Source: Leon Bennett / Getty
Earlier this week, we reported that historically Black fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma, had removed Malik Yoba, an honorary member, from their youth program. The announcement came after Yoba was accused of paying a trans minor for sex.
During his interview with “The Breakfast Club,” Yoba addressed the fraternity, sharing his disappointment.
“It’s very painful when you sit in this eye of the storm and people come for you. I’m talking about my fraternity—or my former fraternity —because I’m going to blow them up right now. Phi Beta Sigma. We had an executive director that was murdered like that young woman you’re talking about.
He was gay. He was running for public office in Louisiana. Because we don’t have a culture, even within an organization like Phi Beta Sigma thats slogan is “Culture for Service and Service for Humanity.” You have a gay leader who has to then go and live in the shadows, make poor choices based on that. And he was murdered like that young woman. No one stepped up as brothers.
And so as I’ve gone through my storm recently, those brothers didn’t step up for me. They stepped away. And they publicly acknowledged that.
Some brothers in the organization hit me up and said, ‘That is a travesty.’ Because within the leadership of this organization there is inappropriate behavior. And so at what point do we get really comfortable being uncomfortable so everybody can be comfortable.”
I mean…okay. There could be more advocacy when it comes to Black Greek Letter Organizations supporting the LGBTQ community. But support is not the issue here.
Phi Beta Sigma is distancing themselves from Yoba because of that “storm” he so vaguely references. He’s being accused of statutorily raping a trans minor.
As the leader of the fraternity’s youth division, it’s not a good look to have an accused child rapist in leadership.
Again, instead of clearly acknowledging the allegations lodged against him my Mariah Lopez Ebony, Malik is deflecting.
First with that strange freestyle and now trying to talk about the “inappropriate” behavior within the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.
It begs that question that as long as Yoba has been an honorary member, did he address these shortcomings before their actions personally affected him?
You can watch Yoba talk about the fraternity in the video below.
