Original subtitles

Yeah. I mean, that was just a sort of

a really stressful time in my life.

So like it is. Makes me have like a lot of anxiety, but...

it did happen.

So I guess you do have to talk about it.

Welcome to Phi Phi House! Come on in!

Okay.

Reporter: Recent allegations of racial segregation

in sororities at the University of Alabama

continue to send shockwaves throughout the nation.

I'm in the South now [bleep].

The N word was written in chalk all over campus.

A cross was burned on the lawn at a Black sorority.

A secret society that is powerful and some say ruthless.

It is called "The Machine."

Most of the fraternities and sororities at the university

are in "The Machine."

"The Machine" is very much focused on White supremacy.

They're paved with a level of impunity that suggests

that they think that they'll always get away with it.

There are policies on the books that said that

"We will not take people of color."

"The Machine" continues to hold that stranglehold on power.

I am 58 years old.

Why am I still afraid of them?

That's what a cult can do.

Not on the record.

[cheering]

There's no place in the world that is more exciting

or thrilling than sororities and fraternities.

But you don't know what actually goes on behind closed doors.

All of Greek life has some sort of a tradition of secrecy.

This was a powerful organization.

I mean, it was a serious cover-up.

The amount of power that the fraternities have,

it's so thoroughly woven into the nature of the universities.

There is always the same playbook.

Operator: 911. What is the address of your emergency?

They start the cover-up. Nobody talks.

Hazing is a huge problem,

and it's resulted in tragedy.

Someone was burning a cross on the lawn.

They would grab a member, force their face down

and then make them do a line of cocaine.

It felt very sadistic. He wanted me to be hurting.

You send your kid off to college,

and this happens?

My name is Melody Zeidan.

I'm from a really small town in Alabama called Camden.

I was quite a good student growing up.

I was always one year ahead of my classmates,

for the most part.

So I graduated from high school right before I turned 17.

When I started at the University of Alabama in the fall of 2000,

everything evolved around campus and social life and fitting in.

The buildings are very stately.

They're sort of this big, beautiful quad

in the middle of campus where people hang out.

And Greek Row is a big part of campus.

It's almost as important to the university as football is.

The Greek houses at Alabama are really something to behold.

The scale is just astonishing.

It's impossible not to come away with the impression that

"Oh, these are the people here who matter.

These are the people who are important to this university."

But sororities have one way a woman can be,

which is white, pretty, rich, and well behaved.

I feel like when you start learning the details,

they're not so pretty parts show through.

The school started in the mid-1800s

and is steeped in the tradition of the old South

in a lot of ways.

In 1963, several Black students attempted to enroll

in the University of Alabama.

There was a large anti-segregation

in education movement happening across the country.

George Wallace, who was the governor at that time,

said, I believe his words were...

Segregation now,

segregation tomorrow,

and segregation forever.

[cheering]

He very famously stood in the doors of Foster Auditorium,

and he refused to allow those students entry

to enroll in classes back at the University of Alabama.

Man: The choice is yours.

There's a long history of racial incidents on campus,

and the Greek life, the recruitment process

has a tremendously long way to go.

There've been a number of instances in recent years

in which students have put vile racist statements

on social media.

In 2014, a Chi Omega pledge

put a snap on Snapchat that proclaimed

that Chi Omega has no N word.

Also in 2018,a member of Alpha Pi

posted on the internet a video

of her saying that she hates...

Woman: I love how I act like I love Black people

because [bleep] hate...

I know someone that's... [indistinct]

'cause I said [bleep]. You know what? [bleep].

I don't care if it's Martin Luther King Day.

[bleep].

I'm in the South now, [bleep].

When I stepped onto campus,

obviously I noticed that there were

more White women in these traditionally...

White sororities.

But it didn't occur to me that there were no non-White women.

I saw the Greek houses and thought, "Oh, yes.

"This is where the friends are made.

Excellent. Let's get involved with that."

As a bright-eyed freshman,

I was just looking for girls to hang out with.

Race wasn't on my radar.

As a woman who has been accepted to the university,

in the senior year of high school, you fill out

sort of an intent to rush.

