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[sportyg]

is it in my advantage to somehow state it on my application?  For example, I am in a professional association that gives some of this information (something like "XX-American Television Association.").  I can't decide if I should include it or not.  So far, I have not included it on my CV because it seems wrong, but if there really are diversity searches out there, maybe they need "help" to find me? ;)

Thoughts?

[larryc]

You play the cards you are dealt, with subtlety. The usual way of signaling minority status is to put it in the cover letter in the teaching paragraph: "And as a Martian-American, I feel I can serve as a role model to Martian-American students." Something like that.

[sockgumbee]

With the exception of the last nonacademic job I applied for I have never written "As a X, I can . . . " I've always gotten jobs based on my abilities to do the work.
For my last academic job, because it mattered I wrote that "I am an enrolled member of X tribe" after I mentioned my degrees.

My advice, if you are advising students of your ethnic background and/or there is some compelling reason to mention your ethnicity that has to do with doing the job I would mention it in the color cover letter, as LarryC suggests.

In any case, I would list any of the professional orgs I belong to, again if they are pertinent to the job, whether or not they have an ethnically based membership.

As some people have found, the SC may assume you are a certain ethnicity based on your scholarly work if it includes the study of your ethnicity. And there are people who, if you are not in an ethnic studies field, might resent seeing some flag of ethnicity because many see "affirmative action hires" or other diversity seeking methods as being discriminatory or asking for special consideration. That's why I would only add the "I'm an X and I can do . . ." if it strictly pertains to the job.