Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Friday that she is not a person of color, despite her previous claims to Native American ancestry.
“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,” Warren said at Morgan State, a historically black college in Baltimore, Md, according to the Washington Post.
Warren came under fire this fall when she released her DNA test results that showed she had little Native American heritage. In fact, the results showed that with as little as 1/1024th American Indian blood she might well be less Native American than the average white European American.
The Boston Globe published an editorial last week that said Warren, a potential 2020 presidential hopeful, had lost her chance to win the presidency in 2016.
Warren advisers told the New York Times that they are worried that she has damaged her relationship with the Native American community and minority activists. They say she will need to address the issue head on if she were to out her name into consideration for a 2020 Democratic bid.
The controversy dates back to the 1980s when Warren notified law school administrators of her claims to Native American heritage.
Her claims came into question in 2012, and were widely criticized, especially by President Trump, who pushed her to take a test to prove her ancestry, often referring to her as Pocahontas.
