Warren contributed to a Native American recipe book called — I kid you not — “Pow Wow Chow.” She has told people that her parents eloped because her father’s parents said he couldn’t marry her mother “because she is part Cherokee and part Delaware.”

In the progressive academy, misrepresenting your heritage is no small thing. In the early 1990s, Harvard was under immense pressure to diversify its faculty. I know. I was there. I remember the sit-ins, the demonstrations, and the tension that pervaded campus. I remember Warren when she came to campus as a visiting professor.

The best comparison to Warren’s misrepresentations — especially in the identity-obsessed academic environment — is to a politician misrepresenting his military experience. She’s the Richard Blumenthal of intersectionality, who for years embellished his service record on the campaign trail to imply that he had served in Vietnam. Conservatives have been right to criticize her for her own misrepresentations, and multiple media outlets have harshly scrutinized her claims.