Try as she might, Liz Warren has been unable to put to rest the flap over her claimed Native American ancestry.
That’s because the controversy raises legitimate questions about the integrity of this Senate candidate and Harvard Law prof, who once listed herself as a minority — despite being, at best, only 1/32nd Cherokee.
But the story also has legs because of questions it raises about affirmative action in the 21st century — and about Warren’s views on this issue.
A bit of context:
When I was a student at Harvard Law School in the early 1990s, the faculty was notoriously divided along ideological lines. “Beirut on the Charles” was the apt description given to the law school by GQ Magazine. And, indeed, so antagonistic was the climate that the faculty was unable to come to agreement on new hires. Professors distrusted one another, and their animosity seeped into the student body.
In early 1992, in an attempt to break the political gridlock, Harvard Law offered tenured faculty positions to four candidates — two liberals and two conservatives.
Against this backdrop of racial and gender politics, Liz Warren arrived in Cambridge the following fall.
Then a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Warren came to Harvard Law as a visiting professor (on a sort of trial basis).
[
link to bostonherald.com]
=======================
Warren is the Democratic opponent of Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown. She was born and raised in Oklahoma and came to Massachusetts as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School by way of the University of Pennsylvania.
Warren claimed 'minority' status at Harvard and the University of PA due to her 'Native American' background. It's now acknowledged she's AT BEST 1/32 'Indian', and actually isn't able to even prove this. What can be proved is her great, great, great grandfather was one of the Calvery officers out of Tennessee responsible for rounding up 'Indians' and 'deporting' them out west to barren ground by way of the 'Trail of Tears'.
United States
