Too Much 'White Privilege'? - Another White Woman Caught Faking Minority Heritage
Is being white in America so bad that one needs to hide it? Or could it be that identifying as an ethnic minority is a boon for white people in institutions stacked high with progressives obsessed with race?
Whatever the case, the trend of white women identifying as ethnic minorities is alive and well. They’re either deeply confused, terribly cynical, or both. Rejecting reality in an attempt to further a career or build an ego is pathetic. But what did we expect in a world where a biological man can identify as a woman and gain access to women’s restrooms? If identity is fluid, so is everything else, and there is no truth.
In the latest episode of identity fraud, it turns out that Andrea Smith, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, who has claimed to be of Cherokee ancestry for years, isn’t Native American at all. She’s white, according to PJ Media.
What did Smith have to gain? Maybe she didn’t think she could get into graduate school on her own merits as a white woman and decided to exploit the now-defunct university affirmative action admission policies. Maybe she didn’t think she could get tenure as a white woman. Maybe she bought into all the hype that all white people are evil by way of their skin color and could not bear the shame. Who knows? Crazy people are difficult to figure out.
And, one might ask, where’s the harm? So what if Smith play-acted she was Cherokee? Who did it hurt? Maybe it offends some people who are genuinely Cherokee, but does it really hurt them? The answer is yes. Violating reality hurts everybody. Circumventing truth for perceived personal gain breeds doubt and can lead to a crippling cynicism that questions if anything can be trusted.
If Smith can identify as whatever she desires, so can you. So can I. So can everyone. The problem? The concept of identity no longer holds meaning. If there is no meaning, life is pointless. It’s the nihilist’s dream — whoever can convince the most people their lie is real wins. It’s all about power. Meaning be damned.
According to The Sunday Times, in 1991 Smith wrote an essay that claimed white women wanted to be Native American to “escape responsibility and accountability for white racism.” Is that why Smith did it? To escape responsibility? Was the essay a confession? Did Smith claim to be Cherokee because she couldn’t stand the color of her own skin? Then why didn’t she make a lifelong commitment to fighting racism rather than exploiting race?
Or did she choose to live a lie to bolster her career? Activist Angela Davis once described Smith as “one of the greatest indigenous feminist intellectuals of our time,” according to the Times. So much for false accolades. The reality is that Smith wasn’t even very good at being a fraud.
In 2017, the Daily Beast posted a story, “Meet the Native American Rachel Dolezal.” Rachel Dolezal is a white political activist who claimed to be black for years until she, too, was found out. Sooner or later, reality wins.
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The high-profile case of Elizabeth Warren comes to mind as well. She lost her battle with reality, or did she? Warren claimed to be of Cherokee heritage — just like Smith — but when she took a DNA test to prove it, the test showed she was from 1/64th to 1/1024th Native American. Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and allow the upper range. That makes Warren a solid 1.563 percent Native American. It may as well be 0 percent.
Did Warren claim to be Cherokee to get ahead in a university environment where the trend was to hire women of color in greater numbers to diversify the faculty? If so, then Smith and Warren are birds of a feather, and the scheme begins to make sense. They were just playing the progressive game. Who can blame them for playing the cards they were dealt?
I can.
If people like Smith are allowed to get away with racial ruses such as these, then Macbeth was right, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” If Macbeth is right, there is no God and no truth. Life is meaningless.
By the looks of things, Smith, Warren, and the like aren’t geniuses. They aren’t consummate sophists, like Gorgias of ancient Greece who could convincingly prove a weaker argument to be the stronger. So how do they get away with it?
Warren still holds one of the highest offices in the U.S.
As for Smith, according to PJ Media, she has resigned, “but her resignation looks to be almost as fake as her Cherokee heritage.” Smith will step down from her position in a year, but she’ll be allowed to keep teaching until she retires.
UC Riverside officials stated that Smith “will not be subjected to an investigation, will keep her retirement benefits and will retain the title of professor emeritus.” That’s not all, as “the university will cover up to $5,000 of her legal fees related to the complaint.” Talk about too much white privilege!
That’s not much of a punishment for attempting to corrode the foundation of Western civilization laid down by Plato — the pursuit of truth. How many more frauds are going to be given a pass? If this keeps up, the foundation will crumble from a series of hairline fractures.
Our institutions have become a joke. But I’m not laughing. How long before reality sets things straight?
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
