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Revenge of the Sorors

By J. Samuel Cook
Black College Wire

Kenon White/Black College Wire Writing about hazing charges at Alcorn State University led to a pink-and-green nightmare.

"Here they come," the unidentified source had said. How they were able to pinpoint my location, I’m not certain. They had established an elaborate network among themselves — nearly 100 members on the campus alone— in which they parked their vehicles at strategic locations on the Alcorn State University campus and communicated via cellular phone. I had attempted to circumvent them by taking dirt roads.

Even before I received the text message, I had seen and heard LaToya Hentz on her cell phone saying, "He's over here at I.T. right in front of my face. Hurry up over here."

I hurried down the stairs of the Industrial Technology Building, which houses the Department of Mass Communication, in order to avoid any confrontation. I had been informed by a campus police officer earlier in the day that, despite the harassment, if the young ladies did attack me and I retaliated, I would be arrested. My hands were tied. I wanted to avoid confrontation at all costs. I was, however, too late.

By the time I reached the lobby, the pink-and-green sea was upon me. Two members of the Gamma Phi Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. stood in the lobby, but were preoccupied by a gentleman to whom they were voicing their disdain about my March 7 article on Black College Wire about their chapter allegedly engaging in underground hazing activities. I hurried past, only to find that seven or eight other sorors were awaiting me.

They began to loudly taunt me, trying to goad me into an altercation, asking if I was "happy now." I reached my vehicle and thanked God that it was still in one piece. Now I prayed that it would start and I could escape the brooding pack of sorority girls spouting their venomous barbs at me.

Three more girls started walking toward me from behind my vehicle.

Excellent. Here comes more fun.

Felisha Robinson, the vice-basileus of the chapter, led the pack, telling the others, “We should beat his ass right now!”

Great. Just peachy. Exactly what I need to top off what has already been the best day ever. Now I’m going to have to get ready to go to jail because these young ladies are deluded into believing they can physically defeat a 23-year-old man. Wow.

Another member bellowed that I “just wanted their interest meeting to be cancelled,” to which I replied, “Have you even read the article?”

J. Samuel Cook

A response rang out from the crowd. “Bitch, have you read the article?”

Why am I even wasting my time responding?

By this time, they were surrounding my car. I fumbled in my pocket for the keys and turned them in the door lock. I got in, still praying that the car would start and I could escape the latest chapter in the nightmare that had become, as the university promises, my “unique and enriching experience.”

Thankfully, the car started. I began to back up as the members continued to yell slurs at me, narrowly avoiding hitting one of the young ladies with my rear bumper as she stood defiantly in my way. I drove off, hoping this would be the end of a day gone horribly awry. Sadly, it was not.

All of this began when I became editor-in-chief of the “voice of the Alcorn State University community,” the Campus Chronicle. Prior to my appointment, the newspaper came out infrequently, students feared censorship or worse by university administrators, there was absolutely no staff and on the rare occasions that the paper did appear, it was filled with fluff that was intended to satisfy the ASU administration.

There was little or no hard-news content and students lived in constant fear that if they offended anyone at the university, they might find their financial aid tampered with or their academic record sullied. (Of course, I cannot prove that these events have ever occurred in Alcorn State history, nor do I make the statement as an indictment of the university’s administration; rather, I offer them as an example of the paranoia that runs rampant among the student body). One student indicated to me that, based on an editorial he had written criticizing the university, his future writings had to be screened through the Office of Academic Affairs. Stellar students had their grades threatened.

Things had to change, and soon. Someone had to be unafraid to tackle the hard-hitting issues that plague our future alma mater.

This was not my first run-in with Gamma Phi. Members had kidnapped me while I was collecting the information for the article.

Like a ravenous wolf pack

Five of them, including Robinson and the basileus of the chapter, Jennifer Graham, had taken me to a remote location and left me, forcing me to walk back to campus. Robinson had coerced me into her car by telling me, in her sweetest voice, that we were simply going to the library to discuss the allegations. As soon as the doors closed, Robinson pressed the power lock and, driving about 80 miles per hour, whizzed off. Once we reached our destination, I was berated for covering the story.

“This is [expletive]. Why don’t you write about your own damn fraternity? Nobody on the newspaper staff has ever written about hazing until your ass came here.”

