Will Michelle Obama be Wearing Pink and Green Soon?

You may wonder why I ask...well according to The Swamp (yeah, I know...), Mrs. Obama has been extended an invitation to join Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. as an honorary member. This same honor was extended to Sen. Hillary Clinton who initially accepted, then declined the invitation, when she discovered that membership is exclusive and she wants to be able to work with all organizations in their endeavors. Cool Beans, whatever floats your boat. Now hold up, wait a minute. I love Michelle, and I'd love love love to call her soror, BUT, if you continue to read the article, Michelle (or better yet, her spokesperson) is under the impression that she will be allowed to "work with" the other Divine 9 sororities in the same capacity as a member (of each org). Uhh..no, that's not exactly how it works. BGLOs are inheritantly EXCLUSIVE, and once you are inducted, you are what you are. You can not work with other organizations as members of that org as well as another. It just doesn't work like that!

There seems to be a misunderstanding or a mistranslation of the situation, but since it has been reported that she accepted the invitation, she can not and will not be bestowed the same honor by the other NPHC sororities. Now if you read the comments below the article, many have been weighing in on whether or not Michelle should have accepted the invite into AKA. People think she should have remained neutral, at least until after her husband's seat in the white house was (is) secured. They say hasty judgement on her part, because she is further alienating herself from black women, black Greeks, etc.

I honestly don't know how I feel about the situation. She has not/will not be inducted during this week's activities during Boule'. Read this for more insight on that. The comments following this article are also pretty brutal. I don't know folks, but there is a lot of unecessary hate coming from other greeks and GDIs and I think it's kind of ridiculous. People say Michelle doesn't fit the bill, but I beg to differ. She is an intelligent, successfull woman--an attorney and political activist. She is also an outstanding role model for young women. I think she will be a wonderful addition to our list of honoraries. And even if Barack doesn't win the Presidential Election, Michelle can still inact change in her's and surrounding communities and be a wonderful viable asset to the sorority. Her husband's possible post as commander-in-chief may have inspired the decision to extend her an invitation, but at the end of the day, Michelle Obama is a great woman, regardless.

In the same vein, I think before accepting the invitation, she (or her spokesperson) should have done a little research and understood that there is no such thing as "non-exclusive" membership as an honorary member of an EXCLUSIVE sorority. As one person from a message board I frequent put it, "Cultural Competence". Maybe her spokesperson is responsible for this "mix-up" in that if the person is of another ethnicity/cultural background (because I will not ASSume that s/he is white), they may be speaking soley on non-experience and what they MAY think they know about GLOs. The spokesperson may think of AKA as the typical run-of-the-mill philanthropy/charity that anyone can be apart of, as opposed to a business boasting over 200,000 inducted EXCLUSIVE MEMBERS.

One thing is for sure, whether Michelle (or spokesperson) is confused or not, is that she should be able to work with all NPHC sororities, and BGLOs in general. Just as Greeks on college campuses should do more to UNITE for the COMMON CAUSE OF SERVICE (which is what I will be fighting to improve this year since I am Greek and henceforth a member of UAB NPHC), Greeks should allow her to assist in any endeavors she takes an interest in, regardless of her affiliation, ESPECIALLY if she becomes the First Lady. I believe that we are Greek first and foremost, and where affiliations, colors, and letters divide us--they should also unite us, because each letter is apart of a whole Greek alphabet, colors--our orgs DO NOT OWN, and affiliations should not stop us from working together for the betterment of our BLACK COMMUNITY!

In closing, to the naysayers, yeah, maybe she should have waited. But who knows for sure that she would get the chance to accept such an invitation ever again?! There was no AKA chapter at Princeton when she attended, so here's her chance, ya know. But wait...is she just accepting to be nice, does she even want to be an AKA?!!?! Maybe she does, and that's why the invite was extended to her in the first place...maybe this observation is a bit personal and unwarranted. I'm just hella curious tho...but I digress. I will keep my eyes and ears open as to what will further go down with this situation, and keep y'all posted. So yeah, Good day, mates. Tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!!!!