Elizabeth Warren’s false claim to be Cherokee has done more than destroy Warren’s credibility.
In defending herself, Warren has stuck by the claim to be Native American based solely on what she supposedly believed based on family lore. Warren steadfastly refuses to acknowledge that she has no Cherokee (or Delaware) ancestry. “This was the way I was raised” or “I’m not backing away from my family” are familiar Warren refrains. Put aside for the moment, if you can, that Warren’s family lore is grossly exaggerated and contradicted by numerous known facts.
Focus on what Warren is saying — my Native American identity comes from what I was told and what I believed.
Believing something to be true is not the test. The test to identify as Native American for Harvard employment purposes or for the EEOC is standard, and set forth in Harvard’s employee manual.
It is not a racial test. One has to have actual Native American ancestry and have cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community recognition.
Warren cannot show actual ancestry, so she fails part one of the test. She also cannot show cultural identification; she had no tribal affiliation and never affiliated with the Native American community in any way. Warren only checked the box for employment and career purposes.
Yet in defending Warren, liberals have had to adopt Warren’s theory of what it means to be Native American, and thereby have joined Warren in turning what it means to be Native American into nothing more than a test of who can tell the tallest tale.
This defense of Warren by Touré Neblett is typical: Elizabeth Warren, Scott Brown and the Myth of Race (emphasis mine):
Scott Brown’s simplistic conception of Warren’s Native American heritage does not fit in the age of Obama
…. Warren has every right to define herself and to do so in a multifaceted way. Racial identity, for mixed Americans, need not be an either/or situation; it can be a both/and. The only way we could truly gauge Warren’s Indian-ness would be to see how much being an American Indian means to her. She says she listed herself in a directory of minority law professors in order to meet “people for whom Native American is part of their heritage and part of their hearts.” Only she knows what place being an American Indian has in her heart.
Melissa Harriss-Perry followed a similar theme (via The Blaze):
“If candidate Warren grew up thinking she is Native American by heritage, who are we to say she is not? And who are we to define her based on narrow constructs of race.”
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Congratulations, Elizabeth Warren. You and your defenders have helped reduce Native American identity to a tool of liberal racial politics.
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Comments
A Native American Empress without any clothes.
(I think that I just threw up a little bit and am considering switching “teams”)
I know Brown to be a man of his word, a man of character, a man that I do not always agree with but appreciate his candor and honesty.
Warren couldn’t find the truth in the corner of a round room.
If she wins…
Well, I might just have to move to Rhode Island.
Last week I was a simple psychologist. This week I’m an astronaut!
Elizabeth Warren is “Otherkin“.
Psychologist … yep. Astronaut … check. By the powers invested in me by the A.O.O. (Age of Obama) I present you with your new official community affiliation lore. Here’s your photo ID.
Next week I’m a race car driver!
What an ethical and moral fraud! Is any proof that she ever associated with her “tribes”? It is truly unfortunate that we live in the “Age of O’Blame-a”, where personal responsibility for one’s actions, is a cultural myth!
Last May the local (JP) paper interviewed someone at the North American Indian Center of Boston, which is also located in JP:
“U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, who is embroiled in a controversy over her claims of American Indian ethnicity, has never visited the local North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB), despite her many campaign stops in Jamaica Plain, according to the center’s head.”
“But Warren, who lives in nearby Cambridge and has campaigned repeatedly in JP, has never visited NAICOB, which provides social services and general social connections to American Indian people from more than 40 nations. In operation for 40 years, NAICOB is Boston’s oldest American Indian center.”
http://jamaicaplaingazette.com/2012/05/11/jp-indian-center-warren-should-visit-us-2/
This center is well-known among those concerned with Native American cultures and issues, has been in continuous existence in JP since the 60s, and serves as the main social center for Native Americans in the greater Boston area, yet not once during all of her campaigning in this neighborhood was Warren able to drag herself to visit it and meet some of her alleged “own” people.
Am I reading this right ? Is this the Steve Martin “I grew up a poor black child” defense ? If you think you’re black, you are ?
How utterly ridiculous.
For the race hustlers, race is only defined as they see it. The get to define who is authentically black but then can allow even a blonde, blue eyed white woman to define herself as a minority.
CNN and Time should be ashamed to be paying this fool for his asinine opinion
Well, I think that its pretty plain that Warren is playing the part of The Jerk.
“The cans! He hates these cans!”
The new Minority Law Professors Directory is here.
The new Minority Law Professors Directory is here.
I’m somebody now.
If it were Scott Brown falsely claiming Cherokee heritage, the libs would be Horrified and Outraged. Hypocrisy noted.
