©2012 Reflections of a Rational Republican
I have decided to open a storefront on CaféPress so that my readers can purchase items I have designed, often in bad taste. The beauty of CaféPress is that it handles procurement, shipping, and returns, allowing me to focus on design.
Since I’ve been wanting to call out the left’s blatant hypocrisy over Elizabeth Warren’s egregious misrepresentation of herself as a “woman of color”, I’ve taken the liberty of creating a mug with the following design:
©2012 Reflections of a Rational Republican
Sometimes we all need a creative outlet. It seems that CaféPress has provided me with one. Oh, and you can also purchase mugs with the ROARR logo as well, which I highly encourage everyone to do (shameless and self-serving plug).
Check out the ROARR Store here.
Reflections of a Rational Republican 
Actually the law about native American background does include Elizabeth Warren’s percentage. I think it’s a sign of the pettiness and silliness of American politics that what she claimed in the past (accurately, it seems) is getting made into an issue when so many real issues are on the line. It’s a polity that cares less about substance than sensationalism.
Scott,
This is all about substance. Warren took advantage of a system that favors and promotes people based on nothing other than their racial background, despite the fact that she cannot even prove she is 1/32 Cherokee. In other words, she misrepresented herself in a way that enhanced her academic career. It would certainly help me in any endeavor to claim that I’m a Rhodes Scholar, but I don’t do it because I would be misrepresenting myself. If someone on the right had done this, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be shaking him down within 24 hours.
My personal opinion is that Elizabeth Warren is just as despicable as someone who fabricates stories about their military service. It’s not right, and it speaks volumes about someone’s character or lack thereof.
“My personal opinion is that Elizabeth Warren is just as despicable as someone who fabricates stories about their military service.”
But your personal opinion is tainted by your political leanings Sean. Of all the things that Ms. Warren has laid out there on the table the right has found only this small sound bite out of her history to discredit her? To call her claim as 1/32 cherokee an “egregious misrepresentation” is overkill. There is no evidence that she used this claim to advance her career, in fact
“Two people who recruited Warren to Harvard told the [Boston] Globe that they didn’t know about her claim of Native American heritage during the hiring process, nor did they take it into consideration when they made their final decision.”
So where are you getting your information that she abused this claim?
Harvard University in particular profiled her as a “woman of color” in various literature while she was there, and she was more than happy to oblige. Moreover, both the university and Warren refuse to release her application to the university, because to do so would not only serve to expose that she misrepresented herself, but also to expose how easy it is for people to gain an unfair advantage in gaining employment or getting admitted to Harvard by lying about their race. It’s an embarrassing pickle for Harvard to be in.
” but also to expose how easy it is for people to gain an unfair advantage in gaining employment or getting admitted to Harvard by lying about their race”
But this is presumptuous of you. I have yet to see anything from you or anyone else that validates this assertion. It’s a specious argument that itself lacks credibility.
I don’t understand why you think this is a specious argument. Have you ever compared the SAT scores of admits from different races? All else being equal, an Asian applicant has the highest hurdle, white applicants face the second highest hurdle. At elite institutions, the difference is measured in hundreds of points. Moreover, have you ever heard of a legal case in which a student sued an elite institution because that institution rejected them after learning they lied about their race? I challenge you to find one. Race is such a touchy issue at these schools that they would never dare challenge it by reversing an admissions decision because of racial fraud.
But your presumption is that she did lie about her admission status and that the school is concealing this based solely on your feelings that this is why they are not opening her records to the public. Until they do and confirm your suspicions, they remain specious, literally. I don’t understand why you would object to this logic.
Here’s an article from Bloomberg explaining exactly what she did, and why her fraud is so reprehensible:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-04/elizabeth-warren-s-cherokee-nation.html
Amen, Sean! Good luck with the store. I’dlove to know how it goes. Maybe I should do mugs with my book cover on it. I’ll check it out.
Bee Hylinski
Author: Contract Year: a baseball novel
http://www.contractyearnovel.com
You should definitely try it. It took me about 3 hours to set up, but that’s after designing logos from scratch etc. Since you already have the logo ready, it should take you about 20 minutes to set up.
I hope all is going well, and I promise to still read and review the book. Things have been hectic here.
Not sure if what she did was wrong or why – but it seems to have been a long time ago, and as we’ve seen with many candidates, picking on items from youth is really lame. Let’s talk about what she’s done in her career, and her views compared to those of her opponent’s.
Scott,
This isn’t something she did as a teenager applying to college. She misrepresented her race as a middle-aged professional to further her career. Frankly, had she represented herself as white, her academic background wound not have qualified her to teach at UPenn or Harvard. If someone on the right had done this, the left would have them pilloried, and run ignominiously out of office – and rightly so.
ROARR store: such a nice rhythm.
Is it fair to say: She may have lied about her heritage, and it may have given her an unwarranted/unfair advantage in her career, so it is a kind of resume inflation.
I think that’s fair.
I think it is possible that she even believed she was 1/32 Cherokee. That said, given the fact that simply checking that box on an undergraduate application, for example, can confer a 200-300-point SAT score advantage for white applicants, it was her responsibility to make damn sure that claim was an accurate one. Even then, she could have avoided this mess by apologizing for her actions and explain her mistake. Instead, she’s making excuses, that turn out to be further lies. For instance, she claimed that Harvard didn’t know about her status prior to her employment there, yet she served as a visiting professor who proudly identified herself as a woman of color.
This is all about character. It is clear from her actions that Warren is sorely lacking in this category.
Personally it seems to be that to claim any advantage based on a 1/32 heritage seems a little silly to me, even if you accept affirmative actions for some groups. Plainly Elizabeth Warren isn’t what you expect a native American to look like, nor can I think she suffered any disadvantage because of it. That’s not here fault though.
Hey Sean, thought of an idea for another ROARR Elizabeth Warren Coffee Cup:
“If Elizabeth Warren is an Indian, then this cup is RED.” (I’m assuming the cups are white?!)
Outstanding! Although that statement probably crosses the line from a political correctness standpoint.
Um, “Oops”?
No worries. Stanford’s mascot used to be an Indian, too. 😉
I wonder if all of you forgiving liberals would forgive Ms. Warren had she claimed minority status as an African American, and then used an unprovable 3.215 % Black heritage to game the system . As long as she is a Democrat all is fair .