Way back in January 2020 — before a global health crisis and lethal police violence against Black people set the world ablaze — the rapper Lil Boosie made a bold fashion statement seated courtside at an Atlanta Hawks game.
The Louisiana native was wearing a sweatshirt featuring the Greek letters for Kappa Alpha Psi, the historic Black fraternity — an organization to which he did not belong. The images set off a mini-controversy as they spread across Twitter. To some members of Black Greek-letter organizations, Boosie’s decision to wear letters he hadn’t earned through pledging was a major transgression, an assault on hard-won prestige. But among the Black social media users outside the orbit of Black Greek life — including Boosie himself — the apoplexy was funny, if not confusing. How can y’all care this much about some damn letters?