It illustrates a larger point – though this notion that if you believe you’re a minority, by golly, you are, it is confabulated by the libs solely to rescue one of their own, Elizabeth Warren. It is nonsense but now enters the halls of held liberal truths. In twenty years libs won’t recall it was born of political hackery, nor will they care.
Had I more time I’d research and write up how many other liberal ‘truths’ were born in the same hypocritical, cynical way.
Should read:
“…though this notion that if you believe you’re a minority, by golly, you are, *is nonsense*…”
The error is not mine. I was distracted by the existence of George W. Bush.
This reminds me of Obama once saying [when talking about immigration reform] something to the effect that “we are all Americans” or “all the world is American”. Total crapola.
Sorry, I don’t buy into his tripe. I know what an American is. Then again, I was born in Connecticut. I can see where someone born in, say, Kenya, could be a bit confused.
I just received a four-page color mailing from the Massachusetts Republican State Committee this afternoon. The front cover reads “Elizabeth Waren: Native American Scandal” with a “Voter Alert” stamp. Inside is a timeline of Warren’s claims and news reports on the Cherokee controversy. The back page reads “Learn the facts about Elizabeth Warren’s attempt to forge her identity to gain professional advantage…”
The GOP didn’t put a website address on the mailing (stupid) or even a phone number, just their address in Boston. However, it’s an amazing step. Thought you’d be interested. You should ask them to send you the mailing as a .pdf from massgop.com.
(Also posted on your Focus page.)
To add insult to injury, they (dems) all proclaim themselves to be intellectuals. Weird. I was of the mind others would make that determination as recognition of aptitude.
So I guess we could all say we attended -insert Ivy League university of choice – and received our PhD’s – insert field of study – because our families always wanted us to…. and thus we (Warren et al) create our own history beyond the reach of challenge.
Sadly, Harvard is as great a culprit in this travesty and should rightly be called to the carpet for inquiry.
Postmodern bullshit. Entirely bullshit.
Even if you suscribe to a more Gertzian view of race as a subset of culture (and for the most part I do actually.) There’s nothing to suggest that Elizabeth Warren is anything close to a Native American.
Gertz: Culture is “webs of signficiance” that a person spins. Not lies. What signficiance did Warren apply to her heritage? By her own admission she didn’t meet any “people like her” or engage the actual culture. So even with the broadest definition race that is reasonably possible she doesn’t even come close.
Alternatively, Toure and MHP, I’d like to believe I’m african american, what do you think about that?
The only way we could truly gauge Warren’s Indian-ness would be to see how much being an American Indian means to her. Touré clearly had too much circle time in school.
And who are we to define her based on narrow constructs of race? Or other narrow constructs, like name, age, sex … oops, sex is already proclivity. Is LSD making a comeback?
This is the strange “logic” that allows men to use women’s restrooms in public buildings because the “feel” like a woman.
This is the strange “logic” that will allow a man to decide he is a woman, have a sex-change operation, and then proclaim alternate genders on alternate days based on how he/she “feels” that day.
This is the strange “logic” that allows Obama to support the “Arab Spring” and proclaim that “one man, one vote, one time” is “democratic.”
This is the strange “logic” that allows Obama to tell us after years of demanding annual mammograms, that every other or every third year will be fine now that the government is paying for them.
This is the kind of “logic” that destroys a society. Most societies aren’t destroyed from without; they commit suicide…
It’s all theater & expedience. Racial politics was a strategy of prevailing on the bad conscience of the establishment. They believe in nothing. They care nothing for the poor or oppressed; they have government so they don’t have to interact with the unwashed masses. They would surrender no wealth they “built.” They are takers only. A form of predation.
All these years I must have been black and never took advantage of it. My father – evil white man – called me “boy” more than once and my siblings called me “brother” for as long as I can remember.
Family lore says I must be black. Can I get my props retroctively? I mean fo sho I should at least be a President of some kind of company. Don’t know nothin’ ’bout no bizness shiite, but it’s what the man owes me!!!
K Bob, stop it, son. You cain’t be black, you lives in Katy. That’s whiter than the Woodlands and Kingwood combined!
Move up here to the Northeast side, and we’ll talk!! 😆
Me, I’ve got real Indian blood in me. Two beers and I’m out. Wild Turkey chasin’ Vicodin (for my back, you know), and I start paintin’ my face and doin’ the tommyhawk chop.
1.
Well, it meant tenure at Penn and Harvard (which she is trying to use as a launching pad to the Senate and then the Presidency), so I guess it means a good deal.
