Mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani once said it would be “misleading” to identify as African American — despite selecting the category on his Columbia University application, newly resurfaced footage shows.
Democratic socialist and NYC mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani previously admitted that identifying as African American would be “misleading” — despite ticking that box on his Columbia University application in 2009.
A resurfaced video shows Mamdani, 33, saying, “I’m an Indian, Ugandan, New Yorker,” when questioned by performance artist Crackhead Barney during a street interview in April. Asked if he would claim African American status, he replied, “No I would not,” adding, “I’m proud to be Ugandan but I think that is misleading.”
The clip began circulating after a New York Times report revealed Mamdani selected both “Asian” and “Black or African American” on his Ivy League application.
Defending his decision, Mamdani said: “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 insisted he didn’t do it for admissions advantage and had specified “Ugandan” in the application’s detailed section.