And it's a multi-step process.

The rush process is eight days.

So there's a convocation where they bring everyone

into the Coliseum, we find out your Rho Chi group.

The first two days are what they call ice water tease,

which is where everybody has a chance to visit every sorority.

You wait outside and the doors open,

and there are a hundred of the most beautiful,

glamourous women that you have ever seen

screaming their door songs.

We've been waiting for you all summer,

and we're so glad you're finally here!

[cheering]

[chanting, indistinct]

Welcome to Phi Phi House! Come on in!

After the first round,

you list the sororities that you want to be a part of.

And similarly, the sororities are choosing

who they want to be a part of.

Your list is significantly cut the first day.

It's cut down to probably, like, between seven and ten.

And then you go home and you agonize

over which one to choose.

It's... It's intense.

On Bid Day, you wake up bright and early,

and you head to Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Everybody was given a manila envelope

with your name on it, and at the same time,

everybody opens up their envelopes,

and you have a card inviting you to join that sorority.

They make you feel like there's no place in the world

that is more exciting, more thrilling,

and that you will be as beautiful and glamorous

and fun as they are.

When I was rushing, I thought...

obviously I'm going to get a bid.

I mean, I've got good grades,

I get along well with people.

I mean, why wouldn't I?

But then I got a call from my Roi Chi, as they were called,

and she said, "I'm sorry.

You haven't been invited to any houses for the third round."

I never heard any reason for why I was dropped.

It was just, "I'm sorry.

All of the houses have released you from rush."

A friend of my boyfriend at the time

came up to me and said, "Hey,

"didn't you rush the White sorority?

"Why did you do that?

You know they don't take Black people, right?"

I thought, "What?"

I was just astonished.

I was like, surely that's not right. That can't be right.

I mean, it's the year 2000.

And that was when someone told me about

what they call "The Machine."

And things started to make sense to me.

A secret society that is powerful

and some say ruthless.

It is called "The Machine."

"The Machine" is a secret group of White students who seek

to influence the student body government election.

Student government at the University of Alabama

originates through Greek life.

There was a band of fraternities that established it.

They created a secret group to run it called Theta Nu Epsilon.

Theta Nu Epsilon got its start

as a national Greek organization.

In the 1880s, a chapter of them was founded

at the University of Alabama

which was later titled "The Machine."

You find the fingerprints of "The Machine"

on any given political and social structure.

Those individuals who are elected

to student body government positions

get internships on Capitol Hill,

become senators from the state of Alabama.

So you have this direct pipeline into real political power.

But the real harm of "The Machine"

come from institutionalized racism.

The Greek system and "The Machine"

have always functioned to some degree

as a means of sort of protecting the social class

that engages with it.

You don't think...

"We're White, so we deserve to be on top."

You think, "We're White, so we are on top.

That is the way the world was created."

The goal is to maintain that hegemonic power.

These are people who would resort to just about anything

to get their way...

and demonstrate that they can punish those who defy them.

When I was rushing,

"The Machine" wasn't on my radar.

I had this GPA.

I have all the qualifications that I need.

The only thing that I have is an excess of melanin

to disqualify me.

'Cause I had more conversations about this entire process

with people who were outside of the Greek system.

It seemed as though I was dropped from rush

because of my race,

and "The Machine" was part of that.

To understand where "The Machine" came from,

you have to understand where Alabama was in 1901.

After the Civil War,

after Black people gained political clout,

essentially the White people of Alabama said,

"This is crazy, this is wrong, we can't do this."

So in 1901, they wrote a constitution

for the specific purpose

of codifying White supremacy into law.

"The Machine" was formed at the University of Alabama

for the specific purpose also of maintaining

the status quo to keep wealthy White people

in control of government, in business, and beyond.

Narrator: Many a governor or senator

has been born in the dorms and sidewalks of Tuscaloosa.

Yet all but a few have owed their success in part

to a tradition of membership in a powerful, secret

all-White political machine.

The way it functions now is that

most of the fraternities and sororities at the university

are in "The Machine."

That means they're part of the system.

They have a couple of representatives

from the chapter that are "The Machine" reps.

