New York City Democrat mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani claimed he was Asian and Black when applying to Columbia University as a high school senior, The New York Times reported.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, was born in Uganda and identifies as a Muslim immigrant of South Asian descent. His parents are Indian Ugandan and Indian American.
However, Columbia data showed Mamdani checked boxes for "Asian" and "Black or African American" on a 2009 application, the Times reported Thursday.
Mamdani's application came at a time when Columbia used a race-conscious affirmative action admissions program.
Claiming he was Black or African American in addition to Asian could have given Mamdani an advantage among students vying to attend the Ivy League school.
Mayor Eric Adams, who has launched a reelection campaign as an independent, called Mamdani's actions "an insult to every student who got into college the right way."
"The African American identity is not a check-box of convenience," he said in a statement, the Times reported. "It's a history, a struggle and a lived experience. For someone to exploit that for personal gain is deeply offensive."
Mamdani, who has spent his earliest years in Uganda, told the Times he considers himself "an American who was born in Africa" and neither Black or African American.
"Most college applications don't have a box for Indian-Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background," said Mamdani, insisting his form choices were an attempt to represent his complex background.
Mamdani wrote "Ugandan" in an application section allowing for "more specific information where relevant."
"Even though these boxes are constraining, I wanted my college application to reflect who I was," he added to the Times.
Now a New York assemblyman, Mamdani was not accepted at Columbia. He attended Bowdoin College in Maine, where he majored in Africana studies.
Mamdani and his socialist policies have been thrust into the national political spotlight by his victory in the Democratic Party's ranked-choice primary election.
Free city bus rides, free child care, city-owned grocery stores, and a rent freeze for all stabilized tenants are among Mamdani's campaign promises.
"As the first South Asian elected official, the first Muslim elected official to ever run for mayor, the turnout in those same communities has been incredible to see," Mamdani told NPR.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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