Boosie Wearing Greek Letters Isn’t Disrespect — It’s Hilarious

From one Black Greek member to another: y’all are getting way too bothered

David Dennis, Jr.
LEVEL
Published in
6 min readJan 11, 2020

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Photo: Johnny Louis/Getty Images

Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.

WWhen I was 15, my high school counselor told me I needed community service to get into a good college. A few weeks later, a friend of mine asked me about joining the Jackson, Mississippi chapter of the Sigma Beta Club to get some community service hours. I didn’t know much about what those words meant, but I needed those service hours.

SSitting in that first meeting in the Northside YMCA, I learned that the Sigma Beta Club is a mentorship program in which members and alumni of Phi Beta Sigma, one of the “Divine Nine” Black fraternities and sororities, work with kids to get involved with their communities. I spent the next two years of high school around kind, patient, inspirational Black men — men I grew to admire, men who poured positivity into me. Men who took time out of their own lives to change mine.

When I got to college, I wanted to pay those two years of love forward. So in 2005, I pledged Phi Beta Sigma. I cherish my decision, the friends I’ve made, and the ways I’ve been able to touch lives through that organization. My reasons for joining, and the experiences that came after, are dear to me.

Are you going to choke someone out at Pier 1 Imports because they’re wearing your letters? These can’t be the aspirations of organizations based on being college-educated and service-oriented, right? What are we even doing here?

I get it; Greek Letter Organizations aren’t for everyone. “Every time I almost joined a fraternity,” my uncle used to say, “I’d remember that I can get girls and I have friends on my own.” I’d laugh, just like I laugh when I see that sentiment repeated on Twitter. Just like I spent all day Thursday laughing my entire ass off because Baton Rouge’s own Boosie Badazz went to some mall in Atlanta, bought himself a Kappa Alpha Psi shirt (another Divine Nine fraternity), and wore it courtside at…

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David Dennis, Jr.
LEVEL

Level Sr. Writer covering Race, Culture, Politics, TV, Music. Previously: The Undefeated, The Atlantic, Washington Post. Forthcoming book: The Movement Made Us