Zohran Mamdani said identifying himself as African American would be ‘misleading’ on campaign trail —just months before Columbia bombshell broke
Democratic socialist New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani once admitted that identifying himself as African American would be “misleading” — despite him ticking that as his race on his Columbia University application.
Newly resurfaced video captured the 33-year-old making the acknowledgement as he was sprayed with questions on the campaign trial about his heritage.
“I’m an Indian, Ugandan, New Yorker,” Mamdani told black performance artist, Crackhead Barney, when she approached him on the street in April.
Asked if he would claim African American status, the socialist insisted: “No I would not.”
“I’m proud to be Ugandan but I think that is misleading,” he said.
The clip resurfaced and started spreading on social media soon after the New York Times reported on Thursday that he’d checked both “Asian” and “Black or African American” on his application to the Ivy League university when he was a high school senior in 2009.
Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, told the outlet he doesn’t identify as either race but rather “an American who was born in Africa.”
“Most college applications don’t have a box for Indian-Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background,” the lawmaker said as he defended the move.
He noted that he specified “Ugandan” in a section of the application that allowed for more detailed personal information.
“Even though these boxes are constraining, I wanted my college application to reflect who I was,” he said.
Mamdani insisted he didn’t select the two races to gain an edge in the admissions process — but because of the limited options available on the college application.