Posted on 05/03/2012 3:05:38 PM PDT by Kaslin
A surreal update to my item from yesterday, which posed two questions about the curious case of Elizabeth Warren, alleged "Native American." The first: If Warren never, ever, ever would have exploited her possible heritage for career advancement, why did Warren classify herself as a Native American in 1986? The second: Why did she remove that label nine years later -- after she'd achieved tenure at Harvard? Yesterday evening, the candidate answered both curiosities. I swear I am not making this up:
“I listed myself in the directory in the hopes that it might mean that I would be invited to a luncheon, a group something that might happen with people who are like I am. Nothing like that ever happened, that was clearly not the use for it and so I stopped checking it off.”
The Massachusetts Democrat -- who might be 1/32 Cherokee (more on that later) -- formally self-identified as a Native American in a professional journal for nine years because...she was hoping to get invited to a luncheon. She wanted to socialize "with people who are like I am." Then supposedly, after holding out hope for that elusive lunch invitation for almost a decade, she gave up on breaking into that clique, so she "stopped" checking the "yup, I'm a Native American" box on the form. That's her story. Really. I'm almost at a loss for words. This is the best the Warren campaign could muster? She listed herself as an ethnic minority in hopes of being asked along to "a group something." For nine years. Then gave up. This does not even come close to passing the laugh test. Let's try this alternate explanation on for size: Warren was told as a girl that some of her ancestors were Native Americans. When she set out to establish a career in the academy, she recalled that family lore and decided to make it "official," because she knew the politically-correct world of academia would find that detail mysterious and unique. Plus, she knew she might get some extra considerations here or there, in the name of "diversity," which is something of a religion on the Left. Finally, after she'd achieved the pinnacle of her profession (tenure at Harvard Law) she abandoned the silly and slightly risky game because it was no longer necessary. Does that sound slightly more plausible to you than the howler she's peddling to the press? Yeah, me too.
Setting aside her intelligence-insulting tale, Warren may have inadvertently compounded her problem by letting an implicit admission slip: She says she "stopped checking it off" in 1995, after hopes of a luncheon invitation faded. "It" being the "Native American" identification box. Unless I'm misunderstanding her quote, this implies that she proactively checked that box every year. It wasn't a mindless, one-time error in judgment. She persisted in consciously identifying herself as a Native American every year for nine years -- a period that just happened to coincide with her ascension through the professional ranks. What a remarkable coincidence, no? With her back to the wall and her story falling apart, Warren is back to playing the gender card:
"The only one as I understand it who’s raising any question about whether or not I was qualified for my job is Scott Brown and I think I am qualified and frankly I’m a little shocked to hear anybody raise a question about whether or not I’m qualified to hold a job teaching,” she said, pushing to put Brown on defense. “What does he think it takes for a woman to be qualified?”
I don't think anyone is questioning your qualifications at this stage, professor. I'd say we're questioning your honesty, judgment and integrity. And the sexism red herring is embarrassing. Just stop. I'll leave you with three kickers to this mess:
(1) Via Legal Insurrection: "The section [of the directory] listing 'minority' faculty doesn’t list which minority, so Warren listing herself that way would not be a means of meeting other Native Americans, because no one else would know she was claiming to be Native American just from the listing." Wouldn't she have identified this massive flaw in her quest to make NA friends after, say, the first year?
(2) According to a Republican source, several Native American clubs and organizations existed at Harvard while Warren was there, yet yearbooks and membership directories show no evidence that Warren was involved with any of them. Wouldn't this have been a good place to seek out "people who are like I am," if that were her true intention?
(3) According to the Boston Herald, even the report that Warren's great-great-great grandmother was Cherokee cannot be confirmed:
Warren’s statements come as genealogists at the New England Historic Genealogical Society were unable to back up earlier accounts that her great great great grandmother is Cherokee. While Warren’s great great great grandmother, named O.C. Sarah Smith, is listed on a electronic transcript of a 1894 marriage application as Cherokee, the genealogists are unable to find the actual record or a photograhic copy of it, Society spokesman Tom Champoux said.
UPDATE - You've got to be kidding:
Elizabeth Warren's Native American Proof? High Cheekbones...
Her grandfather had high cheek bones. "Like all the Indians do." This is her latest evidence: An anecdote from her aunt, commenting on the facial structure of someone who was three generations removed from a woman who might have been Cherokee (presuming she's even talking about the correct side of her family).
Indians were not usually separately categoried but that doesn't mean you can't find out what they were ~ look at the names given, look at what they did for a living, who lived with them, exactly where they lived ~ that latter point is very important because they could have lived on Indian lands not in dispute, or on a reservation ~ both of which would be a clue. A guy named John Crow Feather who lived somewhere in what is now Montana might have been an Indian!
I’d like to know this: was she successful in linking up with other Cherokees at Havahhd
So, she is a Jeep Cherokee?
Or maybe she is a Eugene the Jeep?
Jeep! Jeep! Jeep!
Wow that Indian pic is from Dragonball...
Yes I am an Otaku....
Princess Spreading Bull
Princess Spewing Sh!t
the stooopid cow won't even put her party affiliation on her own website...
In Mass they are pretty stupid (look at there track record!), or at least enough are make her competitive.
She and Ward Churchill are blood brother/sisters........
Why would she lie?.....for personal gain. How could being recognized as an American Indian benefit her?....Minorities get special treatment, affirmative action, low interest loans, etc....So..Like any grifter democrat she lies...it is one of their favorite tools. But she lies by commmitting a fraud on the unsuspecting. So having committed lies and fraud in hopes of self gratuities, she milks it until 1996 when she had become a Harvard professor. At this point she had wrung all she could out of it and decided to move on to other felonies.
1. Did she receive any favored action which could have gone to a real American Indian?
2. Did she take a low interest loan unavailable to others of a different ethnicity?
3. If she took a loan or accepted a position as a Harvard student IN PLACE OF another did she defraud anyone.
4. If she was placed as a student via committing a fraud, should she be disbarred for lying to Harvard Law?
5. Did she receive any loan, grant, or money otherwise from the federal taxpayer under fraudulent malfeasance, and if so, will she be prosecuted?
Scott Brown needs to ask these questions.
He should. But she didn't go to Harvard as a student: George Washington University, University of Houston, Rutgers University, Newark. She's old enough that race wouldn't have been a factor at GWU and probably not at UH. Her claiming to be an Indian probably would have started later, when she was teaching at Texas, Pennsylvania, or Harvard.
Whitey did not want to eat lunch with her so she tried out for Indian and they did not want to eat lunch with her either?
I think I read she began the ruse from 1983 through 1996. It should not matter where she went but that she used lies to adhieve personal gain.
Be all you can be!
Anything goes in America!
If you want to be black, Hispanic or Native American just check the appropriate box on the form.
After all - people can now just decide which sex they want to be each morning when they wake up, No counselling or medical procedures necessary. Use the rest room of your choice!
So, if you want to join one of the cool victim groups and share in the taxpayer provided goodies unique to each group just do it!
Why be stuck in that outdated white skin and put up with the constant attacts on your heritage when just a simple check mark on a form can leave it all behind and let you start an exciting new life as a protected minority or a member of another government protected group?
Maybe she should have just hung a pork chop around her neck.
Not to mention fraudulent.
Now now... that’s where the “higher truth” part comes in.
You see, those things you call “facts” are inventions of dead white males. That means they are unimportant in the overall scheme of the Universe, etc.
Truth is relative — just like sexuality, gender, property ownership and all that stuff Conservatives get anal-retentive about.
To them, anyhow.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.