2. Maybe America needs a market in melanin credits. Everybody is assigned some at birth according to race. If they wish, minorities can sell theirs to under-qualified whites. The Fed can print them up to stimulate the economy. Politicians can be given some to hand out to their cronies. The IRS can remit them in lieu of tax refunds. A politician’s melanin history could be as important as her tax history; achievers like Ted Cruz might let it be known that they disposed of theirs before applying to college.
So where’s my six-figure consulting position on a Presidential commission?
Melanin credit offsets….
LOL x 100
Let’s take Lizzie Warren before “her people” up in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. I’m sure the Cherokee up there in “her nation” will give her a thumbs up or a thumbs down. If she wants to settle this whole mess and shut up her critics, she can be there Monday morning, on the steps of the Cherokee Capitol building. What a photo op, huh Lizzie?
Put up or shut up, Lizzie.
Fraud is the nicest adjective that comes to mind.
[…] Do Democrats Like Elizabeth Warren Hate Science?Posted on | October 6, 2012 | No Commentsby SmittyWilliam Jacobson relates Elizabeth Warren’s socially constructed approach to genealogy. Shorter Warren: […]
I used to think I was 10′ tall and bulletproof. Then I got hit in the mouth and decided to quit drinking for awhile. As my daddy taught me at a very young age – you can wish in one hand and sh*t in the other. See which one fills up first. If this woman gets elected to the Senate, I don’t know how much more faith in humanity I may have.
The only explanation is that this is the state where a sitting senator got drunk, drowned a young woman in his car, didn’t report it for a day and got reelected. Even after the whole accident was deconstructed, and it became evident that he was reckless and criminally negligent, he stayed out of jail and got reelected until he died.
If Warren gets elected, it will be business as usual. Reflex voting. Machine politics.
And sadly, this is the state that gave us John Adams.
Gee,I’d love to join the bashing, but I’ve got some concerns. (yes I am voting for Brown and dislike EW’s politics and persona)
1. There is a difference between these 3 ideas a. EW being part Indian, b. EW believing she is part Indian and c. EW “checking the box ” (using Indian heritage to get a benefit)
2. There is quite a bit of evidence that EW’s family believes it as some Indian blood. The memories are murky, but are bona fide memories that have not been supported or refuted with documents. The question may never be authoritatively answered. Documents might not exist Nonetheless, oral histories can certainly be considered evidence of ethnic heritage.
3. EW has a real basis to believe she has Indian blood
4. EW might in fact have Indian blood. No proof yet that is dispositive either way
5. if EW “checked the box” and sought or obtained a benefit, she is a disgrace and worse. As of yet, there is no credible proof she “checked the box” or got a benefit. All we have is speculation. No insider account supports the check the box/undue benefit theory .
6. Keep digging professor. You need more info.
1. Gee,I’d love to join the bashing, but I’ve got some concerns.
You have “concerns”, eh?
“Ask not for whom the bell trolls, it trolls for thee.”
2. I despise cheap gotcha-style word plays, except, of course, the ones I think of. 🙂
I may be doing you an injustice, but 24 years of RINO politicians have left me embittered and with trust issues.
3. As of yet, there is no credible proof she “checked the box” or got a benefit. All we have is speculation.
Her sometime listing as a minority in a directory of law faculty is more than speculation.
Ok george . You have pinned yourself down as a MA voter.
You might need to write that on your hand – LI = I am MA.
Her claims aren’t credible. This is the highest paid law professor at Harvard. Presumably, she’s not a gullible moron.
Logic error. The burden is on her to come forth with some actual evidence. Onus probandi incumbit ei qui dicit, non ei qui negat.
Wrong. You are thinking with a northeastern, Yankee mindset.
I come from the same culture and same place as Warren. Everybody in Oklahoma, especially those of us from the whitetrash, murky depths of the melting pot that was Oklahoma early in the last century, have or believe we have Indian blood.
I am somewhere close to half Indian. My father was the darkest kid in his family and was routinely called ‘squawbaby’ and ‘blanket ass’ by the “white” kids the color of Warren. Most of those kids even had some Indian blood in them, but with many it didn’t show. Most of them also thought they were part Indian, because everybody else was. That last statement is probably the basis for the Warren’s family THINKING they were part Indian.
In that culture, being part Indian was nothing remarkable. Going forward, nobody claimed to be Indian – part of the 5 Civilized Tribes – unless they had ‘paper’ from the Dawes Commission. Those were the “rules” and pretty much still are. In our society, a person who is part black can claim to be black and never be questioned, but a person who is part Indian cannot necessarily claim to be Indian.
Unless you can prove you’re Indian, you don’t pass as Indian, especially if your look like Warren. That a bunch of white lefties at some of America’s leading universities bought into her bullshit, tells me really how bereft of common sense they are and how totally devoid of principle is Ms. Warren. Trust me when I say she’d NEVER do that in Oklahoma, Texas or anywhere west of the Mississippi, except maybe at Berkley.