The term used on campus is "They go underground."

No one goes to "The Machine" meetings other than

the representative from each sorority and fraternity.

And the meetings are shrouded in mystery.

People who go are not supposed to talk about

what happens in the meetings.

They didn't want to admit "The Machine" existed.

They still don't.

"The Machine," they decide things.

They decide who the SGA officers are going to be.

They decide who the Homecoming Queen is going to be.

They decide who's going to get tapped

into certain honor societies,

which is a big deal at Alabama.

They agree on a slate of candidates,

and they bring back the decision back to their Greek house,

and you're sort of told this is who "we're voting for."

For almost every election

regarding campus politics,

it's gonna go to who "The Machine"

has previously delegated.

It serves as a training ground for not just how to do politics,

but how to do politics in a dirty way.

To perpetuate the status quo of who's in power

and who is not.

I pledged.

It was a "Machine" sorority, but I mean...

I didn't know at the time.

My boyfriend that I dated in high school

and the beginning of college was a Theta Chi,

and Theta Chi at that time

was trying to get into "The Machine".

So by the time I got to Alabama,

I knew a good bit about "The Machine,"

although I did not know the history

and the more serious side to what "The Machine" is about.

When I was a freshman,

and we were going to vote for the SGA offices,

they passed out a list for us to vote for

to take to the polls with us.

I still did not see the big picture

of what was going on until I started writing

for the "Crimson White" in my junior year.

I found out that there was going to be a "Machine" meeting

at one of the fraternity houses.

So we went to stake it out.

People started leaving the building,

and I started recognizing the people.

I'm trying to--Start trying to interview them.

And they lost it.

They started leaving by the back door

with raincoats over their heads.

Some of the fraternity guys followed us back to the...

to the "Crimson White" office in their cars

and circled the building for hours.

People involved in "The Machine"

did work so hard to keep it a secret.

[car revving]

I felt very unsafe.

[ringing]

I got a lot of weird phone calls,

a lot of hang-ups.

People quit talking to me,

kinda shunned me,

told me I needed to stop writing.

And I realized how mad they really were.

Meanwhile at the "Crimson White" office,

they had had threats of violence.

It was a real concern

that something could happen to you.

And I... I saw it all.

I saw the dirty politics

and the willingness to harm people physically

and just the lengths that people would go to,

to get what they wanted for "The Machine."

In 1992, Minda Riley decided

as a member of a "Machine" sorority,

to run for a SGA office, but she was not the person

selected by "The Machine" officers.

So she was challenging the very essence of "The Machine."

It was reported that she was attacked in her house

and stabbed with a knife to dissuade her

from running for office.

And that resulted in the shutdown of the SGA,

the Student Government Association, for several years.

"The Machine" has behaved with a level of impunity

that suggests that they think that

they'll always get away with it.

It will do whatever is necessary to maintain

the power that they think they should have,

including racial terror.

In the mid-1980s, a cross was burned

on the lawn of a Black sorority that had been relocated

to what was considered the White Sorority Row.

In the South, the KKK

used burning crosses as a threat to Black people.

And so for what happened at the AKA house,

it was definitely a threat.

"You don't belong here,

and we're willing to try to keep you away."

They never found who did it,

but the only people who would be interested

in a Black sorority moving onto Sorority Row

would be "Machine" people.

It was an honest expression of what they thought,

which was heinous.

"The Machine," I think, over the course of generations

has made racial segregation an important part

of its maintaining the status quo.

That was especially clear when you look at

who was in the Greek system,

because it's overwhelmingly very White,

and always has been.

It's kind of a David and Goliath kind of situation

because of these racial incidents.

They involve Greek life.

There's a lot of students from across campus

who would get really angry and be like,

"This is how it's been happening,

and how do we keep looking away?"

But it wasn't until decades later that the racism

was given any attention by the university.

This time, people were mad enough.

During my sophomore year,

there was this big racist event.

The N word was written in chalk all over campus.

But that was not the only incident.

One of the common experiences when I was there

was you would get fraternity brothers who were drunk,

tearing around in their pickup truck

yelling racial slurs at Black students who were walking by.

