NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani recognized as Black on Columbia software

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Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Metropolis, recognized as "Black or African American" on his 2009 Columbia College software regardless that he now says he doesn't take into account himself Black, The New York Times reported Thursday.

In keeping with The Instances, the interior information got here from a leaked database of previous Columbia functions which was a part of a current hack concentrating on the Ivy League school.

Mamdani, then a highschool senior, additionally checked "Asian" and reportedly wrote in "Ugandan" within the area for extra background. He was finally not accepted to Columbia regardless that his father is a professor on the elite college.

Now 33, Mamdani advised The Instances he identifies as "an American who was born in Africa," and mentioned checking a number of packing containers was an effort to replicate his "complicated background," to not acquire an edge within the aggressive admissions course of.

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College students are seen on the campus of Columbia College on April 14, 2025, in New York Metropolis. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP through Getty Photographs)

However on the time, Columbia, like many elite universities, used race-conscious admissions, a system the Supreme Court docket struck down in 2023.

"Regardless that these packing containers are constraining," Mamdani mentioned, "I needed my faculty software to replicate who I used to be."

Mamdani advised The Instances that other than these faculty kinds, he doesn’t recall ever figuring out as Black or African American.

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New York mayoral candidate, State Rep. Zohran Mamdani speaks to supporters throughout an election evening gathering. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photographs)

His dad and mom are each of Indian descent. His father, Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani, has lived in East Africa for generations, however Mamdani mentioned there had been no intermarriage within the household with native African teams.

Mamdani has leaned into his South Asian and Muslim id on the marketing campaign path. Throughout a June speech at Al Sharpton’s Nationwide Motion Community, he additionally confused his African roots: "I used to be born in Kampala, Uganda... I used to be given my center title, Kwame, by my father, who named me after the primary Prime Minister of Ghana."

President Donald Trump introduced up Mamdani at a rally Wednesday, saying if he interferes with immigration legal guidelines "we’ll should arrest him."

Zohran Mamdani, New York Metropolis mayoral candidate, throughout a marketing campaign occasion on the NAN Home of Justice within the Harlem neighborhood of New York, on Saturday, June 28, 2025. (Adam Grey/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs)

"Look, we don’t want a communist on this nation, but when we have now one, I’m going to be watching over them very fastidiously on behalf of the nation," Trump added.

Mamdani, a self-identified democratic socialist , dismissed the remarks, accusing Trump of "an try and ship a message to each New Yorker who refuses to cover within the shadows: for those who communicate up, they are going to come for you. We won't settle for this intimidation."