Originally Posted by
emb145
OK, I'm sure there are some here that will disagree, however I and many others I know are aware that women and minorities go to the top of the resume pile at the majors and big boy freight haulers, as well as the regionals, nationals, etc.
That said, as a plain old American Caucasian I'm just one of the many swinging d**ks left in the pile that get sorted through after the above and then the "who you know" crowd as we also know that who you know is another way you make it in America.
Let's say I did some digging on my ancestry and "maybe" found some Cherokee in there way back when. So, now I'm an American Indian and damn proud. How is that going to sit if I list in on my resume when it asks the obligatory race question? The one that says you don't have to participate in and has no bearing on your application mind you.....right.
Does my resume get moved up toward the top?
Indian tribes generally have strict standards for getting on their membership roles, sometimes 25%, typically between 1/8 or 1/16. If you can get on their list you should be golden.
But the airlines hire minorities only to show progress towards federal quotas for their governemnent contracts (GSA, DoD, USPS, etc). They probably don't really care about the issue, they just want the numbers on their board. They may not be too stringent about what counts as a minority...these days it's all about how YOU feel...if you feel "minor", and have something way back in the tree to justify that feeling a little, you're probably OK. This is tried and true, and very, very, very few HR managers would EVER risk trying to accuse someone of not being a "fill-in-the-blank" after they self-identify...guess wrong on that, and he's fired AND sued. If even if he prevails, all he accomplished was to lose a quota point.
I wouldn't outright lie about it though, at least not until gay becomes an affirmative action category...then I think many (or most) of us will be "coming out of the closet"