What, had I broken some cardinal rule? Some unspoken bond among black Greeks to never discuss what goes on in the seedy underbelly of black Greek affairs? Obviously, I didn’t receive that memo.

"You’re just being messy."

"You will never be successful as a journalist."

Riiiiight. I became a journalist to make friends. And besides, when did you become Walter Cronkite?

"This story will never run. I can guarantee that."

And then, as quickly as it began, they left me. I walked back to campus alone. Just great. Great. Great. Great.

About two weeks passed and a peaceful calm fell over the “Academic Resort,” as a former president called the campus. The peace remained until March 7. The story had officially been posted.

The harassment resumed.

The girls followed me wherever I went on campus, traveling like a ravenous pack of wolves, salivating at the very thought of catching me, inquiring as to where I lived. Ashley Morris, a drum major for the university, and other AKAs had approached my cousin and asked him where I was from originally, harassing him for my personal information. Several members of the sorority called my fraternity line brothers, asking for my cell phone number so that they could contact me personally.

Earlier in the day, I had been called into a meeting with Shundera Perteet, the adviser for the Gamma Phi chapter and an administrator for the university, and Cheryl Kariuki, the executive aide to the university president. Perteet told me I had created a lot of problems for the chapter. I informed her that the "problems" were created by those who felt the need to exert their power over prospective members of her sorority, not by me.

"No," she said. “You created the problems."

Perteet pressed me to reveal the source quoted in the article, to which I replied that by law, I was not obligated to do so. Kariuki telephoned Juanita Sims-Doty, the regional director for the sorority. I asked Sims-Doty if, in order to ensure clarity of information for all parties involved, I could tape record the conversation. Sims-Doty declined, and so I, in turn, told Sims-Doty that I would not discuss the article with her or disclose who my sources were, and terminated the call.

Kariuki assured me that the stalking and haranguing would stop.

Still, the harassment continued.

In the Twilight Zone

I watched from afar as chapter leaders Robinson and Graham, and an unidentified member of the sorority filed a falsified police report after I had reported them for harassing me at the Industrial Technology Building. I received a call on my cell phone informing me that the 10 young ladies were combing the campus inquiring about my whereabouts. Three young ladies pulled up and parked in front of me. Hentz, a fellow mass communication major and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, rolled down the car window and glared at me with a scowl full of rage-induced hatred. I was appalled by what the usually amicable young lady had become.

"He’s over here at the administration building," she said into her cell phone. “I’m sitting right in front of him."

Someone send these girls over to Afghanistan. They’ll find Bin Laden in no time flat.

I stood outside for another two or three minutes awaiting the gang’s arrival. Hentz decried her fellow sorority members' lack of urgency in arriving as I turned to enter the building once again. Hentz bellowed out of the window at me as I left.

“Where are you going? Are you scared?”

Scared? Of a group of girls? Be serious. It's just that I had to avoid confrontation at all costs.

I told a professor nearby that I refused to even dignify such an ignorant comment with a response.

I returned to Ms. Kariuki’s office with the professor and informed her that I was still being harassed. She told me that a meeting had been scheduled to address the issues. Perteet, who had been in an office to the rear of Kariuki’s, came out as I was on the telephone with my mother.

She scoffed, asking Kariuki if I was on the phone with “Mommy.”

I’ve officially entered the Twilight Zone.

Admittedly, at this point, my temper had gotten the best of me. I made the mistake of calling Perteet "ignorant," and while on the telephone with my mother, I also said I found her to be juvenile and petty.

It was at that point that Perteet retreated once again into the back office and called the campus police.

Within minutes, two campus officers were in Kariuki’s office asking, “What is the problem?” The two officers went into the office where Perteet had holed up. When they came out, one asked me again, “Where is the problem?”

What? Did I just shoot the pope? Are ignorant, juvenile and petty the new four-letter words? I must be in some serious trouble.

"I don’t have a problem, sir," I replied. "What is being alleged?"

"What is the problem?" he asked again.

What do you mean, "what is the problem?" Didn’t I come in and file a report saying I had been stalked and harassed for two weeks? That’s my problem. What’s your problem?

I repeated my initial statement, that I didn't have a problem.

"I’m going to ask you one more time, ‘What is your problem?’ and if you don’t answer the question, I’m going to arrest you."

