The Alabama Panhellenic Association and Interfraternity Council have been in the spotlight nonstop since last year’s Recruitment — colloquially known as “Rush” — process. Many current members and potential new members went viral on TikTok last year for documenting the entire process.

In addition to the usual media reaction around Bama Rush, rumors of hidden mics and cameras for an HBO Max documentary with the intention of exposing the darker side of Bama Rush began circulating. These rumors turned out to be true, confirmed by the trailer HBO Max released last week for the premiere of Bama Rush on May 23.

Many students, mostly Greek-affiliated ones, have expressed their disdain for the documentary, believing it will give their organizations and the University a bad look. 

However, in terms of the questionable actions and history of the University’s Greek life, most people who want to know more likely already do. While I, a non-Greek student, don’t have a dog in this fight, it doesn’t seem like anything new will come to fruition.

While the trailer was flashy and featured some ominous undertones about the culture of the University, the target audience is still mainly anyone who is adamantly anti-Greek life those with superiority complexes over the South.

A lot of the hype behind Recruitment last year came from older women on Tiktok who have never set foot in the South, with preconceived notions about the University. Many of them have the mentality of the South is a lost cause and took anything negative they saw during the 2022 Recruitment period and treated it as definitive facts.

The trailer briefly touches on the University’s history of racial discrimination, specifically, Greek organizations not officially desegregating until September 2013 in an incident that involved a Black student allegedly being dropped from Recruitment because of her race.

Once again, this is not new information, and most minority students were already aware of this, whether or not they chose to join an APA or IFC organization. It seems that the National Pan-Hellenic Council or the United Greek Council will not receive much attention in the film.

If something new does emerge, one of two things will likely happen. In one scenario, a couple of Greek organizations get a slap on the wrist, the administration releases a vague statement about the said situation, and it’s forgotten at the start of the new semester.

Or, in another scenario — the more likely of the two — nothing will happen, because a scandal or controversy here and there is all too common nowadays. In today’s world, an individual or organization can do something deemed socially unacceptable only for it to be forgotten by the end of the month.

It’s understandable to be concerned about your group being misrepresented. No one wants to have a bad look for something out of their control. 

That being said, if there’s nothing shady going on, you should have nothing to be afraid of.