Elizabeth Warren infamously claimed to be a racial minority, specifically, Native American, in an Association of American Law Schools directory, and in the 1990s her employer, Harvard Law School, touted her minority status in an effort to bolster its “diversity” bona fides. Warren has taken a lot of heat for claiming to be Native American, because, sadly, her claim is a lie. Astonishingly, Warren herself has confirmed that her claim was false when she released the results of a DNA test today. The DNA report,
found that ‘the vast majority’ of Warren’s family tree is European, but added that ‘the results strongly support the existence of an unadmixed Native American ancestor … in the range of 6-10 generations ago.’
Even more astonishingly, in this video, also released today, Warren says the report actually confirms her claim that she is a racial minority. What? In what universe does a DNA report that says she has no more than 1/64, and perhaps as little as 1/1,024, Native American DNA validate her claim to be a racial minority? Here is where Senator Warren shares common cause with the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow racists. Apparently, she, like the KKK, adheres to the “one drop rule.” PBS explains this rule as follows:
To be considered black in the United States not even half of one’s ancestry must be African black. But will one-fourth do, or one-eighth, or less? The nation’s answer to the question ‘Who is black?” has long been that a black is any person with any known African black ancestry. This definition reflects the long experience with slavery and later with Jim Crow segregation. In the South it became known as the “one-drop rule,” meaning that a single drop of “black blood” makes a person a black. It is also known as the “one black ancestor rule,” some courts have called it the “traceable amount rule,” and anthropologists call it the “hypo-descent rule,” meaning that racially mixed persons are assigned the status of the subordinate group. This definition emerged from the American South to become the nation’s definition, generally accepted by whites and blacks. Blacks had no other choice. As we shall see, this American cultural definition of blacks is taken for granted as readily by judges, affirmative action officers, and black protesters as it is by Ku Klux Klansmen.
Apparently, if the one drop rule it is good enough for the Ku Klux Klan, it is good enough for Elizabeth Warren.
So, is Elizabeth Warren a racial minority? Of course, the answer to that question depends on what one means by “racial minority.” If by “racial minority,” one means a person, the vast majority’ of whose family tree is not European, clearly she is not. On the other hand, if one agrees with the KKK and adopts the “one drop rule,” she is.
UPDATE
As I considered this matter further, it occurred to me that I should explore the issue of “why does it matter if Warren is a racial minority”? At one level, it does not. I don’t care if she is a racial minority; nor should anyone else. I have actually been represented in the Senate by a Native American (Ben Nighthorse Campbell). While I rarely agreed with him on political issues, by all accounts he served honorably.
On the other hand, I do care if Warren is a liar. If she is, she needs to be exposed and shamed (if she has any shame, which appears increasingly unlikely). And yes, she is a liar. Reasonable people can disagree whether racial minorities should have advantages on account of that status. What is inarguable is that if we as a society do confer such advantages, they should be reserved for, well, racial minorities. Whatever advantages that accrue to racial minority status (and Warren clearly believed there was some advantage in describing herself as a racial minority; otherwise should would not have done so) should not be conferred on a blue-eyed blonde woman whose ancestry was overwhelmingly European. The purpose of racial preferences is to address the lingering disadvantages of past and present racism. That purpose is clearly undermined when a blue-eyed blonde woman of European descent attempts to arrogate those advantages to herself. Moreover, the one drop rule that Warren espouses would, if taken to its literal conclusion, undermine all racial preferences. I believe it is safe to say that practically everyone in the United States is a minority if the cutoff is 1/1,024 as Warren believes. If everyone is a minority, then no one is and the basis for preference rapidly collapses.
Finally, it is hard to argue with the Scott Brown campaign when they said:
That Warren allowed Harvard to hold her up as an example of their commitment to diversity in the hiring of historically disadvantaged communities is an insult to all Americans who have suffered real discrimination and mistreatment, and Warren should apologize for participating in this hypocritical sham . . .
SECOND UPDATE
I have been trying to understand Warren’s political calculations with this move. Apparently, she believed that the MSM would do its level best to cover her by trying to run with the patently preposterous story that the report vindicated her claims. She was correct. That is exactly what they did. She then calculated that she would be able to brazen it out with utterly shameless chutpah and the story would, at the very least, lose steam, and she could move on with her 2020 run. Here she miscalculated badly. The MSM’s power to convince the world that black is white is more limited than she thought. Only the most foaming-at-the-mouth leftist activists (like Bob O’H in the comment section to this post) are buying her load of bull manure (or at least saying they are; no rational person believes her).