Inclusive Exclusivity - Self-Cancelling Greek Life And Our Broken Vocabulary Around Curation (Cafe Society Dinner Discussion #11)
The Wing's Mea Culpa, Sofar Sounds & Exclusivity/Curation vs. Elitism
Cafe Society is Maxwell Social’s weekly magazine on the intersection of community and society — an anthropological look at the underpinnings of what makes the world tick, written by David Litwak (@dlitwak) and the Maxwell team.
Hey everyone!
We’ve been working hard behind the scenes and we’re going to start dropping hints about what that final Maxwell experience will look like in each newsletter as we’ve been hard at work on interior design and much, much more. Before today’s post about whats happening in Greek Life, The Wing and more about Sofar Sounds, take a look at the first renders of the space we’re designing below :). We’re working with Matt Dennis @ Bolt Design Group, so serious credit goes to them for being our quarantine design buddies.
Now onto our update!
The Cut recently published an in-depth article about how Zeta Tau Alpha at Northwestern was seeking to disband itself after reflecting on Greek life as a facet of institutional racism post Black Lives Matter. A major criticism aside from charges of sexism and racism in the Greek system was that the institution itself was based on exclusion, and that, merely by virtue of having fees high enough to make membership not possible for everyone, was wrong.
The same day, Audrey Gelman published an apology about her time at The Wing, and The Wing posted their own acknowledgement and started laying out their pathway forward. Most of it was just fine, it sounds like The Wing did a lot wrong when it came to treating their employees & POC well. But the thing that stood out to me was again, the emphasis on inclusivity, specifically around affordability.
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Have a great rest of the week!
David (@dlitwak), Kyle, Joelle, Sidney & Dana
