Black Sororities and Fraternites Explained

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]You were locked out of the white boys network. You were locked out of that system. It excluded black people. Okay?

[00:00:07]So, and I want you to get we're not talking about black Greek organizations. These are not black Greek organizations. These are Greek letter organizations. It might as well be we could just call it Roman numeral organizations if you want to.

[00:00:25]And they use that instead of using the typical alphabet that we use because it stood out. Oh, this is something I might want to be part of. You see, but the bottom line is it it was it it created alternative networks of influence and that matters because the in institutions are not only buildings, it's institution who you know also your relationship have you what if you are a smart brilliant young man how do you find other smart brilliant young men in your schools?

[00:00:59]Huh? How do you do that? How do you Okay, so yeah, you know all the smart brilliant young men in your school and the and the smart brilliant young ladies in your school, but how do you create a network where all of you all can get together sometime and exchange ideas and do things about that this is the network that we have you third good Marshall was a member of Alphi Alpha Dr. Martin Luther King was a member of Alphab Johnny Cochan was a Kappa man.

[00:01:31]And the thing you all have to understand is once you graduate and it doesn't matter. See, because we know that if you've been inducted into one of these fraternities, then a couple of things are true. You had very good grades. with various studios and there's somebody who can vouch for you. You're not just some fool off the street. There's somebody who knows you.

[00:02:00]There's already that stamp of approval.

[00:02:02]There I can go. There's a there's a hundred people that know you who've interacted with you for at least four or five years. And so anybody who meets you can make a few phone calls say, "Yeah, he's cool. Blah blah blah. He studied this. Yeah, everything he says is true and real." So it creates an automatic network.

[00:02:19]And the other thing is you don't have to enter into into a room alone. You see, and that's why the divine nine or as they call these black fraternities and sororities just help build bridges. And once you get out, hey look, I got Kappa friends. I got friends who are in in I ain't got no sigma friends. I don't think I ever had a Sigma friend. I don't That's the ones that wear blue and white. I I seen a couple, but I don't I got some C. I got plenty of Q dog friends. Shout out to the Q's.

[00:02:55]You know, as I said, my ex-wife aka uh I know a few Deltas. Uh a young lady I went to law school with. She is a member of Sigma Gamaro. Oh, no. No. Five beta.

[00:03:08]Sigma. Uh Zeta 5 beta. You know, y'all wear that blue I don't know. My bad. Excuse me. Yeah, I don't know.

[00:03:14]Yeah, Kevin Samuels was a member of Kappa Alphasai and which is why when that pastor down in uh Atlanta start talking crazy about Kevin Samuels, Kev who's also a Kappa, his own frat brothers called him up and said, "Hey, kill that." You see what I'm saying?

[00:03:30]It's out there disparaging this black man's reputation. Come to find out it's your Kappa fraternity brother. Like I said, it's a con it's it's a connection and that's it. People make a big deal about it. It is a big deal to get in because you have to be the best of the best. So, you should be you should be you should have a a 3.9 or 10 grade point average. You should be upwardly mobile. You should be honest. You should be loyal. You should be dedicated.

[00:04:05]And it's a weeding out process. You don't want everybody that you don't want people to suckers in in your organization. You don't want to be associated with that.

[00:04:16]And another thing, black women clubs, black women clubs are among the most powerful and underappreciated institutions in in America.

[00:04:25]Organizations like the National Association of Color Women, they were founded under the the the the model lifting as we climb create. They created networks of black women who work on education, anti-ynching activism, public health and child welfare, voting rights, temperance, housing, morality, and community uplift. I think black women would be much better if you all had some of these organizations back. It would it would impose a standard on you. Some of these young girls running around here don't even know what it is to be a woman. Imagine if you were able to groom them up and put them in a room with women of not just in 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80 years old. So they'll see what it need what they what what what they need to be to be women like that.

[00:05:15]Women they can aspire to be all they got right now is Cardi B and Maid the Stallion. That's why they turning out like they are.

