I had a very negative experience at A&O Ball this past Friday, not due to the event itself — the music was incredibly enjoyable — but rather due to the small, yet highly belligerent group of individuals around me. After putting up with the constant shoving and aggressiveness of this group for over half of the show, one of these students, unprovoked, confronted me and began berating me with insults laced with profanity and threats. As you could imagine, I’ve had better concert-going experiences. However, what stuck out to me more than this individual’s level of intoxication and clear disregard for the age-old mantra of “Treat others how you want to be treated,” was the fact that among his list of insults was the word “geed,” the shortened slang version of the term “god damn independent” that references those who are not in Greek life.

It seemed that, according to this individual, “geed” was synonymous with the likes of the derogatory terms for genitalia and homophobic slurs he was using. Being a member of a fraternity, I am familiar with the term and in my experience, I had always seen the term differently than this specific individual: a semi-harmless way to refer to those who are not Greek-affiliated. However, my experience on Friday quickly changed my original perception and made me sure of one thing: We, whether the Greek community or Northwestern community as a whole, need to stop using the word “geed.”

As I mentioned earlier, oftentimes, the usage of the word is not meant to be harmful or offensive, but I’ve realized that regardless of the user’s intentions, the word itself has an irremovable negative connotation that implies a sense of superiority from the speaker. Although the word itself may not be insulting, the word is oftentimes used for that very purpose: to belittle and degrade. But I question those who use it in a non-insulting way. Why use the word at all when there are much better alternatives? Why not simply refer to non-Greek-affiliated people as exactly that: non-Greek-affiliated people? Or better yet, why even label people according to their lack of Greek affiliation in the first place? Just because being Greek is part of one’s identity doesn’t imply that being non-Greek is part of someone else’s. And I challenge those who use it in a derogatory way to answer this question: What is wrong with being non-affiliated? Yes, many people, including myself, may enjoy what Greek life has to offer, but why does that make others inferior? The majority of our campus is non-Greek, and by using the term “geed” we as Greek members put ourselves in a bad light by insulting more than 60 percent of the campus. It’s time to stop.

Amongst other things, we as a Greek community take pride in our leadership, philanthropy and community engagement, but I believe it is high time that we also take pride in our inclusivity. The process of integrating inclusive language — whether in respect to gender, sexual orientation or socioeconomic background — into campus culture has already started and I believe it would be very easy to eliminate the word “geed” as a part of that movement. This is not a matter of political correctness, but rather a matter of avoiding belittling and excluding people simply because they are different. When one uses the word “geed,” one immediately shuns their own peers.

The fact that “geed” was grouped with other forms of profanity still appalls me, and I wonder if that was one outside incident or if there are others who genuinely view non-Greek students as inferior or at the very least, “uncool.” Being independent of a Greek organization should never be seen as negative just as being independent of any other organization on campus should not be seen as negative, and we owe it to ourselves as Greek men and women to end the use of this antiquated term. I will be doing so personally, and I strongly encourage everyone else to do the same.

Jacob Altstadt is a McCormick junior. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.