These images show the blatancy and openness of the process people willingly endured during their pursuit. Common practices included things like pledgees lined up, linked up, and even chained up. Sound familiar? As a ritualistic process, members who decide to pledge go through a number of emotional, spiritual, and physical activities meant to transform the pledgee, while also facilitating and encouraging bonds between other pledgees. One's individuality is converted during the process and interested members become apart of a "line" transforming into one collective or unit with other pledgees (Foster, 2008, 8). Not only was it acceptable, but also celebrated. Within black Greek culture today, pledging is still celebrated. The pictures were posted on the website to honor the National Pan-Hellenic Council history, rather than to scold or discourage these practices which are illegal and have been discontinued by the national committees of BGLOs.
The words 'pledging' and 'hazing' are used interchangeably throughout this project, but also in the Greek world. The two have been defined in many ways, but a common understanding is that "pledging tends to refer to the overarching process potential members are subjected to, which may or may not contain elements of hazing, while hazing specifically refers to acts of violence including verbal and physical brutality, forced consumption, sleep deprivation, humiliation, intimidation, and similarly harsh activities" (Rogers et al., 2012, 44).
Most members, if not all, agree that pledging should never result in the lost of a life. In fact, members today would actually say "it is the wrong way to pledge" and would constitute such actions as hazing rather than pledging. Foster notes in his article, a statement from an Anonymous member of a black fraternity, who affirmed that "the difference between pledging and hazing is not in whether or not physical violence is used, but rather what goals the violence serves. Violence to instill values is described as a venerable activity and integral to pledging, while violence that is inflicted for pleasure constitutes" (2008, 9). Many members of BGLOs would agree. These 'goals' are the lessons learned, the clarity gained, and the self-awareness discovered, but tend to vary even the slightest across BGLOs. This subjectivity is what let to the incidents above, and later, the ceasing and banning of all pledging activities associated with the rite to membership.