All political hell broke loose in the Bay State because in the 1980s and ’90s, Warren, a law professor who grew up in Oklahoma City, indicated a minority status when she registered for the Association of American Law Schools directory.
Her Republican opponent, incumbent Scott Brown, accused her of using that designation to unfairly advance her career. Brown’s campaign manager called on Warren to “apologize for participating in this hypocritical sham,” referring to her supposedly complicit participation when Harvard in the ’90s cited Warren’s ancestry as evidence of the school’s diversity.
While Warren has said her Native American heritage is based on “family lore,” the Boston Herald has labeled her “Fauxcahontas.”
But Kevin Noble Maillard, a Native American law professor from Oklahoma, wrote in The New York Times about
the inherent ambiguity of Native American ancestry: “Proving Native
American ancestry is a complex, bureaucratic process. Many people are
rejected, even when family lore tells them otherwise. … Tribal
citizenship depends on descent from an enrolled ancestor, and every
tribe has its own requirements.”
Serving
as a handy distraction from substantial issues, the fake controversy
just won’t die, so we’re going to do our part to quell it. Right. Now.