And I had a whole bunch of friends who...

you know, Black folks who were like,

"I don't walk behind Old Row.

"I don't want a racial slur screamed at me,

and what if they're drunk enough to do more than that?"

Every time the university would send out an email

"We do not condone.

"We have not punished anyone for it,

but we don't condone it."

And that happened over and over and over.

I started seeing, you know, people on campus

bringing up, like, "This is not okay."

So there was...

already some momentum with that.

In the fall of 2013, there were conversations

that were happening, saying that there were

several Black women who were going to rush this year.

There was one woman in particular

who seemed particularly well-suited,

and everybody thought, gosh, this might be the year that,

you know, an Old Row sorority integrate.

A Black woman named Kennedi Cobb

rushed a pretty prestigious sorority,

and she should have been a shoe-in for it.

She was someone with all the right qualifications.

There was no way that not every single sorority

would want this woman.

In my sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi,

there were automatic drops during rush

for certain grade levels.

There were people who would automatically would get moved on

to the next round because she knew somebody who knew somebody.

That was sort of a normal thing.

But it was said specifically, "And by the way,

"after our philanthropy day, we do grade drops

and we drop Black women."

I tried to speak about my concerns

to the alumna who were there,

to the women who we're tasked with managing the rush process.

I was told...

"We're not being racist.

"We don't just not accept Black girls,

we also don't take tall girls."

As if that...

made any difference in any capacity.

My concerns were treated as if...

it was just a small, kind of annoyance that I had had

about the rush process.

After the second night of philanthropy

when we had attended to work drops,

the conversation reached sort of an apex.

There was a decision made to take a vote

within our sorority, and the vote was...

motion to accept Black women in the fall of 2013.

There was a vote taken, and the motion failed,

and we ultimately decided, as a sorority, collectively,

not to accept Black women...

on purpose.

And I just thought, this is such [bleep] bull [bleep].

I was... viscerally angry.

In the days immediately after rush,

a student newspaper journalist, Abbey Crain,

was preparing to write about this.

All of a sudden, the conversation exploded.

In 2013,

I would say the racial tensions

were definitely becoming more overt.

You could see them, you could hear them.

This girl, Kennedi, she's the ideal sorority candidate.

When the day came along, she wasn't there.

And we were all kinda like, "What? Really?"

I was like, I know there's a story here,

and I think I can get it.

So I was asking my Greek friends why she didn't get in.

And a lot of them cited,

"We won't get invited to parties with the good fraternities."

Or "We may be cut out of 'The Machine.'"

The most striking thing to me was that

all the women we talked to in sororities mentioned alumni.

The amount of power that those alumni bases have is so

thoroughly woven into the universities

and the Greek system.

Again, it goes back to "The Machine"

because "The Machine" is very much focused on White supremacy.

And they're beholden to the alumni and donor base

because really what the alumni offer is protection

through their financial gifts.

At the end of the day,

if the choice is race or money,

money always wins. Power always wins.

We decided that we were gonna write this piece.

By that point, it had gotten around.

The publishing process was very intense.

We had sent in what we thought was the final draft,

and my co-author got a call from

one of the members of one of the governing fraternity councils,

and she said, "I have a check.

How much will it take for you not to publish this?"

A lot of Greek life is PR-ing their way out

of these difficult topics.

And I was nervous.

I didn't want them to have that chance.

Just on the heels of the 50th anniversary

of Governor George Wallace's stand in the schoolhouse door

comes segregation allegations

on the University of Alabama campus.

Recent allegations of racial segregation in sororities

at the University of Alabama continue to send shockwaves

throughout the nation.

Abbey Crain and Matthew Ford, two editors of the campus paper,

broke the story on Wednesday,

and it is fueling conversation beyond the campus.

Even the governor is weighing in.

It's not the students, it's the alumni.

Personally, I think they need to change their attitude.

Abbey wrote this article,

and there was talk all over campus about this.

The national news came down.

They were knocking on sorority doors.

Sororities were texting me and telling me that

"You don't know what you did."

This was the biggest deal,

to go against the community publicly.

I remember I called my dad, and he...

