Last week, Kappa Alpha Order, a Greek-letter organization of which I 
        am a member, appealed to the Union Board, amongst other student organizations, 
        for monetary support for the KArnival, our annual philanthropic project 
        that benefits the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Despite the obvious 
        beneficence of the project and Kappa Alpha’s dedication to including the 
        entire campus in the community outreach event, the Union Board confronted 
        an ideological dilemma: Supporting this obviously well-planned, charitable 
        project would immediately link the Union to an organization with a reputation 
        for romanticizing the South and conservative ideas of masculinity as well 
        as plain bigotry and ignorance. 
             Because no consensus decision could be reached at that initial meeting,
        the Union Board decided to invite the KAs to explain their request, but more
        importantly to explain their position in relation to the national organization’s
        rhetoric and history. The Sigma Chapter web site, which was designed and put 
        online almost three years ago, displayed a contextually racist quote from 
        Samuel Annas Zemmen, a journalist and Free Mason who helped revise Kappa Alpha
        Order’s rituals and philosophy a decade after its founding in 1865. This piece
        of writing stated something to the extent that one of Kappa Alpha’s aim was "the 
        preservation of the finest people of our race," refering implicitly to 
        the white race. While many Davidson KAs defy the stereotypes and have 
        no interest in preserving any constructed or romanticized Southern heritage, 
        this quote on the Davisdson KA home webpage contradicted any such claim. 
        James Jenkins, Corresponding Secretary of the chapter, responded to the 
        Union’s concerns by removing this quote, as well as other elements that 
        could be construed as offensive. On Monday, April 3, James, Craig Laws 
        and I presented these changes to the Union Board and engaged in a highly 
        productive dialogue. Satisfied with our presentation, the Union Board 
        was willing to grant us the nominal support and a donation of $500. I 
        should make it explicitly clear that the KArnvial was fully funded when 
        Kappa Alpha approached the Union Board. 
             There is another point that I should clarify before entering into my
        personal thoughts on this matter.  I’m quite a contradiction. Faces twist
        when I say that I’m going down to KA for dinner. Of course we should never
        expect people to keep open minds: a fabric of stereotypes usually suffices
        for most of our worldviews.  I relish my double life. My Patterson Court 
        affiliation and the intellectual / literary activism of Libertas each occupies
        nearly equivalent parts of my personality. I present this as if a nest of 
        hillbillies in sheets is hiding in the basement of the KA house. I am sure that
        at least one of my fraternity brothers associates with you every day. Some of them 
        are even in circumstances similar to my own. Does he fit your nice, neat 
        stereotype of racism? What I’m arguing here, however, are my own critiques 
        of Kappa Alpha Order and Sigma Chapter. I simply regret that it’s only 
        now that Sigma Chapter is willing to consider actively what it is part 
        of. But all change, for better or worse, requires catalysts and sometimes 
        slaps in the face. 
             For some time I have resigned myself to the knowledge that I am a member of
        a wonderful Patterson Court house that happens to have a great deal more than last
        week’s PCC violations appended to its name. Kappa Alpha Order does have an indelible
        history of racism and chauvinism.  Like many other fraternities founded during its 
        time period, it orignially consisted of former Confederate veterans. Similarily, 
        because much of KA's philosophy was appropriated from Masonic rhetoric, Ammen, and
        other original members, early members were most likely disposed to certain biases 
        about class and gender. Critics should consider that the United States, 
        North Carolina, Davidson College, the Presbyterian Church and most other 
        institutions grounded in Western Humanism are as tainted as they are long. 
        Remember that Davidson College only became co-educational 1973. The first 
        black students to attend were African rather than African-American. 
             Yet I don’t feel that we’re at fault for our past. The wrong that we need 
        to right is what some might call our tradition and what I term our historical 
        residue: the old bigotry and racism have survived the generations and 
        are present in the artifacts and iconography with which we surround ourselves. 
