Several days ago, the Red & Black’s Twitter account was hit with a grave accusation:

“The Red & Black hates Greek life and UGA sports.”

Um, what?

The tweet was sent by some angry bro to our account and to “StuffFratsLike,” one of the many Greek-related lifestyle accounts.

Melissa Buckman

The statement angered me, even though I realized no legitimately credible “frat” dude would ever be communicating with a Greek-related lifestyle account (far too much effort) — not to mention the fact that we have an entire section of the newspaper dedicated to University sports reportage.

As someone in a sorority, it struck a chord correlated with precisely the reason I became a columnist in the first place: Greeks think The Red & Black hates them. But few on the Greek end are willing to do something to change that perception.

Tired of this very dichotomy, I, fiery-haired martyr of Milledge Avenue, rose to bear the cross of victimized Greeks last year. I wrote a column about sorority girls being prone to stereotyping, and suddenly I landed a spot as the lone Greek pundit on The Red & Black opinions staff.

OK, that first part is a bit hyperbolic. But the responses I received from Greek peers after being published were widespread and overwhelming — in 500 words, I’d seemingly done a tremendous deal to help transform Greeks’ journalistic whimper into a barbaric yelp.

But instead of a subsequent inundation of additional Greek columnists, I remained the only one. Peers began to ask me to comment on stories about Greeks they found offensive, when they themselves would have more aptly done so. I refused; they did nothing. Again, it infuriated me.

Today, though, I am the opinions editor of The Red & Black, and I’ve made an active effort to recruit and publish Greek voices. Hey, Greeks, I’m one of you — I can give you the in. And I won’t ignore you, scramble your words or mock you in print.

But for goodness sake, stop complaining about the quality of this newspaper and its coverage of your organizations! Do something about it if you want something to change.

What’s more, actually try to read The Red & Black.

I recently spoke with a fraternity member whose columns I’ve published, only to hear him insult the quality of reporting and commentary in The Red & Black. Later he admitted he doesn’t actually read the paper.

But to him, and other Greeks who blindly and lazily bemoan the publication without giving it a proper chance — and no, I’m not talking about checking the Crime Notebook — maybe you all would realize the paper does its part to cover the bright sides of Greek life, too.

Maybe, if you all had visited the website yesterday, you would have seen a touching story about the sisters of Alpha Omicron Pi banding together in support of one of their own who relapsed of Leukemia.

Maybe, if you had picked up a copy of the newspaper yesterday, you would have noticed the letter to the editor featured commentary on the scrutiny regarding hazing in the Interfraternity Council.

And maybe, if you realized the Crime Notebook is a blotter common to any news publication — Athens simply has an influx of party animals who make poor choices, some of whom are Greek — you’d realize The Red & Black is not out to get you.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The Red & Black wants to cover every niche of campus as fairly and broadly as possible, but it can’t do so without some help. So send us news tips when Greek events are forthcoming, and submit columns for my section.

For when it comes to Greeks unfairly giving The Red & Black a bad wrap, The Buck(man) stops here.

Greeks, try to yelp with me. Abandon those snarky tweets, and do something truly positive for the Greek voice.