Leaked Docs Reveal Mamdani Claimed African American Status on College Applications
New York City’s Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani declared himself as “African-American” in addition to “Asian” on his application to attend Columbia University, according to leaked documents.
Mamdani, who does not consider himself to be Black, has said he considers himself “an American who was born in Africa,” the New York Times revealed through a university hack shared with the outlet.
Both of Mamdani’s parents are of Indian descent.
Mamdani was born in Uganda but spent only a small portion of his early childhood there.
However, he has leaned into his South Asian ancestry and his Muslim faith.
“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,” he said after defeating disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the primary.
According to the hacked data, Mamdani did consider himself African American for the purpose of his Columbia application, admitting he had done the same on other college applications.
His explanation was that the available selections did not paint a complete picture of his identity.
“Most college applications don’t have a box for Indian-Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background,” he said.
“Even though these boxes are constraining, I wanted my college application to reflect who I was.”
Even the Times appeared to cast doubt on Mamdani’s motivations:
“Columbia, like many elite universities, used a race-conscious affirmative action admissions program at the time. Reporting that his race was Black or African American in addition to Asian could have given an advantage to Mr. Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and spent his earliest years there.”
The Times also pressed Mamdani on whether he had ever identified as African American in any other public context.
“The Times could not find any speeches or interviews in which Mr. Mamdani referred to himself as Black or African American.”
Mamdani said that outside of college applications, he could not recall ever doing so.
READ: Fact-Check Fail: Trump’s Mamdani Warning Now Backed by His Own Words