It’s not about blood. It’s all about ethics. She knew full well what she was doing. She was always “white” when she lived out here in Oklahoma and Texas. In short, y’all have been conned by a con artist. It shows in her seminal academic work, which P’fessor J has also documented.
Another fine example that “left”, “Liberal” etc., truly is a form of mental illness. You have to be insane to actually come up with these kinds of delusions and illogical statements!
Since many Native American tribes signed treaties as sovereign nations with the United States of America Government, being a member of such a tribe has a real tangible meaning. Clearly Elizabeth doesn’t qualify on such grounds.
As for other minority groups, which seem to all be non-White, membership is rather vague. I remember a classmate from junior high, back in the early 70’s. Her White mom had married and then divorced a person with Martinez as a surname. The girl forever had a claim as a Hispanic, even though her mother had divorced when the girl was an infant, and raised her as White. She thought she was White. We thought she was White. We have had so much inter-racial marriage that there are some really fair skinned “Black” people. Eric Holder and General Colin Powell had all 4 of their grandparents from the West Indies, but they get the same preferential treatment as those who really were descended from slaves.
Affirmative Action, and the need to racially label everybody needs to die, as we have reached the end, the reductio ad absurdum end where this matters. Because it does matter people like Warren will cheat.
If we have affirmative action to give preferences to women and minorities then people cheat to claim the preferences. This has happened for years with minority and female contractors and vendors. The easiest solution is to do away with Affirmative Action in its current form.
Just think, Michelle and Barack’s daughters will get preferential treatment, not just because they are daughters of an American President, but because they are Black and so need a hand up.
Time for a mass dose of civil disobedience. We should all check the box, based on our family lore (aren’t we all descended from Eve in Africa?), so that this un-American and un-Constitutional system of racial/ethnic preferences is rendered meaningless.
It’s about changes in mitochondria. See Mitochondrial DNA and human history.
That’s all the documentation I need — I’m African-American.
Interestingly, Dr. Sykes is currently conducting a genetic analysis of purported yeti and bigfoot tissue samples. If it turns out I’m related to the abomidable snowman! will that make me Asian?
The victory over slavery was partially rolled back via Jim Crow. The victory over Jim Crow was partially rolled back via “affirmative action”.
Note to moonbats searching for something to be indignant about: No, I am not asserting equivalence among slavery, Jim Crow, and today’s government-imposed “diversity”.
That’s it… I’m claimin’ (modern) native American status.
It must be true ’cause I was born in a hospital in Providence, RI a “few” y’ars back!
Y’ think that it’ll fly?
You were born in Rhode Island? Then you were born on a plantation. That makes you black, I’m pretty sure.
Try to keep up these racial proofs, will ya?
In a way, she’s doing a lot more damage to affirmative action than anyone in decades – because the longer she keeps it up, the more attention is paid to people who play the system (and there are lots of them) to get special deals. It’s one thing to help somebody who’s been treated unfairly, it’s another to have a system that’s abused by everybody who’s got no morals, so that the people who DO need help find out all the slots are already taken by people who had better connections and less need.
Somebody with far more wit than I said that the thing mostly like to cause the end of Medicare as we know it is Medicare as we know it. Glenn Reynolds says that if a thing can’t go on forever it won’t. Affirmative Actions qualifies as a thing that can’t go on forever. The best cause for ending Affirmative Action is Affirmative Action itself. While once it was formed with good intentions, it has the wrong trajectory. We need to end it altogether.
Perhaps we need a “needs” based affirmative action program. While I don’t mind feeding the poor, widows, orphans and the handicapped, I strenuously object to those who steal from the poor box, as Professor Warren has.
Any system we create to help the disadvantaged will lead to those who lie to game the system. We need to create methods of helping the disadvantaged anyway. Then we need to try to stop the cheaters, and when they overwhelm the system, we start over from scratch.
We already had a method to help the disadvantaged. It’s called the free market, lifting yourself up by your own bootstraps. America isn’t about helping hands, it’s about hands off, it’s about freedom and opportunity and the socialist crap is just that.
Warren is 100% authentic Liar.
Yes ma’am, Melissa Harriss-Perry! Retweet! No one should be able to pigeonhole anyone on a “narrow construct of race.” Who the heck do they think they are?
Of course, that logically means that all affirmative action programs are insulting and should be banned, relying as they do upon “narrow constructs of race.”
I grew up thinking I should be a millionaire. There have been millionaires in my family history so doen’t that make me one? Wanting it to be so didn’t make it so. These liberals can justify anything.