Pacific Citizen’s Profile on Asian Fraternities and Sororities

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.)