[00:05:23]You know all the women in this chat room, you know darn well you need that female camaraderie to keep you balanced.

[00:05:30]make sure you're not crazy or acting crazy and have a better understanding of how you should comport yourself in different situations. So, yeah, those organizations were important and it to give you opportunity to shine, but black women could go places that black men couldn't go.

[00:05:49]And so, black women often had to fight racism uh outside the community, okay? When black men couldn't go there.

[00:06:00]So they were able to help build schools.

[00:06:01]They were able to help raise money and care for the children and defend the families and organi organize campaigns and they created standards of respectability and public responsibility. They were the standard bearsers and people respected them for that.

[00:06:15]And then of course you know that's another institution. And then we of course we have the black professional associations.

[00:06:22]These organizations didn't they excluded us. They excluded black professor. They excluded the engineers and the doctors and the dentists and the lawyers and and the teachers and the nurses. That's why we have the National Medical Association.

[00:06:36]It serve black physicians.

[00:06:38]Okay?

[00:06:40]It it did that when the American Medical Association wouldn't. The National Bar Association, which serves black lawyers, black teachers association, it serve educators.

[00:06:53]You see, so these organ all it did was keep us connected. It's funny that we are more we have more access to each other these days than we ever did, but we're less connected as a people. And you got a cell phone. You can reach up and hit me up on the cell phone. Uh he hit me in my inbox right now and say, "Dennis, I've been involved in a car accident and I need you to represent."

[00:07:18]Y'all can do that right now. My cousin got I'mma call him up right now and let him know to call 713-229770 because I didn't been involved in he's been involved in a car accident and I want to make sure he has a lawyer that that that that I know and trust and I'mma call Dennis Berlin right now.

[00:07:35]Y'all could do that right now.

[00:07:38]You could you could call me up and say he's a Hall of Fame attorney. He's been practicing law for 26 years. He's admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States.

[00:07:47]He has three law degrees. got a perfect score on the bar examination and he know how to talk to people. He's a little crazy, but he seems really good. I've looked at his online reviews.

[00:07:57]He's he's able to take very complicated things and and talk to us about certainly he'll be able to communicate well and he look like he talk a lot.

[00:08:04]He's not one of those lawyers that dip and dodge and won't talk to. Yes, you could do that right now. Your grandma, your cousin been involved in the car, they can do that. And see, like I'm saying, we we need to be more networked, okay? Even when we didn't have all this electronic stuff, we wereworked. It would be good for us, especially in a political season like this. You understand?

[00:08:28]But all these political institutions, it turned into power. The black church, the black colleges, the black civil rights organizations, the black organizations, the black fraternities and sororities, it put us all there. And of course, you know, the black neighborhood that became cultural and political bases, segregation forced black people in to live in separate neighborhoods and and but but black people transformed those neighborhoods into institutional ecosystems. This is how we develop the impetus for the black church. This is how we develop the barbershop uh culture and the beauty salon culture and the funeral homes and the corner stores and the lodges and the halls and the pool halls and the restaurants and the record shops. This is where the culture came from.

[00:09:13]These are the spaces that carried information that carried that created the culture and enforced the norms.

[00:09:20]You understand all of that?

[00:09:27]Now, of course, you know, before the school and the I'm talking about institutions now. I'm talking about why we are different than Africans. I'm talking about our culture that we say they say don't we don't have somebody type culture in the chat room. Are y'all learning something about our culture?

[00:09:42]Are you learning what the purpose of culture is? So the next time some mofo tell you that black people don't have culture. Say not only do we have a culture but we have one of the greatest cultures on the planet because we were able to survive. That culture is designed to make sure we survive and we just survived against all odds and we prospered. And the reason was is because number one, the key to our culture was institutions. the black church, black colleges, black businesses, black neighborhoods, uh uh uh black organizations, black black black black black black black black black black black black black black black black black black black black black black