Steppin’ “White Sisters”
by L. Arthalia Cravin
The air waves are abuzz since a white sorority from the University of Arkansas chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha, a predominantly white sorority, won the inaugural Sprite Step Off stepping competition, beating two predominantly black sororities. The contest was held on February 20, 2010 in Fayetteville, Arkansas and the first place prize was $100,000. After giving the “white sisters” first place, the sponsor acknowledged some type of discrepancies in judging and ordered that the first place prize be shared with the top black sorority.
The ongoing debate, including a whole slew of blogs and commentary, is over the fairness of judging the step moves, whether a white sorority should have been allowed to enter in the first place, and whether a traditional black form of sorority and fraternity initiation has been diminished, or compromised, after what the “white sisters” did.
The various and sundry blogs and commentary have ranged from judging’ bias and fascination with the white women, thus giving them the first prize, a type of reverse discrimination, to “who invited them anyhow?” Either way, the “white steppers” will be steppin’ some more real soon in an upcoming MTV program of some type. All of which points to the real reasons for the underlying rancor.
I attended Texas Southern University in Houston from 1965 to 1967, then went to the U of Wisconsin in Madison for a year of exchange student study. Before leaving TSU, I pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority. I was “on the line” for all of three weeks before I took that little pot of ivy plant and told them where to stick it. Part of my disenchantment with having pledged a sorority was my basic aloneness. I was never a groupie. So, within a week of pledging, I realized that a lot of what was required was not for me. I could not see myself washing some “big sisters” underwear, and engaging in a lot of other demeaning “on the line” groupie activities, including step dancing before a large boisterous crowd in TSU’s “The Pit.”
