alopachuca

I've read differing accounts (not necessarily contradictory but they do seem to imply different things) on how significant an advantage is for underrepresented groups in academic philosophy generally. 
 
To kind of vaguely address questions 1 & 2... What I've read by Schwitzgebel and Leiter is that the advantage is pretty insignificant when it comes to hiring decisions. I can't really get into specifics without making mistakes because it's been a while since I last read up on the topic. However, it seems generally true that promoting underrepresented groups to apply or department-level objectives to diversify the department get URMs as far as interviews, and anything beyond that is not decided with a special focus on diversity. As far as grad admissions, the Colorado philosopher who wrote the "Should I Go to Graduate School in Philosophy?" says that there's a lot of affirmative action pressure around departments. I don't know how old that FAQ is but it doesn't seem to have too much of an effect on most of the graduate student pools I've looked at. Perhaps the most success for diversity has been in admitting or hiring women. 
 
To address question 3... I honestly still haven't made up my mind. It would be helpful to know how philosophy departments deal with the promotion of diversity, and we don't know a lot about that. Generally, I will say that I'm skeptical of the benefits gained from the type of diversity that is promoted in other graduate or professional programs. For example, law admissions are pretty transparent: If you're a Black, Mexican, Native, or Puerto Rican, you get a big boost. Percentages don't matter, so you can imagine that anyone whose great uncle was 25% black will be checking the box (those who think I exaggerate, I urge you to go to Top Law Schools and look at the topics in the underrepresented forum). Giving boosts to that kind of diversity is useless. For the record, I highly doubt this is how it works in philosophy. I'm just giving an example of something I believe doesn't benefit anyone.

I lose focus if someone around me sneezes. So music is out of the question.
 
Rap is the worst for me. I was raised with it, and start feeling the need to rep my area and other silly things. I should know better than that at this point.