My job incorrectly thinks I'm Native American, should I tell them?

Thepinyaroma@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 171 points –

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?

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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.

The idea of government WASPs using the massive understatement of "lil genocide" is definitely funny.

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.

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.

Yeah all good points, thanks. Why rock the boat. I'll just pretend like I never noticed.