I'd never seen him be serious like that.

He was like, "You don't know.

"You don't know what you're messing with.

Like that's--You're kicking the beehive."

Like, he was scared for me.

I think people were definitely scared of retribution.

But something had to happen.

The student body newspaper, "The Crimson White,"

was deeply influential in things that were going on on campus.

Abbey's article ignited a conversation

that maybe the university could, in fact,

be motivated in some way to step in.

I started to meet other sorority women

who were grappling with racism in the White Greek system.

They were interested in trying to do something about this.

These women that I had met ultimately decided

that they wanted to do this rally that was on the steps

of the main administrative building

and said we'd like to have a woman

who was actually in a sorority speak.

You're not allowed to speak to the press

when you're in your sorority.

So I still felt, in some capacity,

tied and loyal to my sorority.

But I thought, maybe those other girls in the sorority

who I haven't met who do agree with me.

I said, "I'll do it."

On the day of the rally,

we came, streaming across campus.

Showed up on the marble steps of the library,

unfurled a banner.

Reporter: Hundreds of people gathered at Gorgas Library

this morning to rally against the recent segregation

allegations in sororities on UA's campus.

There were several hundred people

who were really angry about the way that things had gone,

who wanted to say that "We're here,

"and you can't pretend that this is just a Greek matter.

"This is a University of Alabama matter,

and we're not going to stand for it."

Institutionalized racism has been allowed to

sort of fester on our campus.

This has long been a taboo subject, shrouded in fear.

Reporter: Participants marched behind students

holding a sigh that read

"The final stand in the schoolhouse door."

We felt like we needed to put a rally on

to show that the students of this campus

are ready for segregation and institutionalized racism

to end on this campus.

I'm here to stand to make sure that

no one has to deal with racism in the Greek system,

or has to deal with any kind of racism

for any purpose or reason.

"As we take a new stand in the schoolhouse doors,

"to clearly demonstrated that we, as a community,

"do not tolerate preferred or institutionalized racism

"on our campus.

"I'm Yardena Wolf, a sophomore majoring in political science

"and a member of Alpha Omicron Pi.

"Although I'm not speaking on behalf of my sorority,

I am speaking out as a member of the Greek community."

I received several anonymous phone calls to my phone

that were varying degrees of threatening.

Campus police helped with protection for several days.

But I was heartened by the fact that

there were many students who were willing to speak up

and to move things in the right direction.

"We have started to create an environment and community

"where we can support one another as members

of the University of Alabama student body."

[cheering]

I remember it feeling very powerful.

Sometimes you write a story and it just kinda goes

into the world and it just fizzles out.

And this, it didn't.

Almost immediately,

there were calls from the "New York Times,"

from "Time" magazine.

There was a long-form piece that was written about it.

There was a lot of national pressure to do something.

President Judy Bonner released a video today

acknowledging campus sororities have used race

to make decisions on new members,

and she is ordering changes.

The University of Alabama will not tolerate

discrimination of any kind.

The chapter members are ready to move forward.

The University of Alabama will support them

in every way possible.

In 2013 is when they started documenting the racial makeup

of the recruitment process

and then the makeup of the eventual rush classes.

They released a press release that, like,

every sorority on campus had accepted

two or three minority students.

In 2015, Elliott Spillers,

who became the first Black SGA president in decades,

and he did that, partially, by flipping some Greek houses

that were very unhappy with the way that "The Machine"

had been running things.

The issue of race and sororities at Alabama,

I would like to think is a thing of the past.

But changes in these organizations

can be especially difficult.

My name's Makayla Culpepper. I'm from Pickard, Alabama.

I live, like, in the same house my whole life.

I'm bi-racial.

I was adopted,

and my mom was in the delivery room with me when I was born.

Going in to the University of Alabama,

and you're in all these, like, group chats

of, like, meeting people that are gonna be in your class.

The first question the girls would ask you would be, like,

"Are you rushing?"

'Cause they're telling you you're gonna meet

so many great friends,

like, you're gonna meet your bridesmaids.

It just makes everything sound like if you're in a sorority,

you're just gonna be having the best college experience.

