Many in the BGLO, Black Greek Letter Organizations, community and beyond are dismayed and outraged over Delta Sigma Theta’s decision to ask members to not wear the organizations logos or colors during protest on behalf of Eric Garner. One courageous young woman decided to speak up and voice her disdain over the organizations decision to try and mute the members.

Tamura Lomax, co-founder of the Feminist Wire  and a member of the sorority, sent an email to TheRoot.com explaining her frustrations.  We thought you might want to see what she said:

I’ve always been extremely proud that Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. was born in protest and stood on not only the front lines of the Women’s Suffrage Parade in 1913, but the March on Washington in 1963. In fact, our 10th national president, Dorothy Irene Height, created the five-point thrust, which focused specifically on women’s and civil rights in 1956, as an organizing and programming tool. Political awareness and involvement are pivotal to the thrust. I’m not sure if this is gendered or not yet, but a part of me feels like this is an act of self-surveillance, which not only hopes to appease some sort of purity ideal for white folk, but weirdly aims to assert our humanity as black folk. I say this because I actually believe that they mean well.

While some sorors have decided to tow the party line and not wear paraphernalia while protesting, many others have decided to fall in line with and honor the ancestors by doing the opposite. This isn’t about the Divine Nine. They’ve made their statement.

While some sorors have decided to tow the party line and not wear paraphernalia while protesting, many others have decided to fall in line with and honor the ancestors by doing the opposite. This isn’t about the Divine Nine. They’ve made their statement.

But Trayvon Martin, Renisha McBride, Jordan Davis, Rekia Boyd, Jonathan Ferrell, Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, brothers Garrick and Carl Hopkins Jr., Marlene Pinnock, Eric Garner, Rosan Miller, Ersula Ore, Michael Brown and countless others are speaking too. The privilege of respectability didn’t save them. Nor will it save any of us.

These beautiful, brave sisters are standing up to manifestations of white supremacy within their own organizations and should be applauded. These times call for rejecting notions of anti-black classism that serves to privilege a certain kind of “respectable” African American. And as black women living in a country that has consistently tried to break our backs when they weren’t being used for the benefit of a state that consistently disenfranchises, arrests and murders us and our children, it is our responsibility to stand for justice, no matter how uncomfortable or politically incorrect.

Right now, across the country, people are standing together to protest the killing of black people at the hands of the police—we are not only honoring our history, but plotting our future as a society. And I find it quite unfortunate that sororities so well-regarded in the African-American community would attempt to distance themselves from that. Unless they listen to the voices of the sisters in their ranks who are speaking truth to power, they risk finding themselves on the wrong side of history.