When White Entitlement Grants Minority Access

Support Negra With Tumbao

According to the Washington Post, Sen. Elizabeth Warren listed herself as an American Indian on her Texas Bar registration card in 1986. If that’s not white entitlement, what is?

It has been revealed that Warren does have Native American ancestry. Her great-great-great-grandmother, O.C. Sarah Smith is said to have either been full Native American or half and that would mean she does have some indigenous DNA. However, the amount of Native American ancestry would be relatively minute in the grand scheme of Warren actually being able to identify herself as an “American Indian.”

Warren doesn’t have enough Native American blood to even qualify to join the varying Native Americans nations states a report from The National Academic Press.

Herein lies the issue. Many people from the United States have a mixed heritage so the thought of acknowledging a specific part of a person’s DNA isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Warren’s attempt to constantly play up a relatively small part of her Native American ancestry is troubling though, especially to the Cherokee Nation.