This goes back way further than casinos and has a real Noble Savage racist undertone. “My great-grandmother was a Cherokee Princess” is a joke phrase among Cherokee, IIRC, because they hear it from so many white people.
I asked a Cherokee speaker once about that (during a college class where he was talking about teaching native kids). His response was interesting: during the early 19th century, a lot of Cherokee/Scots hybrid families formed in Appalachia and then hid the Cherokee women to avoid forced removal. He thought there was a fair amount of truth to these family stories, even if they didn’t indicate cultural membership in the Cherokee nation.
Another explanation: families with black ancestors would sometimes claim native ancestry in the South to explain their darker-than-white skin tones, because native ancestry is romantic in a way that black ancestry isn’t, among some racist white people.
And now I’m completely off-track. But it ain’t about the casinos :).
(disclosure: I grew up hearing about my Cherokee great-granddad, and I think even today my mom believes that story. Due to a variety of factors I’m about 95% sure it’s not true).
My grandfather had particularly dark skin for a white man, and this was explained by supposed native American ancestry from his mother.
We did DNA tests in the last few years, and it turns out he was an eighth black. I doubt he even knew it - his parents died and he was on his own at 14.
Finally, all over the place, but especially in Oklahoma, there are a ton of Native Americans who don’t necessarily look particularly Native American at a glance.
e.g.
Markwayne Mullin - Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oklahoma’s 2nd district and member of the Cherokee Nation.
Tom Cole - Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oklahoma’s 4th district - a member of the Chickasaw Nation.
I assume these guys have mirrors. Are they stupid for believing they are Native Americans?
Not trying to end the side discussion, but do you think this Warren/Sanders thing will help Biden like The Guardian suggests, or is it a big ‘Nothing Burger’?
I’ve had the passing thought that since this brouhaha is bound to increase ratings for tonight’s debate, maybe Sanders and Warren decided between themselves ‘let’s put a supposed conflict between us out there, and then at the debate we can both be calm and conciliatory and Presidential about it, and that will help both of us and hurt neither of us.’
Well, I guess we’ll see. If they’re bitter and snarky toward each other tonight, that will sink my little theory…
Hilary Clinton*, with great name recognition and eight years of experience in the actual white house, during which time she undoubtedly knew a lot of what was going on, first could not beat a black man of her own party, and then couldn’t beat the nation’s most well-known pussy-grabbing idiot.
I would be so happy to be proven wrong on this.
*“Oh I wouldn’t mind a woman, it’s just her.” Okay there’s a little of that with Clinton, but there’s a little of that with every single candidate. “Oh I wouldn’t mind a Catholic but not him.” “Oh I wouldn’t mind an African-American but not him.” And so on.
*Again, the whole popular vote v. EC thing.
Of frigging course it’s a nothing burger. This is something Sanders supposedly said in a private conversation in 2018. This story only shows how desperate the media is to stir up a story/shamelessly fill column inches.
Apart from the one you’re determined to grossly misrepresent, what other “integrity problems” does Warren have?
Funnily enough, that’s when many people suddenly found that they weren’t members of the tribe because that meant the remaining members got to split the profits fewer ways.
Fox, heh has posted video of Bernies Sanders saying in 1988 that a woman COULD be elected president, I have to say I think Bernie is the one telling the truth in this whole thing. I think Warren lied about it and even used it as ammo in the debate.
This would be true of most politicians–but Bernie’s main selling point is that he hasn’t changed his tune since 1888.
This seems far and away the likeliest explanation to me. Sanders almost certainly tried to dissuade Warren from running, and she almost certainly tried to dissuade him from running, because not doing so would be stupid. Sanders probably talked about the attacks that would get leveled at Warren, just as she probably talked about the attacks that would get leveled at him.
I’m not impressed with how Warren has handled this, at all.
In addition to pretending to be Indian, Warren was caught lying about being fired for being pregnant, not sending her kids to private school, her financing for Medicare for All, and her research into bankruptcy.
I lean towards this. A guy like Bernie can’t possibly say in public, “A woman can’t get elected.” But in private, he would very reasonably be telling Warren that she’d face disadvantages against Trump a man wouldn’t.
It was quite amusing that Warren pretended that her mediocre electoral performances in dark blue MA were some kind of electoral asset. Rather shrewdly she clubbed herself with Klobuchar who **does **have an impressive electoral record. She was probably counting on the profoundly innumerate DC punditocracy not being able to parse the numbers and right on cue oneof them took the bait taking her claims at face value.
Personally, I’ve been impressed with how she’s handled it, both in the debate last night and the overall kneecapping ruthlessness with which she’s taken Bernie on.
In presidential politics, winners are the candidates who fight like hell to win. Ruthless. I want someone who will scrap and fight, with every ounce of venom he or she has. If anyone thought Bernie and Liz would just hold hands and eat ice cream together through this whole campaign, they were naive.
Bernie is a barrier to her winning the nomination. Bernie’s campaign had volunteers directly attack Warren on the doors last week, so she said “Fuck it,” and went for it.
Is Bernie a sexist? No. Does he believe a woman can’t be president? No. Did he try talking Warren out of running by telling her 2020 might not be the right time for a woman to be the nominee? Sure, I could see it. And Warren has every right to use that against him now.