I am not going to speak about a specific fraternity or my specific fraternity. I am speaking generally about members of any organization within the divine nine, because I would shudder to think that what I am about to describe about greek culture is specific to my brotherhood.

For those just reading this and not aware about black frats and sororities, we tend to exist mostly in what are known as "graduate chapters", meaning chapters for those people who have finished college. Non-black divine nine organizations tend to be the opposite, they exist exclusively at a particular level: a college frat, a business school frat, or a law school frat (like Phi Alpha Delta), a medical society or what have you. However, pan hellenic divine nine organizations exist ad infinitum. There are people who have been members for forty or fifty years or more that remain active.

Now, here's my problem: I have a problem with members of an organization who have yet to grasp what it is to be a member of a fraternity. I grew up around it. Everyone in my family with the exception of two people on either side of my family belongs to a greek letter organization within the divine nine. Many are members of both a divine nine organization and another organization that is similar to them, like the links or charm set, etc. So now, I've joined one. I'm old, though. I joined at 31 years old through a grad chapter. Nothing about joining surprised me. That's thirty years of multiple stories of pledging and belonging to greek letter organizations spanning all the way back to the thirties, when my grandfather joined.

So nothing about my process was shocking. The details and the secret stuff was all that I didn't know, but that which is common across all the organizations as far as joining had been told to me a million times because those aren't secret, and are even shown in movies. I will, however, practice discretion and not mention them here.

Now, as for what it is to truly be a member of a brotherhood of definitively professional men (you can either join in a Bachelor's Degree instution or after you've received such a degree at least), certain things should be a given: 1) You act professional. 2) If you have certain bylaws and principles that are so important some men take 2 years of damn near servitude to learn them, you might want to adhere to them once you've joined and not throw them out the window. 3) You treat your brother like a brother!!!

Crazy idea, I know. But maybe some of us need to learn to grow up. I'm sorry, but I'm 32 now. I did not join at 19 years old, so while I'm a neophyte, I'm a grown man. I'm an adult. You can discern what organization I belong to, because I'm usually wearing something that is a dead give away. Some members of my family have a common mark on them that also gives it away. The problem is, many members of these fraternities and sororities never get out of the prophyte stage. They insist on being ignorant, and never get to the point where they are trying to hold up the ideals of their organization.

On that note, you should know what organization to which I belong now. However, I've heard way too many friends of mine who are of different organizations who speak on the same thing: internal conflict within the organization because somehow, you're more "greek" than he is, because he don't know the answer to your riddle, or he doesn't act like the stereotypical member of your organization. It's odd, but most of the stereotypes of the organization are not only contrary to the inherent principles of the organization, but they tend to be contrary to womanhood or manhood, and revert us back to very antebellum southern nonsense.

Case in point: some of these organizations have affiliations with animalistic behavior that is not actually part of the organizations traditions or history at all. I have news for you: Zetas aren't "cats" as per their organization. Alphas are not Silverbacks, and no, Omegas are not dogs. We have not been animals since slavery, and we fought and died for the privilege of being men. It is in fact partially for the maintenance of this higher status that many of these organizations were founded.

But no, we want to instead act like these stereotypes, and then we get mad when white college students portray us as such:

Students who do this get expelled, but they aren't the only ones who mock black letter organizations by being in blackface. Many people who actually are members do much worse.

If you read the history on this organizations, you realize that society has not changed much, nor has race relations. The very reasons why they were founded remain to be relevant today. We do not have the luxury or the pleasure to play around with why we are here, the jobs of these organizations are not done because our communities still need us, and we need each other.

So if you cannot deal with this, do not call me your brother. The principles of my fraternity are to be adhered to, not something with which to test your brother. He - like you - went to and/or finished a school or two. Or three. Any idiot can be trained to memorize stuff. I joined a brotherhood, not a trivial pursuit society. Memorizing facts about the fraternity or sorority you joined is not enough. You must live by them. I am tired of seeing people conduct themselves contrarily and thinking they are of the same caliber of the great men and women of these organizations.

And i have a problem with those people who like me are equally as jaded and have gone on to do great things and have left our illustrious organizations to the wayward members. I believe that if you do that, you have forfeited your right to complain, because while it takes more than a mere memorization to the principles of the organization, adhering to them in a vacuum is also insufficient. If you are very particular about living up to the great men and women who came before you, it doesn't matter if you refuse to participate in being a sister or a brother.

So to my black greeks, my brothers and sisters, learn to love. Learn to teach. Learn to recognize. But most of all, never stop learning...