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No Elizabeth Warren is 1/32 Cherokee thread?
Elizabeth Warren is under fire for reports she claimed status as a minority lawyer based on a far-back blood connection to the Cherokee line.
The Boston Globe reported that the Democratic candidate challenger to Scott Brown in the Senate race in Massachusetts self-identified as a minority from 1986 to 1995, though she has no recent Native American family.
Genealogist at the New England Historic Genealogical Society Chris Child set out to hunt down Warren?s ancestry last Thursday. In less than a week, he discovered documents citing an 1894 marriage record that lists Warren?s great-great-great grandmother, O. C. Sarah Smith as Cherokee, meaning that Warren is 1/32nd Native American.
Child said roots like these can take anywhere from weeks to months to track down, depending on the twists and turns of the family trees.
?Once you go back further than 150 years the records are more complicated to go through,? Child said.
For example, that great-great-great grandma of Warren?s also goes by the name ?Neoma? or ?Oma? in some records. Child said it?s not unusual to find individuals listed under several different names at that time period.
The story kicked off Friday when the Boston Herald reported on an article that ran in the Harvard Crimson in 1996 about students? concerns regarding a lack of diversity among the school?s faculty. In the story, Warren, who serves as the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard?s Law School, was cited as Native American. Warren?s identification as Native American pre-dates her time at Harvard.
Law School directories from the Association of American Law Schools from 1986-1995 list Warren as a minority law professor. During this time Warren taught at the University of Texas School of Law and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Though Warren reportedly said last week that she was proud of her heritage, she makes no mention of her ancestry during a profile of her childhood made by the Boston Globe. The reporter who wrote that story said he did not remember her mentioning anything about her Native American roots. Though he said in an email it was possible that he had forgotten, he thought it was ?unlikely that she brought it up.?
Polling shows Warren is in a tight race with incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Brown. Though hotly contested the campaign has remained relatively civil, thanks in large part to a pledge signed by both candidates to keep attack ads from outside groups out of their race. That pledge continues to be honored, but things are growing increasingly tense.
Since the story erupted on Friday, Brown has been relatively reserved? on Monday he told reporters that ?if there are questions, she should answer them??avoiding any outright attacks. His campaign manager, Jim Barnett, has said that Warren should ?apologize for participating in this hypocritical sham.?
Warren herself has not lodged any accusations at Brown either. Warren?s campaign manager, Mindy Myers, suggested that Brown was trying to gain political points, and insinuated that there was a sexist aspect to these questions about Warren?s ancestry- though she stopped short of lobbing the accusation outright.
?Once again, the qualifications and ability of a woman are being called into question by Scott Brown who did the same thing with the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan. It?s outrageous,? Myers said in a statement.
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I'm dying at this video of her explaining how her Aunt Bea told her all about how Papaw had high cheekbones like all the injuns.
Re: No Elizabeth Warren is 1/32 Cherokee thread?
Serious questions -
If you're 31/32s white, and 1/32 native american, should you be putting that on forms?
WTF to Harvard for promoting someone with that background as a minority professor.
How has this not been a thread yet?
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Did I tell you about the girl I went to High School with who got a minority scholarship, claiming she was Hispanic, because her Mom was born in Peru while her parents were vacationing there? Since her Mom was born in Latin America she was able to classify herself as Hispanic and therefore the girl called herself Hispanic on applications? I was like "Leslie did you really do that?"
The campaign has been loaded with those stories, from both of them. For some reason, both Brown and Warren have decided that the way to the undecided voters' hearts in through storytelling about childhood and family. Its so painful to listen to.
I would much rather hear them refocus on policy and ideology, because they both have interesting things to say. Instead Brown blathers on about his truck and she tells not-quite-heartwarming stories about her grandfather. Who cares.
I hadn't seen the story.
It's pretty ridiculous. I am also 1/32 Cherokee. My great-great-great grandmother was on the Trail of Tears. I'm a whitey mcwhiterson who grew up with all the comforts of suburbia. I have never and would never claim to be a Native American.
ETA: See, I'm so Cherokee that I accidentally spelled it Cherokke. Whoops.
Serious answer? I wonder if her education was paid for in some manner because of this connection.
I mean wouldn't that lead to the assumption that she was a minority professor?
I think her campaign explained it pretty clearly yesterday.
She self identified as having a minority background once she already got the job--it wasn't used to get the job or be promoted in any way. Simply a self identification in a directory to gain access to collegiate functions and groups. The recruiter who promoted and employed her at Harvard has also said that the accusation of her getting promoted as a minority professor is false.
