Massachusetts Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren is finally admitting the obvious: she isn't a "person of color." In other words, she's white.
“I’m not a person of color. And I haven’t lived your life or experienced anything like the subtle prejudice, or more overt harm, that you may have experienced just because of the color of your skin.” — @SenWarren at Morgan State, a HBCU in Baltimore https://t.co/lLs7MUyCY3
— Annie Linskey (@AnnieLinskey) December 14, 2018
As a reminder, Warren has repeatedly told a story about her parents eloping due to racism and her mother's "Cherokee" heritage.
My mom and dad were very much in love with each other and they wanted to get married and my father’s parents said absolutely not. You can’t marry her because she’s part Cherokee and she’s part Delaware. And um, after fighting it as long as they could, my parents went off, they eloped. It was an issue in our family the whole time I grew up about these two families. It was an issue still raised at my mother’s funeral. So what I know about my parents is I know that in that little town they grew up in that my father’s parents knew enough about my mother and her family to say I have no doubts.
Warren released the results of DNA test in October, which showed she might be 1/1024th Native American.
BOSTON GLOBE: "Due to a math error, a story about Elizabeth Warren misstated the ancestry percentage of a potential 10th generation relative. It should be 1/1,024."
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) October 15, 2018
The DNA test release was a such a disaster, sparking a harsh rebuke from the Cherokee Nation, that Warren's political advisors are mulling a public apology for the stunt. She also used her "minority" status to get hired at Harvard.
Advisers close to Ms. Warren say she has privately expressed concern that she may have damaged her relationships to Native American groups and her own standing with progressive activists, particularly those who are racial minorities. Several outside advisers are even more worried: They say they believe a plan should be made to repair that damage, possibly including a strong statement of apology.
The advisers say Ms. Warren will have to confront the issue again if she announces a presidential campaign, which is expected in the coming weeks, and several would like her to act soon.
Publicly, at this point, the senator isn’t second-guessing her actions.
Meanwhile, 2020 polling on Democrats has Warren trailing most of her competition by a significant margin. From CNN:
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