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You have never been privy to an NPC membership selection, and I consider your speculation to be way off-base.
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Well, that'a fair. But can't we all agree that some chapters have a ton of slender, conventionally gorgeous white women? You don't really need to be in the back room to see that. I'm not making any claims about what the chapters' criteria are. I'm just saying, I'm a skinny white woman, and I've sometimes felt awkward or intimidated around groups of highly polished skinny white women with their perfect long straight hair, even when they are super friendly. It's not a great leap to suppose that it might be even harder for a PNM to feel confident in that kind of group if she looks noticeably different, especially when she's 18 and getting a quick first impression at recruitment.
It makes me think of a related social pattern. Not that long ago, there was a WRC among the Princeton eating clubs. This was one of the sign-in clubs, where PNMs just pick the one they want, with no selection by the upperclassmen. The two groups that kept this WRC alive for years were the marching band and the African-American students (who, then and now, join the eating clubs at a much lower rate than white students do). Band members at all-nerd schools like Princeton are REALLY nerdy. I don't think it's coincidental that the black students who did join a historically white club chose, from a white point of view, the uncoolest one. Band geeks sometimes do a better job than popular kids of making everybody feel welcome. (This club eventually went under; I don't know if the more mainstream clubs becoming more inclusive of African-Americans had anything to do with that.)
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