Kathryn Jennings

Every year we hear reports that resemble…“Student died after being forced to drink gallons of water, in fraternity pledge process,” “Student found dead in closet with blood alcohol level of .31. Incident possibly hazing related,” or “Young male beaten to near death in pledge ritual.” And, several years ago the nation was reminded that hazing rears its ugly head in high schools too, when female soccer players were videotaped forcing teammates to drink alcohol and other unhealthy mixtures, roll in the mud, and be hit. Hazing seems to know no bounds. It happens in fraternities, sororities, athletic organizations, military organizations, professional organizations and honor societies and it can start young.

The national media is attracted to hazing and the story of the young white athletic male whose brilliant life was cut short due to hazing, usually due to alcohol, but there are other stories; the stories of the fierce physical hazing that happens in Black Greek Fraternities (BGFs). Alcohol tends to be the hazing tool used in white fraternities, but brutal physical violence is often the tool used in BGFs (Nuwer, 2001). It is important for college administrators to see a difference in how hazing occurs between and among the various student organizations in order to better attack the problem and attempt to understand why hazing occurs in the forms it does. In this paper, hazing in Black Greek Fraternities is examined through the lens of the Cross Model of Psychological Nigrescence and how this student development theory might explain why students permit themselves to be brutally hazed and in return haze others.

The definition of hazing varies from source to source. Hank Nuwer, an expert in hazing behaviors, in his book, Wrongs of Passage defines hazing as: “An activity that a high-status member orders other members to engage in or suggests that they engage in that in some way humbles a newcomer who lacks the power to resist, because he or she wants to gain admission into a group” (Nuwer, 1999, p.xxv).  Alfred University and the NCAA teamed up to study hazing in college athletes and defined hazing as: “any activity expected of someone joining a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses or endangers, regardless of the person's willingness to participate. This does not include activities such as rookies carrying the balls, team parties with community games, or going out with your teammates, unless an atmosphere of humiliation, degradation, abuse or danger arises" (Stophazing.org, 2004). And finally Phi Beta Sigma, a national Black Fraternity who had a chapter recently accused of brutal physical hazing at a New York City College (Herbert, 2004) defines hazing as: “Any action taken or situation created intentionally or unintentionally, whether on or off Fraternity premises, to produce mental or physical discomfort, embarrassment, harassment, or ridicule (Phi Beta Sigma, 2004).

The Cross Model of Psychological Nigrescence is a five stage process that defines the “resocializing experience in which the healthy individual's identity is transformed from one of non-Afrocentrism to Afrocentrism to multiculturalism” (Evans, Forney, & Guido-DiBrito, 1998, p.73). The first stage is the Preencounter stage, in which race is seen as unimportant and those in this stage want to be accepted as “human beings” (Evans et al. 1998, p. 74). Some black students entering college may come with the belief that college is supposed to be open to a diverse body of opinions and ideas and that their race will no longer matter and become unimportant. Other black students may, depending on where and how they grew up, believe that their race is unimportant and that it always has been.

These students go through their first few weeks of college and may begin to realize that their race does matter. The university, whether in the classroom or through programming, may encourage the student to embrace his diversity, recognize and celebrate his difference. Or, the student may experience and/or recognize racism from his classmates and/or roommates for the first time. According to the Cross model the aforementioned experiences would move the student to the Encounter stage, which destroys the students view of the world and pushes the student to think and view the world in a different way from before the experience.

Like many other first year students at this time, black students are also looking for an organization that offers a sense of belonging and community and because of the encounter they may turn to BGFs. Ricky Jones (2004, p.100) points out in his book, Black Haze , that men who choose to join a BGF do so, “not only for the social outlets they afford, but also for access to ‘a network of fiercely loyal alumni who can be counted on for introductions, jobs, favors, and contracts.” It is through the BGF that the new student begins to explore his race and embarks on friendships that may be deeper than any he has had before. According to Cross a student whose scores indicate that he was in the Encounter, Immersion, or Internalization stages, on the Black Racial Identity Attitude Scale (RIAS-B), is more likely to be involved with cultural organizations (Evans et al., 1998, p. 84), such as BGFs.

It is the Encounter stage and the following Immersion-Emersion stages that can begin to explain why black “line brothers” in BGFs, permit themselves to be hazed. Authors, Evans, Forney, and Guido-DiBrito (1998, p.74) write, “After a period of anger at whites and anxiety over the ‘kind' of black person to become, the African American is energized and takes action to seek information about, and affirmation of, a new black identity.” It is precisely for this reason that Jones argues black students get involved with BGFs and consent to hazing. According to Jones hazing can be tied to the development of the young black male self, where the young male is trying to prove that he can be a successful, strong, and respected black man, in a society where men from his culture are constantly put down or getting in trouble (Jones, 2002). “Most potential BGF initiates are probably not sadomasochists, but consent to hazing because they do not want to be considered the negative ‘other'” - the next black man who does not succeed (Jones, 2004, p. 102). Jones argues that young men who join BGFs want to be hazed in order to prove their manhood (2004).

