taught them. If anything, in this traditionally AA elitist attitude, you should be ashamed for letting a non-historically Black org. even APPEAR to have a better show than you. After having over 100 years in established stepping tradition, the score honestly should not have been close. Right? You should have scored leagues above their show, right?
Again I ask, if that was a team of ZPHIB instead of ZTA would anyone care? If the ladies were less assertive or less proud to be white women excelling in something they do well and worked hard at, would it make a difference? What happened to imitation being the highest form of flaterry? Oh, that only applies if they don’t do it BETTER??? My bad. Maybe I’m missing a big portion of this story, bc it seems like blatent racism and a case of bad sportsmanship on the side of Black Greeks; angry & boycotting a company they clearly knew wasn’t trying to uplift or unify the community in the 1st place.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d fight for $100K (who doesn’t think they’d deserve it!) But at what cost? Racial equality is priceless. But hey, if Sprite wants to give away an extra $50K for a bs flag called..I’m not sure if I’d consider it the deposit to my reparations package or not. Lol
In this case, it seems like it was easier on the folks’ pride to BLAME RACE instead of themselves for not STEPPING THEIR GAME UP. I just hope the $$ goes to go use because in the end enhancing the quality of life within the community is really what really matters.