Last summer, VH1 announced Sorority Sisters, a new show from Love and Hip Hop producer Mona Scott-Young about women from historically black sororities who continue to practice sisterhood after college. The show was quickly criticized for seemingly making a mockery of the organizations. Even after the network pulled the promo from the Internet, thousands continued to add their signatures to a MoveOn.org petition against the show.
“Stop the spread of ignorance and stereotyping of our beloved Black Greek letter organizations,” the petition creator Reynoir Lewis said. “Our founders amongst EVERY organization worked extremely hard to allow us to unite and flourish not only on college campuses, but as a people well beyond our college days, and Mona Scott-Young now threatens to demolish those aims and goals we all abide by.”
For a while, it looked like VH1 was going to shelf to show for good. Then, quietly, they put out new previews and announced Sorority Sisters will premiere tonight. Interestingly, Mona Scott-Young is no longer attached. From the network…
Nine women, who continue to honor the traditions and legacies of their respective sororities and chapters, all agree on one main principle: sisterhood doesn’t end after graduation, it’s for life. For these friends and sisters (or ‘sorors’) from celebrated historically black colleges and universities in Atlanta, strong ties to their organizations lead to fierce rivalries, but through thick and thin, these women stand united and share an unbreakable bond.
Sorority Sisters follows nine women from four different sororities, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta and Sigma Gamma Rho. VH1 notes the show “is not endorsed by or affiliated with any sororities” and will not reveal what sororities the women belong to. However, the women will reportedly represent their sororities by wearing the organizations colors — and it doesn’t take much digging to find out what sororities the Sorority Sisters stars belonged to: The group includes Adrene Ashford (Delta Sigma Theta), April McRae (Alpha Kappa Alpha), Priyanka Banks (Delta Sigma Theta), Cat Harper (Sigma Gamma Rho), Veronica Lorraine (Zeta Phi Beta), Shanna McCormick (Delta Sigma Theta), Metoya Monroe (Delta Sigma Theta), Joy Hammond (Alpha Kappa Alpha) and Lydia Raquel (Delta Sigma Theta).
Not surprisingly, news of the premiere date reignited criticism of the show. Lawrence Ross, author of “The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities” suggested on Watch the Yard that those really opposed to the show should actually watch it and tweet at the companies shown during commercial breaks by threatening to boycott their products until they withdraw support of the show.
Sorority Sisters premieres on VH1 tonight at 9/8c.
