Does it ever end?
At times, it seems the world’s supply of ignorance and pettiness is inexhaustible:
Delta Zeta’s national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house.
The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits. Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit.
“Virtually everyone who didn’t fit a certain sorority member archetype was told to leave,” said Kate Holloway, a senior who withdrew from the chapter during its reorganization.
“I sensed the disrespect with which this was to be carried out and got fed up,” Ms. Holloway added. “I didn’t have room in my life for these women to come in and tell my sisters of three years that they weren’t needed.”
At times, we find ourselves once again in old battles we thought had been fought and won years ago.
This is not the first time that the DePauw chapter of Delta Zeta has stirred controversy. In 1982, it attracted national attention when a black student was not allowed to join, provoking accusations of racial discrimination.
Are we in a rut?
The trouble is that prejudice and ignorance and pettiness are not enemies that can be overthrown once and for all. They are like stones that must be eroded over a long, long time — worn down, and worn down, and worn away, slowly, steadily, ceaselessly, by every breath we take.
It never ends.
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