So, nothing to see.
No smoke, no fire. Right?
Me either until today, although it's been out since Friday. Remind me of this next time we talk about media bias. It's not always the articles, it's what gets covered.
Because you can't tell me that if Scott Brown said he was Native American, that would not be getting serious coverage.
Apparently she listed herself that way for more than a decade. Here's her explanation of why:
?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,? Warren said. ?Nothing like that ever happened, that was clearly not the use for it, and so I stopped checking it off.?
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1061128893&srvc=rss
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That hasn't been the Brown campaign's accusation, but I'm just about certain it isn't the case anyway. The minority disclosure to which they are referring was made later on, when she was teaching at Harvard as a professor.
But if you want to point fingers at how these candidates funded their educations, be cautious. Brown posed in nudie mags to fund his education. Don't start that conversation!
Bwhahahhahhaaa!
Well, I can't tell you that it wouldn't be covered because I don't know.
Honestly, I know nothing about the MA Senate race other than who's in it. I just haven't paid much attention to the news beyond scanning a few NPR headlines recently.
It appears from your link that Boston press covered it. I just haven't bothered to look at that.
Was he nude...I must have erased that from my remembery because I was thinking undies...either way I am off to find bleach for my eyes
Has Harvard said what they were thinking in promoting her as a minority female professor?
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Not to come across as a total Warren apologist, but I'm failing to see why this is funny or even conversation-worthy?
I have descendants who were really early US settlers. Its a small part of my ancestry, for sure. But if I were working in an academic setting, and could sign up as a Daughter of the American Revolution or some ish as a way to be included in seminars, or interest groups surrounding a piece of my family history that I'm interested in, I would do it.
The only thing that makes this different is if it advanced her career in any way. Which it didn't.
Even that is a wild accusation, that somehow Warren didn't earn her professional stature in some way. An inflammatory suggestion at best.
My understanding is that if you are going to claim being NA, you have to actually be a member of the tribe - so there is a legal documentation part of the equation - not just a bloodline/genetic one. Also, I've heard that any race could, technically, join a NA nation, and then classify themselves as a NA in terms of "ethnicity."
Supposedly I'm 1/32 Creek. We don't really have a spot on the family tree we can point to definitively though. But if they did crap like give the NA relative English names, and this was before widespread photography, I don't see how we'd know for sure either way.
Because when you are 31/32 white, then "people who are like I am" is white people, not native americans?
Did anyone watch the video? She's channeling Martha Coakley.
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This tracing ancestry in the US is really weird to a foreigner like me. I mean, I am part African, if we go back a couple of hundred thousand years. Is there a time limit to how far you go back? And frankly, who gives a crap? Its so peculiar.
So when an obviously American person tells me they are Irish or Italian, I like to reply with that. Sometimes I say Chinese, because I am sure at some point in my history someone was related to a person from what became China.
Listen, I like her a lot. But if she was truly interested in people "like her" she could have sought these things out herself not randomly hoping that listing herself would draw others to her.
My maternal grandfather is of direct Native American decent and I would never consider using it in a way that would be such a stretch.
I am also pissymean this morning
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Yeah I've heard that from other non-Americans. Obvious they mean ethnicity/heritage/culture and not citizenship (most of the time).
I have to say I find it silly to go back into finding out who your ancestors were back to the colonial days. I mean, you have 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents,.... and 256 greatx6 grandparents. I can't imagine trying to identify with someone who was 1/256th of you. But it is interesting for diversity's sake, I guess.
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.
Huh, I dont think anyone is trying to cover this up, I've seen it in the Boston papers, and on Politico since late last week?
Anyway, I think this could start some interesting conversations around blood quantum rules both inside and outside the Native American context, but I don't think the media cares about something so nuanced.
He was nude but you didn't see anything. Click to see
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With further consideration, I wish people would trace that far back, then we could finally get over racism. Hey everyone, you are related to every race! Lets move on and stop being diiicks to each other about skin color.
ou guys, I am now sitting at my desk crying. My Grandfather was the most amazing man ever, he practically raised us. His last words to my Grandma were for her to "take care of his girls" (meaning my Mom and my sisters and myself).
I just want to share him because I never get to. I loved him so much, so much. He would yell at us to go back out and shut the front door like we had some sense and we would come in and he would tell us to go get a cookie because Grandma had just filled it.
I know this is stupid, but here are my grandparents. He never spoke of being NA because it was frowned upon in his era
To join the Cherokee Nation you have to establish that you are a direct relative of somebody on the rolls, blood quantum is not a factor.
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