Christ.

I told the officer once again that the problem did not lie with me and that he could do what he had to. He told me to turn around, and I complied. However, Kariuki intervened, informing the officer that I had neither threatened nor physically attacked Perteet and that my statements, though rash in her opinion, did not warrant arrest.

The officer turned to Kariuki and informed her that it was “his decision” whether I would be arrested and that it was his intention to arrest me, take me to the Claiborne County Jail, and have me charged with disturbing the peace. Kariuki pleasantly responded to the officer that she had invited me and that I was not disturbing the peace of the office. The officer then informed me that if I did not leave, I would be arrested.

Perteet filed a police report as well.

Officer Tom Lewis of the Alcorn State Campus Police called me in for questioning, but rather than ask how he could ensure my personal safety, he began to interrogate me about whether I wrote the article.

I had asked Officer Lewis earlier whether I was under arrest or whether I would be arrested. He replied, “Only if you do something back here to get you arrested," referring to the holding area of the campus police station. Since I wasn’t under arrest, I left.

Of course, as soon as I left Kariuki’s office, members of the Gamma Phi chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha were waiting for me, revving their engines and flipping me the bird as I walked to my car to leave the campus.

Don't shoot the messenger

I am a proud Alcornite and a proud member of the African American Greek community via my membership in the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. I have taken solemn oaths to protect both entities; however, as a journalist, I have come to understand that sometimes, in order to protect those things that we love most, we must expose some inconvenient truths.

It is unfortunate, however, that many members of the African American Greek community, as well as the historically black college and university system, believe in sweeping nuisances such as administrative malfeasance, organized censorship, underground hazing activities, deplorable physical conditions, overt and covert harassment and overall student displeasure under the proverbial rug.

The only way that historically black colleges and universities can continue to grow, thrive and compete with majority institutions is to expose these injustices and lobby for the funding, training and expertise to fix the problems. The only way that African American Greek organizations can return to their once-prized position of prestige in the eyes of greater society, as opposed to being viewed as dressed-up gangs, is to confront the inconvenient truth that, yes, some small-minded individuals do, indeed, perpetuate these activities.

And further, there are individuals out there who do not and cannot feel that their organizational affiliation is legitimate unless they are hazed.

No, the answer is not to “keep Greek business out of the streets,” as one of my beloved fraternity brothers so passionately indicated in an e-mail to me, but rather to shed light and fix the problem.

Many at Alcorn State University and in the African American Greek community are, as the saying goes, shooting me as messenger rather than listening to the message. No, I am not the problem, as Ms. Perteet believes. Rather, the problem is that we, as HBCU attendees and administrators, as well as "black Greeks," are so insecure in our own abilities that we scapegoat the drum-majors of justice — the reporters and journalists so devoted to truth and liberty that they are willing to be ostracized, alienated, degraded, and denigrated if it will improve the quality of life of just one single, solitary person.

Shundera Perteet asked me in a meeting why I had written the article. Simply put: As a journalist, I was just doing my job.

I came to Alcorn State University after being displaced from my home in New Orleans, after the devastating Hurricane Katrina. When I arrived on the Mississippi campus, I literally had one pair of jeans, a T-shirt and a crimson red-collared shirt. I was, by every measurable standard, homeless.

I had no idea of the degree of devastation my city had endured. I was depressed and disheveled. My life was devoid of hope and I had no idea what my future held. In Alcorn I saw hope— a second chance after having my life interrupted by the indiscriminate storm. I was, at least at first, received with warmest regards. I championed Alcorn as a liberal, open-minded university at which an individual could grow and thrive.

As I neared my senior year, I began to encounter more and more problems from the university, beginning with a hold placed on my financial aid that caused my money to be held up for several months. Still, despite the failure of the system to provide a reprieve for me, I refused to give up.

When an instructor attempted to fail me in her course because of a flawed attendance policy, despite the fact that I had missed class while representing the university at a national business competition, I refused to lose the faith. When a university administrator slashed the hourly rate for my on-campus research job, my only means of income, from $10 an hour to $6.15, I held my peace.

I was still standing.

Still trusting.

Still holding on to what I believed would be a brighter future.

