University of Alabama Sorority Pulls Down Promo Video Amidst Criticism For Non-Diversity

By Sameer Rao Aug 17, 2015

A promotional video made by members of the University of Alabama’s Alpha Phi sorority has gone viral, but not for the reasons that they might have hoped. 

The sorority received tremendous backlash for their Bid Day (when rushees learn what sororities accepted them) video, a sort of dreamy and sun-speckled idealization of sorority life with members dressed in all white. Controversy stemmed from the other all-white part of the video—the students themselves, whose euphoric depiction of sorority life notably included no women of color.

Although the sorority took down the video yesterday and made their social media accounts private, it hasn’t stopped individual users from making copies available online (one of which you can see here). The criticism towards Alpha Phi echoes previous criticism of the University of Alabama’s lack of Greek life diversity. In 2013, four sororities were named in a piece in the school’s student paper The Crimson White as having alumnae who intentionally blocked the candidacy of black women.  

(H/t Jezebel