This article from Pacific Citizen about Asian Fraternities and Sororities is one of those throwaway human interest stories you see at the end of a local newscast after watching 30 minutes of war and crime footage – “Asian Greeks are awesome and I’m learning about my culture yeah!” If nothing else, it reminds us that Asian fraternities and sororities were created due to discrimination: The first Asian fraternal society Rho Psi was once a collegiate fraternity, formed in 1916 at Cornell University by Chinese men who weren’t admitted to existing clubs; USC’s Sigma Phi Omega was formed by Japanese American women during a period of Anti-Asian sentiment after World War 2.
But the article is so warm and fuzzy that the article casually ignores that the fraternity chapter they use for exemplary diversity – Lambda Phi Epsilon’s U of Buffalo chapter – was the subject of a criminal investigation involving pledge hazing in 2009. (That said: we’ve talked about all the hazing in Asian American Fraternities before.)
