There is so much outraged surrounding the VH1 show “Sorority Sisters” and I find it funny that people can not understand why. As a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc, I took an oath to uphold the ideals of my sorority which include not bringing reproach on the organization.
Most of the women in the show are nothing like the sorority women that I know and love. Yes, we squabble like many blood relatives but the airing of dirty laundry and down right disrespect would never happen on public television if at all. I cringed almost every time one of them spoke. I will admit that I enjoy watching reality television and recognize that most of it is staged for entertainment. We must also recognize that the women on these shows represent themselves negatively where this sorority sisters', represent the groups as a whole.
Members of the diving nine (the collective 9 African American fraternities and sororities) had already circulated a petition to get the show banned before it even hit the airwaves. I will admit that I watched hoping that maybe the petition caused them to show the real sorority life.
Real sorority sisters realize that their sororities were founded to uplift and empower not only black women but the communities in which they serve. We've been at the forefront of protest for Women's suffrage and continue to develop programs to address the educational, health and poverty epidemic in the African American community. Several of my sorority sisters and I recently participated in a die-in to protest the injustices happening in our legal system. These are the things that I expect of sorority women.
Collectively as a group, we took our complaints to twitter realizing that advertisers were the one who kept the show afloat. I applaud #Hallmark, #Carmex, #Honda, #Crayola, and #JBL for quickly responding and pulling their advertisement dollars. We realize that there is still work to be done as VH1 states that it will play the remaining episodes.
Join our call to action as we boycott VH1 on December 22, 2014.
