The academic world is facing another professor accused of misrepresenting her ethnic background. Andrea Smith, an associate professor at the University of California Riverside has written extensively on Native American subjects and long claimed Cherokee heritage. However, critics have said that Smith is no Cherokee — a scandal reminiscent of Elizabeth Warren scandal after her lifetime claim of being a Native American were debunked. Likewise a former University of Colorado professor and radical “Native American” writer Ward Churchill was found to have phony claims of being Native American. The question is what is the proper response of a school if an academic long claimed such a status, which comes with obvious benefits from schools seeking to diversify their faculties. On one hand, there can be a question of academic honestly while on the other academics can claim that they were acting in good faith on the basis of family accounts or misguided assumptions.
David Cornsilk, a Cherokee genealogist found no evidence of Cherokee bloodlines for Smith and added “Wannabes like Andrea use the myths of Cherokees hiding in the hills, passing for white or being saved by righteous whites, to perpetuate their lies.”
Cornsilk has said that Smith came to him repeatedly to establish Cherokee roots and that each time he told her that no such links existed. Critics say that Smith continued to represent herself as a Native American woman and a minority. Media reports state that various people confronted Smith about her claims to be a Cherokee in the past at academic conferences and appearances and claim that she promised to stop doing so.
Smith has not responded directly to reporters and it is not clear how much of the research on her background is being contested. She issued a somewhat encryptic statement that “I have consistently identified myself based on what I knew to be true” and that her belief was based on “what I knew to be true.” In a statement that drew comparisons to Rachel Dolezal, she added that she “will always be Cherokee.”
She also stated in a blog posting that “I have consistently identified myself based on what I knew to be true. My enrollment status does not impact my Cherokee identity or my continued commitment to organizing justice for Native communities.” It is not clear if Smith is still claiming to be an actual Cherokee and failed to show up on listings to some “enrollment” issue.
Smith received her Ph.D. in History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz in 2002 and her J.D. at UC Irvine School of Law in 2013. According to her faculty bio, she is the author of Native Americans and the Christian Right: The Gendered Politics of Unlikely Alliances and Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide. She is also the editor of The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex, and co-editor of The Color of Violence, The Incite! Anthology; Theorizing Native Studies,and Native Studies Keywords.
She is clearly identified as a Cherokee in this videotape:
The University has indicated that it will take no action on the allegation and that Smith remains a faculty member in good standing with the university. It further stated that ethnicity was not considered during her hiring. That later statement remains one of the most difficult issues for academics like Warren who listed herself as a minority for reporting purposes.
Source: Inside Higher Education
5 military members were killed just a little while ago in Tennessee in a possible act of terrorism. This woman and her embellishment are of no consequence in the scheme of life.
JAG, When people have something to gain, they will often lie and embellish. That’s how I make my living, and it’s been lucrative. If one is not skeptical of this woman, then one is not being a critical thinker. I put politics aside. I KNOW liberals and conservatives will lie to get something they want. I’ve caught plenty of both. I’m skeptical of this woman, and that doesn’t suck. Being skeptical of this woman does not mean “I always assume people are lying.” Although I see the dark side of people, I am a glass half full person. I KNOW people are basically decent. I also KNOW everyone has a dark side. We have devolved into a culture where people see only super heroes and super villains. Shakespeare understood human nature and his characters were all flawed.
Oh, and IF I was found to totally be part Native American and able to be on a registry,
I would absolutely decline, sounds too much like Nazi Germany.
There are people who would kill….literally…..to be on the Native American Tribe registry. The benefits are huge, especially with the free medical and now the enormous amounts of casino money that can be shared among the tribal members. The share of the casino money can be in the 10s of thousands of dollars per person. Big money!!
Literally….kill…… http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/22/shootings-at-american-indian-center-prompted-by-eviction-relative-says/
She was about to be de-tribed. Kicked off of the tribal roles and lose all the cushy benefits.
Google it. Since the casinos tribes have been paring down their membership. Booting out the half breeds or fractional blood members. Less people to have to share the wealth with. There have been many instances of booted out tribal members getting more than angry.
All I know is that it must really suck, to live a life always being suspicious of people, and always
assuming that people are lying.
Oh, and IF I was found to totally be part Native American and able to be on a registry,
I would absolutely decline, sounds too much like Nazi Germany.
Justagurl,
I can agree with you here. This seems just another case in which people are outraged over very little,maybe because they think she’s some liberal Professor? Who knows. So much more real travesties in the world that should rightfully garner our outrage.
BUT, what proof do any of you have to say that these women are lying?
and here, at least I am consistent, being that as for Bush checking Hispanic, I can buy that it was a
mistake, I have no reason to think that he did this to defraud anybody.
Just as I have NO REASON to believe that Warren and this woman Smith, are not Native Americans.
Fact is, people want to hate, and they want to bitch about people they don’t agree with politically.
@NickS
There must be something in the air. Over at the other place, did you notice who resigned??? Check the “suggestions” comments.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Karen, It’s BDS. He’s probably happy the old man Bush fell yesterday and broke bones.
The history according to randy is fascinating. There are many black Cubans who have escaped the white Castro brothers terror, and are lovers of the US; unlike yourself. There’s a great documentary about the black Hernandez brothers and what they had to go through, they and their families persecuted by Castro. Putin and the Castro brothers are your heroes. Perfect.
