Advantages And Disadvantages Of Second-Tier Greek Organizations

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He also adds that the prospects of future gender or racial integration are low. He describes the top Greek houses as the ones who had produced the wealthiest and most influential alumni, and by his words, they are also the most homogeneous groups. Most of their members answer to the same characteristics – they are white, attractive, Christian, heterosexual girls and boys who come from middle- to upper-class families. Also, those boys and girls all behave in specific manners, traditional for their respective genders. Members of the so-called 'second-tier' Greek organizations are not as wealthy or influential as the Greeks from the 'first-tier' Greek organizations and they are also more heterogeneous in terms of ethnicity and behavior ( according …show more content…

For the ones who aspire to greatness, being in any Greek organization is better than being in none. Non-Greeks are often referred to as “the GDIs”, an abbreviation that stands for “Goddamn Independents” - a term that is meant to express a feeling of superiority on the part of Greeks and that is meant to be, in the best case, unflattering. What DeSantis notes with curiosity, however, is the fact that a stratification within the stratification exists – namely, that Greeks classify themselves not only as better than non-Greeks, but also better than all others in the Greek-Letter system. (ibid.) In any case, all Greeks are of the opinion that while competition remains between fraternities, mutual respect exists and it is “far better to have membership in a different fraternity than none at all” (Groff 2009:6). On the question of gender, it is common knowledge that fraternities are only for male students, and sororities are their female counterparts. Of course, cases of mixed Greek houses do exist, such as..., but they are rare cases that only confirm the rule

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