Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., claim of having a Native American ancestry was not considered by universities who hired her as a law professor, according to a report.
The Boston Globe performed a comprehensive review of documents and interviews and interviews and found no evidence to suggest she asserted having a Native American ethnicity while being considered by Harvard Law. The report also said race was not an issue considered in the employment process by faculty of other universities where Warren taught dating back to the 1970s, including Rutgers University, the University of Houston, the University of Texas, and the University of Pennsylvania.
“She was not on the radar screen at all in terms of a racial minority hire,” said Randall Kennedy, a law professor who had been in charge of recruiting minority candidates to Harvard Law School. “It was just not an issue. I can’t remember anybody ever mentioning her in this context.”
Warren did however, change her ethnicity from white to Native American after she was hired at UPenn and Harvard, documents show.
Critics of the progressive lawmaker have repeatedly accused her of using her heritage to advance her academic career, including President Trump, who calls her “Pocahontas.” Warren has said she is a distant descendant of the Cherokee and Delaware tribes, but she has little hard evidence to back her claims up.
Warren, who is seeking re-election this year and is also a potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, released what she said were all her teaching personnel files on her website and stressed to the Globe that heritage was never a factor in the hiring process. “My family is my family, but my background played no role in my getting hired anywhere,” she said.
