DNA

When you think that things in the through-the-looking-glass world of the left can't get any more ridiculous, they get more ridiculous. Stepping up to challenges (after years of delay) to her claim that she is of Native American "heritage", Liz Warren took a DNA test. She might (I emphasize might) be 1,024th native American. Because many of Liz' followers appear to be innumerate, here's a graphic representation of Liz' claim. Each "o" represents one of Liz' ancestors over 10 generations who are NOT native American:

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and here's the number of Liz' ancestors who might be native American

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Risking numbers, Warren is less than 1/10th of 1 percent Native American or by her own testing, about 0.00009766 of her DNA is of the right type.

Consider for a moment, your personal heritage. If a fairly large number of your recent ancestors are Egyptian, you'd readily refer to yourself as coming from that heritage. It makes sense. But if 1 in 1024 over 10 generations lived on the Nile and was probably Egyptian, yours would be a VERY dubious claim indeed. But whatever ...

Unless ... you make the claim with intent to use it to gain some advantage. That's called cheating and it's not cool. Even worse, to use terminology that I suspect Liz would appreciate, it's "cultural appropriation!"

Liz Warren did it to gain advantage in the academic world, where identity politics rules, and people of certain heritage are given preference over people with less desirable heritage. She denies that, of course, but why else was her Native American heritage prominently noted in Liz' bio at Harvard.

I recognize that this entire kerfuffle is silly. After all, Liz is entitled to exaggerate her heritage—it's a little white lie, right? But Liz is not entitled to gain an advantage using that little white lie, particularly when she may have cost another actual Native American a position at Harvard.

David Harsanyi summarizes nicely:

I don’t much care about Warren’s ethnicity, but she is not, in any genuine sense, a racial or ethnic minority. Not in blood. Not in experience. Under her standards, how many Americans would qualify as Native American? Or put it this way: is being 1/1,024th African enough to claim “minority” status in a professional setting? I’m asking for the liberals who believe race-based hiring is an important means of facilitating diversity and ensuring fairness.

In fact, None other than the New York Times points out that "average white person in America has nearly double the amount of American Indian DNA (0.18%) as Elizabeth Warren (0.098%). So by Liz Warren's dubious standards, on average we're all Native Americans now.

UPDATE:
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In response to Warren's announcement that DNA tests have vindicated her as a 1/1024th Cherokee, the real Cherokee Nation responded with a less than congratulatory press release:

"A DNA test is useless to determine tribal citizenship. Current DNA tests do not even distinguish whether a person's ancestors were indigenous to North or South America. Sovereign tribal nations set their own legal requirements for citizenship, and while DNA tests can be used to determine lineage, such as paternity to an individual, it is not evidence for tribal affiliation. Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong. It makes a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens, whose ancestors are well documented and whose heritage is prove. Senator Warren is undermining tribal interests with her continued claims of tribal heritage."

- Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin, Jr.

But I suppose making a "mockery" of DNC testing is S.O.P. for a senator who makes a mockery of her job.