Democrat Elizabeth Warren is now fundraising over her own failure to prove she is a Cherokee, sending an e-mail to supporters in which she accuses incumbent U.S. Senator Scott Brown (R) of attacking her family and her “heritage.” But what is her heritage? According to the Urban Dictionary, it is “Pretendian.”
Here is the definition of “Pretendian,” as posted in October 2010–long before the present Warren fiasco.
1. pretendian
A wannabe American Indian. Usually exhibited by white people but blacks do it too. Claims to be 1/4th Native American or a lesser percentage, but usually have no definitive proof of it or of what tribe they’re from (unless it’s Cherokee of course). If such ancestry exists, they tend to exaggerate the very small amount that they have after generations of their family neglecting this heritage.
Most annoying thing about these people is the smugness that they claim this lost heritage with. Upon being told by some senile relative or actually finding proof, they suddenly claim to know EVERYTHING about Native Americans and press for tribal membership while buying ambiguous, commodified Indian-themed jewelry and merchandise like dream-catchers. It’s usually the first thing they put on their Myspace biographies, and get miffed when people don’t referred to them as Native American or take them seriously as such (but say that they don’t want people to “judge them for embracing their ancestral roots”). They also spend their time discrediting other white people who display Indian Princess Syndrome or people who actually have accountable Native ancestry.
These people often have no grasp on Native culture and issues, both historical and contemporary. In the end, most people with accountable ancestry don’t whore their heritage in order to look “exotic” and interesting.
Sarah Worthington claims that her great-great-great grandmother was a Cherokee princess while discrediting the heritage of Sarah Red-Deer, who comes from the Pine Ridge Reservation, located in the poorest county in America and is deemed the most dangerous.
Guess which Sarah is the pretendian.
That definition links to another, also dating back before the Warren controversy–“Indian Princess Syndrome“:
1. American Indian Princess syndrome
When blonde and blue eyed white girls look to see if their great great grand mother was part of some native american tribe. Then they go around saying that they are part native, even though they might not even have enough blood line to get a native blood card. They also never took part in their tribes cultural heritage until they found out they were “1/32” native, then becoming obsessive they search and learn as much as they can. Often natives despise them, as they are fake, wanna be white girls that want to be brown, powerful princesses of the earth. Also, they try to take grant and scholarship money that is allocated to the Native American minority population.
That white girl you know who is privileged and burns sage over her textbooks ever new semester. = American Indian Princess syndrome
It sounds like “Pretendian” Elizabeth Warren has a textbook case!
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