So it's just like one of those things.

And I was like, well, get out of my comfort zone.

I'll meet a lot of people, that, like,

I would have never met before.

Like, I felt everything was just gonna be perfect.

Like... It was not.

I do believe that if I was White,

we wouldn't have had the same issues.

The week before rush, I was so excited.

My rush resume I felt was pretty detailed.

I had a really high GPA in high school.

I had all cards, like, green light, go.

[indistinct]

This hat is from JCPenny.

I was getting, like, my eyebrows done,

my eyelashes redone, my extensions redone.

There's certain rules that we had to follow in rush.

They tell you to stay away from three things:

boys, Biden, and the Bible.

You have to dress a certain way, act a certain way.

So you have two options.

I posted TikToks, leading up to rush.

It was like, "I have this dress."

Like, what shoes? I gave them shoe options.

People really like that.

What shoes are we liking better?

These that kinda go up, like that?

Or do we like these better?

I probably started with around 600 followers.

This? Blue--[indistinct]. Pockets.

By the end of rush,

I had, like, 250,000 followers,

just from, like, that week.

I have been keeping up with this girl's

entire rush experience,

and she got these shoes.

So what did I do?

I got them.

Makayla Culpepper was a kind of a phenom

that swept Bama rush several years ago.

Reporter: The hashtag Bama Rush Roll Tide.

This is trending on social media

with videos like these,

showing students at the University of Alabama

getting ready for rush week.

When I first heard about the Bama Rush TikTok...

Both: Bama Rush Day One, OOTD.

I remember thinking, "Oh, my gosh.

Rush is making national news."

It was a frenzy. People were talking about it.

I was getting texts from people that I hadn't heard from

the sorority.

Sorority rush is such a deal right now.

TikTok started blowing up.

The hashtag Bama Rush.

Okay, so hear me out, hear me out.

I'm rushing tomorrow.

Good morning, guys. It's preference round day.

Bama Rush TikTok has given us a window in a world

that most people didn't know existed.

It's finally prep day,

and then tomorrow's the big day.

We are so excited, aren't we?

You're watching these women,

and it's almost like sitting front row

to an amazing soap opera,

and you wanna know how it's gonna end.

It's like anything else in reality TV.

It's this huge phenomenal, bright,

dazzling explosion of colors and exuberance.

But it might be a little too much.

I did follow Bama Rush on TikTok.

I remember Makayla being one of the only...

maybe the only person of color I saw.

But that wasn't weird

because this has been happening for decades.

When I first started the Rush Week,

I was so, so excited.

I was living on campus.

My first time, like, away from home.

I had a good roommate.

I felt like everything was just gonna be perfect.

Until I got my first round of houses back,

and I had so much less than all my friends.

I only had a fraction of the houses

that I was supposed to get back.

The first round, I had, like, five.

And then the next round,

you have around, like, six or seven.

And I...already shot down to three.

And usually you got three numbers

when you have, like, the last round, which is pref.

You have one, two, three options.

I was like, what's going on?

So my friends are already at their houses.

They had theirs in the morning. I have mine in the afternoon.

And I'll preface this by saying I had no houses yesterday.

I felt like, I'm beeing singled out.

I was so confused.

This stuff isn't adding up.

Like, I've never had more stress in my life.

I had so much anxiety about it.

I filmed TikToks this whole entire time.

I loved interacting with everyone.

I thought it was so fun.

But they were so concerned over, like,

what my race was.

And that was so crazy to me.

A girl commented and asked, what tan are you?

And that's what started the debate.

I was, like, I just wanna clarify that I am mixed,

and I've never tried to deceive you.

I never said that I was White.

I just wanna clarify. I am mixed.

So everyone trying to cancel me for that...

and being historic is kinda dumb.

I'm not sure even why that matters.

It's like, I'm gonna show you all my outfits.

I never had anyone ever make comments about my race.

I got called in for a meeting

with the Panhellenic Association.

They brought me in and were like,

"You need to stop making TikToks."

So, these little shorts are from Poshmark.

They're very cool, I'm pretty sure.

This is a little tank.