Once the student has crossed into the Immersion-Emersion stage in Cross's theory the student has completely discarded his old identity and immerses himself completely into the cultural organization, in this case the BGF (Evans et al., 1998, p. 75). At this stage of Cross's theory students feel rage toward white people, guilt for believing they were what a white society told them they were, and pride in their culture (Evans et al., 1998, p.75). Therefore, it could be argued that students in BGFs at this stage of Cross's theory feel so much rage toward white people that they consent to the hazing that takes place in BGFs in order to prove that they are not weak like white society has told them, to prove to the fraternity that they care about their culture and its success, and to punish themselves for believing what white society told them about themselves. It is not until the student has gone through hazing that he considers himself a true part of a successful black society and no longer capable of becoming the “other,” weak black man. The older students in the fraternities also delineate “real” brothers, they are those brothers who were physically beaten during the pledge process and now deserve respect (Jones, 2004, p. 105).

In the second phase of Immersion-Emersion and in stage 4, Internalization, the student is thinking more critically and less dualistically about his culture and finally achieving a sense of self-confidence and acceptance about being black (Evans et al., 1998, p. 75). It is because these students made it through hazing and the feelings of guilt and anger and experienced the transition to self-confidence, that hazing continues. While students in this stage are thinking less dualistically, they want their incoming brothers to feel the same self-confidence and think less dualistically, therefore they continue to haze. The act of hazing also assists the older brothers in reaffirmation of their self-confidence and power. Jones writes (2004, p. 109), “Hazing is the result of the illusion that the power of the authentic ‘I' [the hazer] is brought into being and continuously reaffirmed through the dehumanization of the other [the pledge]. The perception being that the infliction of unchecked violence and pain on another is a victory for the ‘I…'”.

The last stage, Internalization-Commitment, is where the student gets involved in activities that address problems and concerns in their community and replaces the “I” perspective with a “we” perspective (Evans et al., 1998, p. 76). Although, Evans et al. (1998, p. 76) state that not every person reaches stage five. Jones (2004) discusses how BGFs have very involved alumni and it is my belief that active alumni who encourage the continuation of hazing have not moved to stage 5. In addition those alumni who chose to disassociate with their chapters have also not progressed to stage 5, because they are not committed to addressing problems in their community. But, I believe those active alumni who speak against hazing have reached stage 5, because they are demonstrating a commitment to their community and the problems that plague it.

As student affairs administrators, Cross's Model of Psychological Nigrescence as applied to Black Greek Fraternities can assist in our understanding of the problem and the creation of innovative ways to handle it. It is important for institutions to understand and recognize the “baggage” black male students in particular come to school with. It is not easy for an institution steeped in white male tradition to recognize that the very culture they were founded on makes it difficult for students of color who attend their institutions to be successful. Institutions need to recognize the guilt, anger and frustration and talk about it in an open way, perhaps at orientation. Discussions with BGFs regarding hazing that is different from the discussion white male fraternities receive; some of the problems and reasons for hazing are different, therefore the discussions must be personalized, so that the students in the organizations feel that they are being seen and heard as individual groups.

Institutions may also want to explore offering first-year students a seminar that discusses issues of diversity and the effect cultures have on one another, that is focused on the student reflecting on his self, his place in the world up until college, the impact of society on him, and where he wants to go. All of this is in hopes that the institution can build students who resist hazing, if they can begin to understand its roots, they may be more confident to resist. And, finally institutions need to investigate hazing and no longer ignore it (Hollmann, 2002, p. 18). But, the problem, at least in BGFs, will not be solved, or the violence stopped, without the help and assistance of the alumni members of the organizations. Unless institutions ban all fraternities and sororities from their campuses, controlling hazing is a task that is simply too large for colleges and universities to undertake on their own.  

 

References

Hollmann, B.B. (2002). Hazing: hidden campus crime . New Directions for Student Services, 99 , 11-23.

Jones, R.L. (2004). Black Haze: violence, sacrifice, and manhood in black Greek-letter fraternities . Albany : State University of New York Press.

Lowe, H. (2004). Not your typical assault defendants. Newsday , -. Retrieved November 22, 2004 from http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/newyork/nyc-nyhaze224051701nov22,0,5162575.story?coll=nyc-nynews-print

Nuwer, H. (2001). Wrongs of passage: fraternities, sororities, hazing, and binge drinking. Bloomington : Indiana University Press.

Phi Beta Sigma. (2004). Hazing definition . Retrieved on December 3, 2004 from http://www.pbs1914.org/sigmatoday/hazingpolicy.asp

Stophazing.org. (2004). Hazing defined . Retrieved on November 28, 2004 from http://www.stophazing.org/definition.html