I don’t want to dox myself, but I’ve been at my job for 5+ years. I guess either my boss or I fat fingered something while I was on boarding, cuz just now I was going over some paperwork and… As far as my job is concerned I’m Native American. I am very much white. Nobody ever brought it up.
I couldn’t find an easy way to change it and I’d rather not talk to HR if it’s not a big deal. So, forget about it? Call HR?
It depends. Do you have any presidential ambitions?
Maybe they’re fudging their diversity numbers
what difference does it make now? 99% of white americans claim native american ancestry as if we fucked these people into extinction. everyone i know is related to a cherokee or blackfoot princess through their great great great grandparent…i even heard the same story in my family. once i got my dna test results that said “0% native american” i started to wonder exactly how many indian “princesses” there are. if you change it, best case scenario everything stays the same and worst case scenario you get fired for lying on your application. doesnt seem like a good move to rock the boat.
That 99% claim seems ridiculously high to me. Do you live in Oklahoma or something?
Ohio, the oklahoma of the north.
As a European, please help me understand. Why would you get fired? What implications does ethnicity have on your job? Why would anyone want to falsely claim to be Native American?
I am not an expert here, but essentially certain groups that the US gov was an asshole to in the past are eligible for some additional benefits as an ongoing way of saying “sorry we did a lil genocide on your people.”
Misrepresenting yourself as one of these groups in order to obtain additional benefits is likely a punishable offense.
I am not an expert jere, but essentially certain groups that the US gov was an asshole to in the past are eligible for some additional benefits as an ongoing way of saying “sorry we did a lil genocide on your people.”
Misrepresenting yourself as one of these groups in order to obtain additional benefits is likely a punishable offense.
I can answer your last question. 1776-1970(ish) it was way better to be a mixed person of Native American decent rather than African American. So if you were ethnically ambiguous enough (a large portion of mixed people) you could claim you were mixed with something other than African American.
Yeah all good points, thanks. Why rock the boat. I’ll just pretend like I never noticed.
If you only just noticed just send an email to HR. Unless they hired you because of affirmative action then likely it had no effect on your hiring and they won’t do anything besides adjusting your records.
I would suggest you forget about it. It’s not that important in the grand scheme of things. Unless your job specifically requires a certain ethnicity which I can’t really imagine what job that would be apart from a Hollywood actor.
You can only obtain federal Indian benefits if you have a CDIB (blue) card, and sometimes you will also need a tribal enrollment card. You would have to verify your ancestry with the tribe to get those. Calling yourself Indian on the forms won’t hurt anything except risk termination if they claim you lied on you application.
Your job might have keyed it that way to meet diversity quotas. Don’t rock the boat unless someone else brings it up first.
Lean into it. See if you can get your Native American card and leverage that for some of that casino money
You have to be a tribal member to get casino money. You can’t just roll up and say “I’m a 16th Cherokee, where’s mah money?!” Some tribes have even started to disenroll people, which has led to some ugliness.
You have to be a tribal member to get casino money. You can’t just roll up and say “I’m a 16th Cherokee, where’s mah money?!” Some tribes have even started to disenroll people, which has led to some ugliness.
You have to be a tribal member to get casino money. You can’t just roll up and say “I’m a 16th Cherokee, where’s mah money?!” Some tribes have even started to disenroll people, which has led to some ugliness.
That seems to be a question that pops up during the initial application process, e.g., on the form that you submit if applying online.
I can’t recall ever being in a position to specify that after I’ve joined a company. HR and payroll systems have always been preconfigured for me without issue, for instance.
So, as long as you didn’t misrepresent it on your initial application materials, probably should just clear it up, OP—to be consistent. Although you’re probably gonna be okay anyway if you don’t (assuming you’re not benefiting from it somehow).
I’d keep it. Workplaces have been brazen about promoting and hiring and firing on the basis of race lately. This should give you a significant advantage. It’s unfortunate that the law allowed companies to racially discriminate, but here we are.
Unfortunately, some companies (especially if you’re working for a small company), will list their employees as different ethnic backgrounds to pass off as being an equal opportunity employer. Depending on where you are, what company or institution you are working for, that can be a legal requirement or add a level of credibility if in the past that has been an issue (if they were sued for discrimination It’s helpful to pull up a record showing, they’re hiring people with multiple diverse backgrounds). It can also provide certain tax breaks too.
Yeah they could be lying to the EEOC to cover up discrimination in their hiring process. So it’s up to OP to decide if that is what might be going on.
I would love to get all these magical free perks people ITT seem to think we are getting for being native. Where do I sign up? Last time I checked the majority of people on reservations don’t even get clean water
Or trying to get government contracts. Could be innocent but seems like a pretty specific mistake with side benefits.
It wasn’t done intentionally on your part. Why draw attention to yourself? Just forget about it.
Besides, if your employer did do it on purpose, it won’t help to let them know that you know. They’ll just fix it, remember that you’re a potential troublemaker, and mess with someone else’s record instead. I see no upside for you.
I wonder if they took NA to be short for native American. Wouldn’t put it past some people. Not a hard mistake if you’re not familiar with the term.
Why not just ask them to remove the self identification and leave it at that? You don’t have to say you or they got anything wrong - just that you do not want that on your file. I feel like that would be the better option and avoid any possibility of termination later for them claiming you lied to them.
Are you a female Senator from MA?
