BamaRush TikToks amplifies the story of racist sororities

[ad_1]

While what goes into curating every TikTok user’s For You page remains a mystery, one thing has become clear: the content of the University of Alabama students vying for a place in the sororities of the school has dominated the app over the past week. This trend, dubbed “RushTok” by TikTok netizens, began when sisterhood hopefuls began making videos of themselves and what they wore for “Bama Rush,” Greek recruiting week. from the University of Alabama.

The formula for a RushTok video is simple but compelling: state the peak day and activity, then name the brand of each garment and accessory you wear. The typical Bama Rush TikTok videos share some common characteristics, including a multitude of blondes with southern accents, school call hashtags, “Roll Tide”, and a widespread affinity for brands like Michael Kors, Shein , Steve Madden and Kendra Scott.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the videos quickly went viral last week. Mainly featuring slim, homogeneous white women (the notoriously favored demographics of the TikTok algorithm), RushTok has provided users with a glimpse (or escape) in a niche world filled with parties and promises, after a devastating year. and a world still in a state of chaos. As well as giving the internet a breather, RushTok also inspired a slew of parody videos, made popular acronyms like PNM (potential new member) and OOTD (outfit of the day), spurred a slight increase in urgent videos from other schools across the country that just started recruiting and created particular interest among viewers where the rookies landed – sort of a fantastic league for the Bama Rush plateau.

RushTok’s obsession, however, also serves as a compelling reminder of long-held critiques of racism, elitism and sexism ingrained in many organizations of Greek life. In universities across the United States, sororities and fraternities have been faced with accounts following violence, hazing, sexual assault, and even death. In 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, several students and alumni across the country at several schools called for reform regarding racial discrimination in Greek life, which, as noted by the TikTok user Cedoni Francis in a viral video, is based on being exclusionary, often by race and class. Some former Greek life participants went so far as to leave their fraternities and sororities in protest, while other organizations were dissolved entirely.

The current viral moment of the University of Alabama sororities (to date the hashtag #BamaRush has garnered over 327 million views on TikTok) has also sparked an examination of the dark and fairly recent history of the University of Alabama. school with racism in Greek life, a heartbreaking legacy, given the state’s overall history of brutal racial violence and its status as a site for many pivotal events during the civil rights movement.

In 1986, the University of Alabama chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically black Greek organization to which Vice President Kamala Harris belonged as a student at Howard University, which remains the only all-black sorority on campus, found a burning cross in the yard of a residence they were considering for a sorority house. As recently as 2013, the school made headlines for officially breaking up its sorority system, after its campus newspaper revealed that black students had been denied offers from historically white associations. due to the intervention of former students and counselors.

The RushTok trend saw the legacy of racist treatment continue among the university’s Greek life organizations after Makayla Culpepper, a Bama Rush favorite, revealed she was ditched at the end of the week. tip of all the sororities she was rushing. Culpepper, who identifies as mixed race, was clearly one of the only women of color on the platform to become a RushTok sensation, racking up millions of views for her charming OOTD videos. Culpepper was reportedly abandoned after a video of her was shown in which she was accused of looking drunk (underage drinking violates recruitment rules); she has since stated on TikTok that she was not drunk in the video.

Marissa Lee, who in 2017 became the first black president of Phi Mu, a prominent sorority at the University of Alabama, addressed Culpepper’s downfall in her own viral TikTok, where she noted that in the past she had seen sororities look away when damning things came to light about other (presumably white) recruits.

“We have to keep the same energy at all levels, we have to apply the same rules to everyone,” Lee said in his video. “We can’t have this trend where if you’re going to be a woman of color or if you’re going to be in this environment, you’ve got to be exceptional.”

The controversy surrounding Culpepper’s downfall has also reignited the discourse around The Machine, a coalition that has been an open secret for decades of historically white sororities and fraternities at the University of Alabama that exert influence over the campus and state politics and has reportedly been involved in arson, vandalism, burglary and social ostracism.

For those advocating for real change when it comes to University of Alabama Greek life, RushTok is more than just OOTDs – it offers a chance to reexamine not only its turbulent history with the breed, but its history as well. widespread influence on campus culture. Alexus Cumbie, a graduate student at the University of Alabama and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, pointed out in a RushTok video on black students and Greek life that reform is necessary precisely because the Greek system on campus is so powerful. In 2020, the University of Alabama had the largest Greek community in the country for the 10th consecutive year; the university reports that its Greek population has more than doubled in size over the past decade, making the need for change even more urgent.

“The truth is, these sororities aren’t going to go away, so someone’s got to do the job,” Cumbie says.

Culpepper, however, appears to have left campus life without a sorority. Her drama RushTok earned her a huge increase in followers on TikTok and Instagram, for which she thanked her fans in a video titled “Rejection is God’s protection.” In it, she celebrates reaching 100,000 subscribers just days after being dropped. In another video, she expresses her relief at not having an offer.

“It’s good that I didn’t go into a sorority,” she said with a smile. “I’ll be better.”

Sign up for our Entertainment newsletter. Subscribe to More to the Story to get the context you need for the pop culture you love.

Thank you! For your security, we have sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click on the link to confirm your subscription and start receiving our newsletters. If you do not receive the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Write to Cady Lang at [email protected].

[ad_2]