Elizabeth Warren was a law professor at the University of Texas when she filled out a form from the state bar about her race. Her answer, printed in careful block letters: “American Indian.”
Through much of her life and legal career, she claimed to be Native American despite being white.
After the bar registration card was published by The Washington Post, Warren faced new doubts about her viability in the presidential race, as activists and strategists evaluated how much damage the issue might do especially given Democrats’ focus on finding a candidate who can defeat President Trump and what she might do to move past it.
Liberal activists have long described cultural appropriation as hurtful, since someone is assuming the identity of a group without having faced the suffering or discrimination that group endured. The question is whether Democratic primary voters will punish Warren for actions for which she has apologized.
The matter now threatens to overshadow the image Warren has sought to foster of a truth-telling consumer advocate who would campaign for the White House as a champion for the working class. Instead, she is now seeking to combat the portrait of someone who for years was insufficiently sensitive to a long-oppressed minority. The matter also is arising at a time when issues of racial and cultural identity are increasingly sensitive in the Democratic Party.
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