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DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL Elizabeth Warren has publicly apologised for calling herself Native American.
The Massachusetts Senator made the apology to reporters after the Washington Post reported that she listed her race as “American Indian” in a 1986 application to the Texas bar.
Asked why she had identified as such, Warren said it was because of “family stories” about their background.
“So, this was about 30 years ago. I am not a tribal citizen. Tribes, and only tribes, determine citizenship. When I was growing up, in Oklahoma, I learned about my family the same way that most people do. My brothers and I learned from our mom and our dad and our brothers and our sisters and those were our family stories,” Warren said.
But that said there really is an important distinction of tribal citizenship, I am not a member of a tribe and I have apologised for not being more sensitive to that distinction. It’s an important distinction.
Asked whether there may be further paperwork from the past which says the same, Warren suggested it was possible.
“So all I know is during this time period, this is consistent with what I did because it was based on my understanding from my family’s stories,“ Warren said according to Politico.
“But family stories are not the same as tribal citizenship.“
CNN / Twitter
CNN / Twitter / Twitter
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Warren has previously said that her Native American ancestry is part of “family lore” and her identification has prompted jibes and slurs from President Donald Trump.
Trump, who regularly slurs her with the term “Pocahontas”, has claimed she benefited in schools and the workforce from minority status.
In response to that criticism, Warren took a DNA test and published the results last year.
Warren’s DNA test showed evidence of Native American heritage between six to ten generations back.
But the test was controversial for Native Americans, for whom being part of a tribe is cultural and includes living under tribal laws, rather than simple genetic links.
Warren subsequently apologised to the Cherokee Nation for taking the test.
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Can we still call her Pocahontas?
@Dave Dublin: Fauxcahontas. Lie-awatha.
@jacquoranda: lie-awatha,very good.Thank you for my first laugh today.
@John Sleator: No worries. The first one’s on the house. I have to charge for the next.
“I have apologised for not being more sensitive”
- not being more sensitive
+ telling a bare faced lie to advance my career
Fixed it for you.
I feel a bit like Liam Neeson, I could have murdered an Indian last night. Really was craving a curry.
People can identify as pretty much anything these days so I don’t see the issue.
She’s sorry she’s been caught.
So she went from Indian to a cowboy in one stroke of a pen!!!!!.
…and that ends her campaign.
@Mike Conway: you claim to be Irish or some other large demographic to help your campaign, what’s the use in claiming to be part of a tiny minority who constantly get shit on by other Americans? Ethnicity is more useful applying for things like education and employment where they have a positive discrimination policy.
@Karen Wellington: That’s exactly what has been alleged before; she was listed as a minority while on the faculty of two universities & it has been alleged that she identified as Native American in order to help her chances of getting the jobs.
@Joe Bloggs: it’s called Affirmative Action, favoritism for “minorities’
@Joe Bloggs: But the facts showed that that didn’t advance her career.Unless of course those Harvard professors whom carried out the interviews are all liars..
@Carnac: “favourtism for “minorities”" <- Very true.They say that it was the middle class white woman whom has benefited the most from Affirmative Action..
And….?
I’m lost – who are we supposed to be outraged at today- Warren, Trump, Liam?
In all fairness she has Indian heritage ‘6 to 10’ generations back.
I had a great great granuncle who was Danish. If I identified as Irish Danish I’d be laughed at.
@Rebecca De Stanleigh: but this is America, a place where someone can, with complete sincerity, claim that they’re 4/13 [insert your preferred ethnicity or culture here].
The majority of the population descended from planters and immigrants (the poor, huddled masses, wretched refuse etc.), the country that is the USA has barley any history (243 years as a nation and 470 years since europeans settling started) or culture of their own so they claim other cultures and heritages.
@Karen Wellington: I know all that Karen. Most people do. What’s your point?
If Trump is an example of his crowds evolution ,imagine the state of them ten generations ago….
@Gerry Campbell: TRUMP IN MY OPINION has supreme faith in his opinion that he is a genius and has convinced nearly half of the American people to that fact other politicians try all sorts of things to advance their cause but don’t get away with it
@FlopFlipU: fact ?
@Gerry Campbell: ten generations ago they where Germans.
@FlopFlipU: no denying that Mr Flip..
You always get caught out when you lie. She’s toast now & it took a man like the Donald to do the right thing by calling her out on her BS. She is no more native American than I am.
She might as well invest in the Complete Box Set of “The West Wing” as that is the closest she is going to get to it.
How?
@Grumpyoldtroll: how, me chief
@J: let’s drink firewater
Next Paddy’s Day…
Leo: “Hey Liz, do you have any Indian in you? Would you like s….”
Simon: “LEO, NO!!!”
when people born with a pen*is can claim to be female – and people born with a vag*ina can claim to be male – why cant a person who at least has some proof of her heritage through dna testing , claim to be a native america ? deemed 6.1/10 to be toxic — what a joke !! put a * in place of one letter in an anatomical name and it drops to 3.8/10 toxic . !!
Then on the other hand you have nearly every American call themselves Irish on St Patty’s day. She has a wee bit of native American blood in her, so she is not a blow in, Trump can’t kick her out.
@Declan Carr: Why would Trump try to get rid of Warren? She’s a goldmine of distraction as far as he’s concerned.
So genetically she can claim to be Native… So she didn’t lie at all.. And as to the Mango Mussolini calling her Pocahontas (a clumsy racial slur from someone clumsy who slurs) he hasn’t remarked in the fact his current wife is and his mother are both illegal immigrants which make him and at least his youngest son DACA kids.
@Jay Warner: Pocahontas is a clumsy racial slur against that remarkably white, blonde lady in the above picture?
@Jay Warner: You cannot claim to be Native American based on genetics as tens of millions of Americans have some native blood in their veins. Your ancestors must be listed on the Dawes roll which is a list of Native Americans taken around the turn of the century (1900).
Warren would have known this if she had any connection to the tribes.
Her claim to be Native American was done simply to take advantage of affirmative action with regards getting hired as a professor.
She’s not the first to do this (not by a long shot) but she’s been caught now and it has torpedoed any chance she had of getting the Democratic nomination for 2020.
Not a story. Not relevant.
Taking Trump BS too seriously.
@Ryan Dub: Well it is relevant that a presidential hopeful lies to further her career and then lied about not using it to further her career
have your say