On November 19, 1493, Christopher
Columbus, on his second voyage to the New World, set foot on what is now Puerto
Rico and claimed it for Spain. At the time of Columbus’s discovery, the
inhabitants of Puerto Rico were Carib Indians, a warrior people rumored to
roast and eat the flesh of their enemies. Undeterred by the reputation of the
natives, Spain proceeded to colonize the island.
Earlier this year, my wife, who was
born in New York City of Puerto Rican immigrants, spit in a vial and sent it
off to have her DNA analyzed. Sure enough, the report came back showing a
preponderance of Iberian (Spanish and Portuguese) ancestry. But it also showed 13%
Native American blood, which we can assume resulted from a mixed marriage some
generations back between a European colonist and a native Carib.
I asked my son David in jest if he thought
he had enough Native American blood to build a casino. It certainly would be
enough, apparently, for him to be admitted as a preferred minority to Harvard
Law School, which boasted of having in Elizabeth Warren its first woman of
color. And she had only .009% Native American blood. So much for Harvard’s commitment
to diversity and its policy of discriminating against Asian applicants.
Warren’s richly-deserved mockery points
to the pitfalls of racial identity and to the bankruptcy of programs designed
to benefit minorities solely on the basis of their race. DNA doesn’t define who
we are as individuals or as Americans. We are a melting pot enriched by the
various strengths and talents of the people who live and work in this land of
opportunity. It doesn’t matter how or when our ancestors came here.
Senator Warren, for her part, has made her own important discovery: nothing
damages a self-absorbed politician more than ridicule. As one wag put it,
Elizabeth Warren, who profited from her claim of being, as Harvard put it, a woman
of color, is in fact whiter than Ivory Soap.
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