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NHPW begins today, so a few random thoughts that I want to share about hazing and why I am personally committed to fighting it.
- Hazing teaches people that humiliation and exclusion are acceptable behavior. We live in a world where violence, hatred, terror and fear cost lives every day. It may seem dramatic, but I think hazing is a form of terrorism.
- Hazing divides a team or a chapter into classes instead of unifying the whole group under a common set of goals or values.
- Any-20 year-old who thinks he is capable or qualified to induce psychological trauma of any kind on a 19-year-old is both a sadist and a naive idiot. What training did YOU receive that qualifies you to "break someone down" and then "build them back up?"
- Hazing is a terrible way to tell someone that they are cared about, that they belong, that they are valued, that they matter. In fact, hazing communicates the opposite. Even when someone feels good about having survived hazing, they innately believe they are unworthy, and that encourages them to haze the next group -- to continue to prove their value.
- When you haze someone, you have no idea what buttons you are pushing. What childhood trauma does this person have that your hazing is agitating? Childhood sexual abuse, neglect, victimization, drug abuse, eating disorder, PTSD? As a hazer, are you prepared to take responsibility for the psychological damage you might induce with your "harmless" activities?
- Hazing is lazy. It's much harder to build loyalty around positive activities.
- Hazing keeps amazing people from joining our organizations. How many people have said NO to our organizations because they were afraid of being hazed?
- Hazing gives bullies a purpose in college. Who will they go on to intimidate after college? How will they treat their children?
- Every year, people die from hazing on college campuses.
This year, do something to help fight the acceptance of hazing on your campus. Stand up against it, change harmful traditions, tell people it's simply not right. Visit HazingPrevention.org or NHPW.com for resources. If your campus isn't doing anything for National Hazing Prevention Week, ask your greek advisor or your director of student activities "why not" and make it a priority next year.
