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.”
For those unfamiliar with all this steppin’ business, black fraternities and sororities, “Greeks” as they are called, have always put on a real steppin’ show in TSU’s “Pit.” The pit was located in front of the student union and was actually a sunken plaza about 40 long and 20 feet wide. Every year the Greek pledges, would dress alike, march in syncopated rhythm and movement into “The Pit,” and then “get to steppin.’” You have not seen a foot-stomping, body swaying, stop and pivot, show until you have seen the Alphas and the Omegas step in “The Pit.” And so when a group of white women, whose Greek organizations do not engage in steppin’ as a fraternity or sorority ritual, show up dressed in black leather, and not only put on a syncopated show, but win over black sororities who have been doing this for years, naturally someone will cry foul. The “foulness” is not just about the “white sisters” winning, but how these usually stiff hipped, no rhythm women, could have gotten into the contest in the first place. Surely we know that they watched a lot of steppin videos, or replayed half-time shows of the Grambling University Marching Band about a thousand times. Anyway, not unlike Emminen, they learned enough to do a pretty good job of imitating the real thing—and won. And, all that is left is to sort out all the racial undercurrents.
One undercurrent is similar to the black man who was riding on a train during the 1960s when a white man stopped and flicked something off the black man’s jacket. The white man said that he had seen a small insect of some type on the man’s jacket and flicked it off, to which the black man replied, “Well put it back, can’t a black man have anything?” When it comes to Greek steppin’ this has been the sole domain of black Greeks, not whites. And so when a group of white women show up, and dance well enough to take first prize, what is left of traditions that are purely black in origins and expression? One commentary pointed out that blacks need to reevaluate the very existence of black Greeks since fraternities and sororities are of white origin. Whether they are or not, black Greeks have a mode of expression that is foreign to white Greeks. One blogger said that white Greeks know little or nothing about Greek expression outside of drinking a keg of beer.
I have felt the same way as the black Greeks feel about the recent stepping contest since the Grammys turned white. There used to be folks who could really sing who won Grammy’s and only a few of them were white except for some specialized sub category. Now black performers can hardly win a Grammy unless it is in some specialized sub category. The Grammy’s went from basically all-black singers to all-white in less than twenty years. Still the recording industry has survived without folks such as The Temptation, Gladys Knight and The Pips, Smokey Robinson, and the Four Tops. As they say, the bands have played on. And so will steppin’ as a unique and original art-form of black Greeks. To which I’m sure the “white sisters” are quietly saying to black sororities, “you can get to steppin” because we sure are.” Maybe all this points to the real need, as the kids say, to just “lighten up,” and tell the “white sisters,” “You Go Girls.” Or we can continue with the ugly the war of words and Tiger Woods can hang up his golf clubs.
Copyright 2010 - L. Arthalia Cravin. All rights Reserved. No part of this commentary may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.