        The KA cross, crest, and the portrait of Robert E. Lee can be perceived 
        as offensive. Personally, I identify these items as having some distance 
        from this history: they’re merely fantastic pastiche, decoration whose 
        real significance has been forgotten or at least misplaced. I can’t believe 
        that Robert E. Lee would appreciate that he’s construed by much of society 
        and certain members of KA as a representation of the evils of the Old 
        South. To indulge momentarily the misinterpretation of certain individual 
        KA chapters, I suspect that the fraternity’s ideology is probably rooted 
        in the same emotional and intellectual inertia that triggered the seccession 
        of the South from the Union: Romanticism. Lee is the ‘spiritual founder’ 
        of KA not because he kept slaves at one point in his life, but because 
        he seems to project a code of ethics that resist industrial societry. 
             Lee’s ‘Definition of the Gentleman’ can be read as an expression of this 
        Romantic spirit. It is a code of courtesy and morality, suggesting the 
        gentleman is he who manages his privilege with discretion and to the benefit 
        of others. Lee's 'Definition,' too, is an artifact: just as a literary 
        work lacks transcendent value, its meaning is made and remade throughout 
        history. The ‘Definition of the Gentleman’ was not written as a discourse 
        of oppression, but society has changed in such a way that it’s easier 
        to find this code offensive than helpful. I’m more troubled with the issue 
        of privilege than gender. The possession of power over another human being, 
        a form of superiority, regardless of how delicately it is handled, is 
        not to be tolerated. This all sounds like the White Man’s Burden. I also 
        have a problem believing that every brother of Kappa Alpha would match 
        up to its demands. 
             The fraternity motto, too, is such an expression that is no longer
        tolerable, for the same reason. Forty years ago, ‘God and Women’ meant 
        that the KA brother meant to serve Christianity and women.  Again, echoes
        of the Romantic poetry. God doesn’t have much bearing on Patterson Court 
        these days, and women can take care of themselves. 
             The most terrifying connection afforded by our name, motto and iconography 
        is to other chapters of KA, to our brothers who’ve managed to earn the 
        flak and label of racism. Judging from pictures on the websites maintained 
        by other chapters, the old Southern Gentlemans' tradition of dressing 
        up in Confederate officer uniforms and binding their dates in hoop skirts 
        is still in effect elsewhere. These images also seem to indicate that 
        extreme ideas of masculinity and fascination with hunting are healthy 
        values held by other Kappa Alphas. (See Beta Tau’s image titled ‘Guns.’) 
        All of this is misinterpreted Romanticism, yes, but it’s grossly misinterpreted! 
             So why bother at all? For those who are missing what I’m intimating, I’ll 
        dumb it down a little: When you’re in the bath tub with your little brother 
        Billy Joe, and Billy Joe shits in the water, do you politely ask him to 
        stop or do you run screaming for your mother?
             So much of this problem is a result of KA being misperceived by members
        of the campus community.  No one in my fraternity joined KA in order to follow
        the spiritual teachings of Robert E. Lee or satisfy their Romantic side. The 
        rhetoric and history of Kappa Alpha is something that pledges learn after 
        ‘self-selecting’ into the fraternity. As a boy from Ohio, I had no idea that
        KA had any racist connotations, although I’m sure that many of my brothers joined 
        to dress up in white robes and scare people studying during the week at 
        the BSC! In the fray of all this controversy it amazes me that members 
        of the community absolutely and hopelessly fail to see that we’re together 
        as friends not because we want to pretend to be Good Ol’ Boys, but because 
        we’re friends! We enjoy each others’ company. We play well together.
             But we also refuse to discard or at least to denounce our affiliation with 
        other chapters and a national organization that permits MSU Kappa Alphas 
        to pay black children to pick up balls of cotton scattered outside the 
        house during Old South. So Davidson’s KA’s are not totally undeserving 
        of criticism. Now that we know that the bathwater is dirty, what will 
        we do? We’ve suddenly found ourselves assembling one of the largest charity 
        programs of any college organization and setting precedents with relationships 
        between Patterson Court and the Union. Personally, I have no need whatsoever 
        for Robert E. Lee and the anachronistic Kappa Alpha iconography. Of course, 
        I have friends, too, who, I hope, are equally interested in considering 
        our mutual condition. 
    
        Scott Geiger