“Cultural Appropriation”

One of Hollywood’s leading Native American figures is being accused of faking her claims of Cherokee heritage, The Post can reveal.

Award-winning Heather Rae, 56, serves on the Academy of Motion Pictures’ Indigenous Alliance, previously headed up the Sundance Institute’s Native American program and claims “my mother was Indian and my father was a cowboy.” Multiple prior news reports have also cited her as having a Cherokee mother.

Identity politics and affirmative action are encouraging public figures to lie about their ancestry.

‘Pretendians’ must be among the fastest growing cultural groups in Canada. A Pretendian is someone with little or no indigenous background who pretends to be indigenous. The latest to be uncovered is Vianne Timmons, president of Memorial University of Newfoundland. Last week, Timmons was forced to apologise for misrepresenting her background and is now taking a leave of absence.

Memorial University president Vianne Timmons is taking a voluntary, six-week paid leave of absence and is apologizing as the university gathers Indigenous leaders to discuss the issue of her statements of Mi’kmaw heritage.

“While I have shared that I am not Mi’kmaw and I do not claim an Indigenous identity, questions about my intentions in identifying my Indigenous ancestry and whether I have benefited from sharing my understanding of my family’s history have sparked important conversations on and beyond our campus,” Timmons wrote in a statement released Monday morning.

This was an interesting approach a sort of advance plausible denial.

Amazing – it’s a whole industry out there. I had no idea it was so large.

For years, Vianne Timmons claimed on her CV and professional bios that she was a member of an unrecognized Mi’kmaw band. She says it didn’t open any doors for her.

On Feb. 22, 2019, Vianne Timmons walked onto stage holding an eagle feather — gifted by a student — with her newly awarded Indspire trophy resting against her hip.

“I’m sad that I wasn’t raised knowing it but excited that I have the opportunity to learn more and … my father did not have that opportunity.”

The president of Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador says she has always been careful to make the distinction that she has Mi’kmaw heritage but is not Indigenous — despite accepting an honour that Indspire calls one of the most prestigious awards by Indigenous people, for Indigenous people.

No shortage of nominees for the Archie’s this year!

Through more than 15 years of fierce activism, Raquel Saraswati cemented herself as a champion of the oppressed.

A queer, Muslim woman of Arab, Latin and South Asian descent, Saraswati overcame crippling prejudice to become a celebrated voice for marginalized groups – and won a series of plaudits along the way.

Then, last week, the reputation she worked so hard to build came crashing down.

In the 21st-century West, there are far more advantages to being black than being white.

A prominent Muslim activist, called ‘Raquel Saraswati’, has just resigned from her role as a chief equity and inclusion officer, after it was revealed last month that she is ‘as white as the driven snow’.

Raquel Evita Saraswati, the chief equity, inclusion, and culture officer of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker charity, resigned from her position on Monday following revelations that she had misrepresented herself as “Latinx” and Arabic.

Embellishing job applications is a well-honed skill. At the stroke of a pen, two months as an intern becomes four months in a junior position. Being in charge of paper clips is demonstrating leadership. The assistant to the regional manager becomes the assistant regional manager. But no matter how commonplace this exaggeration is, few of us go full Don Draper and make up things about who we actually are.

While the Supreme Court tackles the question of affirmative action in admissions, the perverse incentives have generated another type of perverse outcome. The College Fix reported last week about the wave of “Pretendians,” or what we have called “Fauxcohontas” posturing in the case of Elizabeth Warren. A rise in unsubstantiated claims of Native American ancestry have begun to plague faculties in Academia…

It’s an odd one, most offenders are women lending credence to those who suggest affirmative action/DEI initiatives are virtually built for abuse by the unethical.