This may be a stupid question...

[UVA17]

Kayfaith, my mom is black and my dad is white and I'm planning to go through recruitment at a southern school as well. My mom is a member of a D9 sorority but really steered me toward NPC because of the hazing. Plus I like the fact that most of the panhellenic sororities have been around longer; so much tradition.

Like me, you probably learned to act one way around your white friends and family and another way around your black friends and family. We're chameleons, right? lol Depending on how I wear my makeup and hair and how I dress, I look like either a black girl without a decent bootie and good hair or a white girl with a dark tan so naturally I'll emphasize the latter aspect of how I look. I don't feel that I'm turning my back on my heritage because I'm 1/2 of each.

The bottom line is, if you feel comfortable with yourself the girls you meet during rush will pick up on that. So just be yourself, of whichever version of yourself you feel like being that day and have a good time

[Old_Row]

Originally Posted by UVA17

Kayfaith, my mom is black and my dad is white and I'm planning to go through recruitment at a southern school as well. My mom is a member of a D9 sorority but really steered me toward NPC because of the hazing. Plus I like the fact that most of the panhellenic sororities have been around longer; so much tradition.

Like me, you probably learned to act one way around your white friends and family and another way around your black friends and family. We're chameleons, right? lol Depending on how I wear my makeup and hair and how I dress, I look like either a black girl without a decent bootie and good hair or a white girl with a dark tan so naturally I'll emphasize the latter aspect of how I look. I don't feel that I'm turning my back on my heritage because I'm 1/2 of each.

The bottom line is, if you feel comfortable with yourself the girls you meet during rush will pick up on that. So just be yourself, of whichever version of yourself you feel like being that day and have a good time

Interesting.

[tld221]

Originally Posted by UVA17

My mom is a member of a D9 sorority but really steered me toward NPC because of the hazing. Plus I like the fact that most of the panhellenic sororities have been around longer; so much tradition.

Depending on how I wear my makeup and hair and how I dress, I look like either a black girl without a decent bootie and good hair or a white girl with a dark tan so naturally I'll emphasize the latter aspect of how I look.

First point is interesting to me as well. I hope mom doesn't think that hazing happens less in one over the other (I have no evidence either way, but there are less NPHC orgs than NPC/IFC. Way less. A hazing story from a D9 org making national news will stick out more than another org. Some orgs have better PR is all I'm saying).

As for your second point, are you suggesting original poster present herself as more white than black at rush, re clothing/hair?

[UVA17]

Originally Posted by tld221

As for your second point, are you suggesting original poster present herself as more white than black at rush, re clothing/hair?

I'm saying she should act whichever way makes her feel most comfortable among the people she's meeting.

As far as "acting black" or "acting white", it's not really acting at all if someone actually is black and white. Just call me pepe le peu

[kayfaith]

That sounds like a great suggestion, DubaiSis! One (big 10) school that I keep coming back to as I list and relist seems like it might fall in that category so yay, potential.

UVA17 "pepe le peu"

EDIT: Would a school that re/colonized the year before fall under this category too? Or would there be no need to possibly balance after one year?

[DubaiSis]

Originally Posted by kayfaith

EDIT: Would a school that re/colonized the year before fall under this category too? Or would there be no need to possibly balance after one year?

I couldn't say for sure, but I think that a very new chapter would be more open to older students than a very well established chapter would. Just to sort of put it in a nutshell, you don't want all of your members to graduate at the same time or you'll have trouble developing stability (socially and financially). So ideally, you'd pledge 25% freshmen, 25% sophomores, 25% juniors and 25% seniors. In reality it never happens this way. A colony would never announce their exact ratios (company secrets you might say), so it probably ends up 50% freshmen, 25% sophomores and 25% juniors and seniors, or maybe even more skewed than that. So if they colonized last year and you would have been a sophomore last year, you're in better shape than if you were a freshman last year. 2-3 years of treating a new chapter with kid gloves and lots of oversight is pretty common, especially for the very large chapters.

I think it's also fair to say that a colony puts even more emphasis on leadership than an established chapter because it's even more important to squeeze every bit of potential out of every last member. You can't coast or rest on your laurels until you have laurels to rest on.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by UVA17

I'm saying she should act whichever way makes her feel most comfortable among the people she's meeting.

As far as "acting black" or "acting white", it's not really acting at all if someone actually is black and white. Just call me pepe le peu

I don't want to completely derail this thread, but you saying all of this:

Originally Posted by UVA17

Like me, you probably learned to act one way around your white friends and family and another way around your black friends and family. We're chameleons, right? lol Depending on how I wear my makeup and hair and how I dress, I look like either a black girl without a decent bootie and good hair or a white girl with a dark tan so naturally I'll emphasize the latter aspect of how I look. I don't feel that I'm turning my back on my heritage because I'm 1/2 of each.

The bottom line is, if you feel comfortable with yourself the girls you meet during rush will pick up on that. So just be yourself, of whichever version of yourself you feel like being that day and have a good time

.. makes it sound like she should "act more white" because the majority of NPC members are white. And what "acting white" or "acting black" means, I don't know.

She should just be herself. The end.