OK, so can she like chew up a deer hide to make it safe for her Indian buck??? I bet not. Plus, since she claims she is Cherokee, she is HOMOPHOBIC!
Because if you are a member of a tribe, you got to follow the rules!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Taxpayers are just happy to hear she’s not on strike – this week. The working conditions, pay and benefits so horrible, it’s a wonder they get any applicants at all. They’re so exhausted after two two-month semesters (ex-holidays, teachers days, admin days, sick days, etc.) they have to take the entire summer off, oh, with full pay and benefits, of course. See you in Paris, mon ami!
When the Union of Communists isn’t conducting ideological indoctrination of the Communist Youth Brigades in the People’s Republic of California, it immerses itself in the delectable hedonism of the bourgeois capitalists. To wit,
“The University of California has leased an Oakland residence for incoming system president Janet Napolitano for $9,950 a month, officials said Monday. Napolitano, the former U.S. secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona, will be provided the housing plus an annual $570,000 salary, $8,916 a year for car expenses and $142,500 for one-time relocation costs.”
For what?
There are innumerable unemployed/underemployed high achievers with advanced degrees out there who are tanned, rested and ready.
How much would it save us to simply teach children of freedom to be self-reliant and the three R’s without the largesse.
Napolitano has failed to “dazzle them with brilliance” so she has struggled ineptly to
“baffle them with bull—-!”
As a sycophant,
She has succeeded.
You go, comrade.
forgotwhoiam – this is a common thing. The president of ASU had his own house that came with the job, but they sold that and built him a spiffy new on on South Mountain. The houses have to be big enough to entertain a lot of guests. Moving expenses are usual as are transportation expenses.
Chief Consort to the Progressive Grand Inquisitor
1, July 16, 2015 at 12:39 pm
Inga will be along soon to employ some other favorite devices: Tu Quoque and Squirrel!
http://ct.iscute.com/ol/ic/sw/i40/2/5/10/ic_e2a91760734641c5c46664dc1ebd495b.jpg
Sorry I’m so late to the thread Chief, I was out shopping. Nice of you to think of me and comment.
Build a preference, and they shall come.
Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I can feel a preference coursing through my veins.
Where’s that application with the checkboxes?
Remember Geraldine Ferraro complaining about Hillary having to run again Obama? A white woman running against an African-American man? The irony of identity politics. Poor Geraldine. Poor Hillary.
Who are so eager, not who so eager.
http://spectator.org/blog/62312/jeb-bush-hispanic-voter
“As far as Florida voter registration law is concerned, the “race and ethnicity” portion of the form is for data collection purposes only, so while he may have unfairly skewed his family’s personal profile, he didn’t technically commit perjury.”
Considering literally everyone knows he is white, and he has never openly claimed he is Hispanic, there is no reason to think this is anything other than an error. I see no gain if he did it on purpose.
If, however, he claimed to be Hispanic throughout the past 25 years, and took advantage of Affirmative Action programs and scholarships, then I would have a problem with it.
Seriously? This is the hottest issue with Jeb Bush???
Karen S
People, who so eager to pass off these liars, cheats and con artists, as reputable and respectable citizens, actually reveal more about their own very tenuous grasp of morals and ethics. One can only imagine how they live their lives, where honesty and truthfulness are malleable. Has anyone ever studied the toxic cumulative effects of prolonged exposure to cabin pressure?
The United Communists of Riverside should have this psycho-babbling, radical left-wing extremist, teachers union activist analyzed by the same doctor that Judge Berman ordered to examine Dinesh D’Souza.
And I am more interested in why Hillary Clinton attacked the character and credibility of Monica Lewinsky, knowing all the time her allegations were true. Everyone knew Bill cheated. That man’s a dog, and not in the “good, loving, and loyal” way.
But she has a history of that, doesn’t she? I recall a chilling audio of her gleefully laughing about having got off a pedophile who raped a little girl. She volunteered to represent him. It was not her job. And she attacked that little girl’s character, too.
Now she claims to stand up for women while she strides right by the press, smilingly refusing to grant interviews or answer tough questions.
Karen S – the War on Women stated with Hillary Clinton.
This reminds of that DNA heritage ad on TV. Where the guy thought he was German, but then found out he was Scottish and started wearing a kilt.
Then there was the PBS show on finding your roots and baseball with the NY Yankees from out who is grandfather was. He was born from a slave owner and a slave in the North USA not the South USA.
A woman in Florida was told by her grandmother that she from a line of Seminole Tribe of Florida. But the test came back with a zero possible chance of Native American. For 62 years she believed her grandmother. Was it her fault for believing what she was told by granny?
What about those who were captured in the 19 Century and made part of the tribe? There children were part Indian.
In my own family my grandfather was an American Native of the Creek tribe. He was also the Mayor of Jasper, Alabama in his late years.
He married outside the tribe and had 14 children.
But you look at the birth records and it says under race WHITE. Mixed race registry was not allowed back then.
So, give her a DNA test and review why she believes she is a Native American. She may not be, but was told as a child she was.
A man was brought by a white family and he did not know he was black for a long time. He was blind.