One of my questions is -- what makes Elizabeth Warren any more electable than Hillary Clinton? I don't know Warren well.
She has absolutely zero charisma. She claims to be native American when tests show she's no more native American than the average American. Too much non-sense. Demonizes corporate America. Wants to give away too much free stuff.
Biden is still looking like the best of the bunch that has any chance.
With the rolling Trump economy, the dems need to hope the economy goes to shit before the election, or it's going to be tough sailing, regardless of what any head to head polls might say. We know how unreliable they can be when it comes to Trump
I guess the average American is then part native American.
Yes, that was my point. She has a small fraction of native American in her just like the average American. That's what makes it a joke. The indians were insulted that she tried to claim herself to be one as well.
You can only be a Native American if you've been recognized by a tribe (are a tribal citizen), just as you can only be Italian if you have Italian citizenship. Warren's not claiming to be Native American, but to have Native American heritage... like if your ancestor came over from Italy, you're not Italian, but Italian-American.
Having "a small fraction of native American in her just like the average American" is not a good argument. There are lots of Americans of all types. Native Americans make up only 2% of the population, and of those, few are full blooded. If you average them you'll get a low percentage. One of the
best studies so far looked at a self-selected sample of Americans who submitted DNA to 23andMe and gave permission for their data to be used in the study. Indeed, the average percentage Native American markers found in European Americans was only 0.18%. This would be an average of a lot of people with zero detectable Native DNA, with some people with a little, and a few people with a lot.
Warren's results suggest about 1.6% of her DNA were from Native ancestry. This could have been from one Native ancestor 6 generations ago (her grandmother's grandmother's grandmother), or from SEVERAL ancestors up to 10 generations ago.
However it makes more sense to look at the percentage
of the population of self-identified European Americans who have Native American DNA.
Using a less stringent threshold of 1%, our estimates suggest that as many as 8% of individuals from Louisiana and upward of 3% of individuals from some states in the West and Southwest carry Native American ancestry (Figure S7).
From the above study, Warren belongs to a
rather small group of European Americans (looks like about 3-4% of people in OK, from their figure) with enough Native DNA to hit the 1% threshold. Make of that what you will.
While it's important to listen to Native voices who are pointing out that it takes more than DNA or family legends to be a Native American, and who are frustrated with cultural appropriation, it's also important to listen to those who
support Senator Warren and are thankful for the work she has done as an ally of several Native tribes.Also, if you don't support the things that Native Americans truly care about, like upholding the
Indian Child Welfare Act,
upholding treaties and sovereignty of Native nations, a stop to degrading and dehumanizing Native faces in the media, and a start to spreading accurate and diverse depictions of Native Americans in the news and popular culture
--then you need to consider why you care about this issue at all.