She says she doubts that the popularity of the AADT would continue if the majority of the performers were white.

“I think you probably wouldn’t get as many offers to perform if it were more open,” she says. “Part of the performance is seeing what they think is an Asian person. So when they see me, it’s kind of like I don’t fit the bill.”

Though Bishop says she is never deterred from sticking with the group out of discomfort, many performers say they find themselves “discriminated” against for their nonconformity.

Frances E. Millican ’05, who is white and recently joined the AADT, writes in an e-mail that her membership is sometimes questioned.

“Due to the appearances of these organizations as being solely for the purpose of ethnic solidarity, which is only one of their functions, people don’t understand what benefit I gain from participation,” she says.

And other students never even consider joining an organization with a cultural tradition different to their own.

For example, few non-Christians have auditioned for Under Construction, the campus’s only Christian a cappella group, although co-leader David Y. Chen ’03 says that anyone is welcome to audition.

Chen says that they never target a specific group in their flyers.

“We’re a Christian a cappella group. It doesn’t specifically say like, ‘Hey, are you Christian? Come sing for our group!’”

He says that non-Christians don’t audition because it’s a “very self-selecting group.”