And I continue to defiantly stand, unabashedly trust and desperately hold on to my belief that someday soon I will be, as I told Alcorn State President Clinton Bristow Jr. prior to his untimely death, a proud Alcorn alumnus.

I see myself in the future, and just as I survived Katrina, I will survive this storm.

Until that beautiful July day when I graduate, however, this will be my daily nightmare, my personal comedy of errors, my own "unique and enriching experience."

J. Samuel Cook, a student at Alcorn State University, is interim editor-in-chief of the Campus Chronicle. He is a member of the Eta chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. To comment, e- mail [email protected]. We especially invite responses from members of the Alcorn State community.

Posted March 12, 2007

Cook Was Only Doing His Job

To the editor:

It saddens me to read that J. Samuel Cook is going through his storm. What saddens me even more is the fact that the Gamma Phi chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. is acting like an organized gang. I could've sworn fraternities and sororities were created as community service organizations, not as outlets of gang activity.

We, The Gramblinite, have had our shares of problems on campus from students, organizations and our administration. Fortunately, it never amounted to physical confrontations or attempts at arrests from the university police. It actually sparked debate and conversation around the campus on controversial topics.

However, this situation is different. Cook was only doing his job, a job that requires a great amount of an unbiased spirit and has many dangers associated with it. The dangers of the job are being realized by journalists every day, and this situation only adds another risk to the list.

For members of the Gamma Phi chapter to disrespect themselves is sad. For them to disrespect their organization is a true disgrace. How can one expect this group to exemplify what the Extraordinary Service Program represents by doing such activity? Is this also a part of the leadership program that the prestigious sorority has?

Bottom line is that the Gamma Phi chapter of AKA has done a disservice to all chapters of AKAs. I know that our campus AKAs, the Alpha Theta chapter, have never stooped to a level as low as this, no matter the circumstance. They know they represent not only the chapter, but the entire organization.

I understand that there is some anger about the article being published. However, you should not be angry at Cook; you should be angry at yourselves for allowing such an activity to go on. When you started the hazing process, you also started the process of allowing it to become public knowledge and to be broadcast in the streets.

Seeing this situation makes me no longer wonder why people call Greeks "organized gangs." The Gamma Phi chapter should be working with Cook instead of threatening him and allegedly falsifying police reports. I'm not on the Alcorn State University campus, but I can say this does not make such a esteemed university look good.

Cook, continue to fight the blatant attempts at censorship. We as journalists understand that you did the story in order to shed light on a growing problem. You are being punished for doing the right thing. However, that seems to be the growing trend these days. Take it from someone who knows.

Darryl D. Smith
Editor-in-chief, The Gramblinite
Grambling State University
March 12, 2007

Here's My Experience at Berkeley

To the editor:

Congratulations for refusing to bow to intimidation and pressure. Keep on writing what you must write. Keep on doing what you must do.

Please allow me to share my experience:

While attending the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, I happened upon a party held in the school's parking lot across from the J-School. The music and partying could be heard nearly a mile away from campus. Thinking it was just a group of students getting together to hang out and party, I had my tape recorder set to get the sounds for a piece on black culture on a primarily white campus. (Did I mention I was on school —state — property?)

However, I soon found out it was a private party for the Berkeley chapter of Delta Sigma Theta. When I was discovered, they (Delta) and their male counterparts, Omega, circled me and threatened me — there were some 200 people present. They wanted my tape recorder and notes. Some of these people I knew, not as Greeks but from my association with African American groups, including the Bay Area Black Media Coalition.

I filed a report with the school's administration, as well as with Delta and Omega headquarters. My goal: to get these kids thrown off campus, and expelled from school.

A "friend" in J-School, a Delta, called me on behalf of her sisters and asked me not to proceed because some of the students were first-generation college students and would be turned away from other schools because of their behavior. I said then to the students and say now, they should have to live with their consequences.

Valerie Edwards
Atlanta
March 14, 2007

He's Been an Attentive Student

To the editor:

Where are the folks from Alcorn’s journalism department?

They should be standing behind that young man as obviously he’s been paying attention in class!

As for his peer, Ms. LaToya Hentz: should she eventually find employment in her chosen field of study (mass communications), I hope she never finds herself in a position of having to cover a controversial subject. It would be too hypocritical . . .

Frank H. Staley
Upper Marlboro, Md.
March 14, 2007