I laugh when I picture a small group of people, perhaps on School Street, fussing over the manufacture of an anti-Greek poster campaign. Their eyebrows are probably knitted and palms sweaty as they focus their energy into creating the wittiest and most derogatory slogans.
They may have congratulated themselves one last time as they swept into the night, anonymously posting their propaganda.
What crusaders! It must have taken years for these people to climb to a moral ground so high. Sure, the posters were kind of funny, but the mentality behind them was the real joke.
I am not addressing the non-Greeks at Dartmouth campus, nor do I wish to solely address the comedians who distributed those posters. I am addressing the anti-Greeks, those people who continually stereotype, disparage and condemn the Greek system.
I have a question for them: What are you smoking?
What could compose a better social environment than a campus where there are fraternities, sororities, co-ed houses, affinity houses and everything else under the sun, from DaGlo to Asgard to The Dartmouth Review?
There are options for everybody. There is a place for everybody. If you don't want a place at the table, you don't have to take one. But you have no right to take the table away. You may be independent or a member of an undergraduate society, but does that mean everybody else has to be as well?
I have yet to meet a person within the Greek system who proposes that there be mandatory Greek affiliation for every student at Dartmouth. But I always hear the whining of the anti-Greeks who would like to marginalize everybody's options by eliminating the Greek system.
The anti-Greeks mouth many tired arguments. At the forefront of these lifeless polemics is that "frats rape." Fraternities do not rape. People rape. A rapist may belong to a fraternity, or he may not. But he will be a rapist either way, regardless of affiliation.
Nor do fraternities by definition foster an environment that encourages rape. No recessive rape gene kicks in when 20, 40 or 60 guys get together. I am not belittling the seriousness of this issue, I am merely separating the issue from the institution.
My intent is not to apotheosize the Greek system at Dartmouth. I haven't even discussed the wealth of great things about the Greek system. But of course, just as in any institution, improvements can be made.
Citing and improving these problems, however, doesn't make one anti-Greek. To be an anti-Greek, you must strut around with the attitude and philosophy that Greek houses should be abolished like a chip on your shoulder.