Everyone else was still posting,

and I talked to all my friends, and they're like,

"Oh, we never got told that."

I'm so confused.

I was like, okay, well, I'm not gonna be singled out.

I'm just gonna keep doing it.

So, hey, y'all.

I forgot my hair was down and pretty.

[indistinct]

Before I could even get out of bed,

I get a phone call from my Roi Chi.

She goes, "I'm sorry to tell you this,

"but you've been dropped from formal sorority recruitment

at the University of Alabama."

After I got dropped, I start crying.

I don't even know what happened.

I'm texting everyone, trying to get down to...

why I was dropped.

No one gave me a definite answer.

Literally when I got up at 6:00 in the morning

and found out that I didn't get a bid

and I wasn't gonna make it, I was like,

I'm coming to Birmingham.

[indistinct] I've been banned from posting.

But I'm just gonna go over a couple things

and then we're done with this conversation,

and we're moving on, y'all.

The first few months after I was dropped

were so intense 'cause they're always,

"Oh, you're the girl that got dropped."

Like, I was literally, like, blacklisted.

I think it was just too much for me.

I think they knew that I was gonna be dropped

and that they didn't want it to blow up

that I was gonna be dropped, so they're telling me to stop

making videos because you're not gonna be here for long.

And I wanna tell every girl at Alabama

and any girl at any sorority right now, happy bid day

and I hope you have fun during rush.

I remember seeing Makayla got cut,

which, of course, you know, my...

Spidey senses was like, okay, what happened?

Did this really happen again?

It just shows how Black women, women of color,

have to work twice as hard to have the same standard

that White women do.

These groups are really trying to keep women of color

out of their organizations.

And I think, looking at the stats and the figures

and even the makeup of the organizations

can tell you that story pretty clearly.

The fact that Makayla was dropped from rush,

I didn't really know what to make of it.

Honestly, I kinda felt like being bi-racial in 2021,

it seem like that should have been a selling point.

Racism at this institution is alive and well.

And who's gonna check that?

It is sickening that this is still a problem at Alabama,

and there's no end in sight.

In 2023, the University of Alabama reported that

13% of the women who joined sororities

identified as an ethnic minority,

and that's up 4% from 2022.

The data would suggest that there's still some...

some room for growth there.

When you look at the University of Alabama

and you see the history of racism,

the lack of diversity,

it's about maintaining a power,

and a power means not looking at ourselves

and not looking at our past.

When you have a system that only allows White men to thrive,

then you have a breeding ground

to pit marginalized groups against one another.

And so all you can do in that moment

is hold on as tightly as you possibly can

to any level of proximity to power.

As these sorority women were making their decision,

they're understanding a perceived power

was the fraternities.

It was being slated in "Machine"-backed SGA elections,

because it was what is gonna get them

to their jobs after college.

There are a lot of people in the world

who want to turn their hands of time backwards

and preserve a time of what we once were

and how things were run before everything changed.

We will not sacrifice our children

to any such type school system,

and you can write that down.

[cheering]

I ended up dropping out of the University of Alabama.

I was just so uncomfortable with, like,

everyone staring at me when I was, like, walking around.

I was like, okay, we're gonna have to leave.

I do see my friends going and doing sorority stuff,

and I feel left out, but it's also, like,

it put me on a fast start to what I wanna do in life.

Like, I got my real estate license.

I opened up my own online boutique,

and I'm glad that I've moved past it,

and I'm really happy with what I am in life now.

In the fall of 2013, I had moved out of the sorority house.

I had horrible experiences.

I had a girl bump into me

and purposely spill her drink on my shirt and say,

"There's the sister who betrayed us."

It was just made very clear that I was no longer welcome there.

But I got a different sisterhood

from these other women who decided to speak up,

and those are the people who I became friends with

for the rest of my college experience.

I imagine that in 2023 that there are women

who will be willing to be do the same.

If there is a girl who's sitting there

who's not sure if they're asking the right questions

or taking the right action,

I don't want there to be a void for her.

I want her to know that there are people

who have walked in her shoes and know that

she's doing the right thing.

Captioning provided by A&E Networks.