Black New Yorkers rage over Mamdani's ‘African American' claim: ‘He's a fraud'

New York Post

21 hours ago

Black New York isn't buying it.
A slew of black Big Apple residents fumed Friday over mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani's claim on an Ivy League college application that he is African American — with them raging the socialist pol is a 'fraud' and 'trickster.'
'He's just trying to get over,' an 86-year-old Harlem resident, identifying herself only as Marjorie, said of Mamdani, a socialist of Asian Indian descent.
'You can look at him and see he's not' black, she said. 'Absolutely not.
4 Zohran Mamdani checked off 'African American' as well as 'Asian' on his Columbia University application in 2009, leading to controversy.
AFP via Getty Images
'I don't like him. I didn't like him from the first time I heard him. You can look at him and see he's a trickster,' she said of the pol, who struggled mightily to make inroads among black voters at the Democratic primary-race polls last month, despite his stunning win.
Another longtime local who asked not to be identified seethed, 'He's a fraud.
'He's a foreigner. He ain't no African American,' the man said of Mamdani, who was born in Uganda but became a naturalized US citizen in 2018 and holds dual citizenship between the countries.
A Bronx resident named Joshua added, 'He's a liar. Point-blank, period.
'We don't need a lying mayor or a mayor that says he's black so he can get black people to vote for him.
4 Mamdani told street performer Crackhead Barney in April that it would be 'misleading' to identify himself as African American.
'We black,' he said. 'We ain't stupid.'
Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, had checked off the 'black or African American' and 'Asian' boxes on his 2009 Columbia University application regarding his race, the New York Times reported last week.
The university, where Mamdani's father was and still is a professor, had affirmative-action-friendly admissions policies at the time, which the pol's critics allege he may have been trying to take advantage of. Either way, Mamdani failed to get into the prestigious school.
Mamdani told the Times that while he doesn't consider himself black or African American, he is 'an American who was born in Africa' — and simply felt the other choices on the form didn't fully address who he is.
4 The socialist checked off the questionable box about race in his application to Columbia University.
GHI/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
But when asked by a performance artist on the street in April whether he considers himself African American, he admitted it would be 'misleading' to say so.
A Bronx resident said Mamdani's claim in 2009 was shameful.
'I always knew something was off about him,' said Maria R., 37, to The Post. 'Why are you claiming something that you are not? He could've potentially took away an opportunity for someone else.
'He can look in the mirror and see he's not black,' she said.
Tiffany Francis, a 31-year-old from Brooklyn who moved to Harlem in 2019, agreed that his claim was 'not fair.
'I think people should tell the truth,' Francis said. 'No matter the circumstances, just be truthful. Don't try to persuade or lie to get your way.'
4 Black New Yorkers said Mamdani's 'African American' claim makes him a 'fraudster' and a 'trickster.'
Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Earlier this week, Mayor Eric Adams, who is black, called Mamdani's college-application claim 'deeply offensive.
'The African American identity is not a checkbox of convenience,' the mayor griped of his foe. 'It's a history, a struggle and a lived experience. For someone to exploit that for personal gain is deeply offensive.'
But some black New Yorkers said they have no issue with Mamdani's claim — and even appreciate it.
'I think it's nice that he's from Uganda,' said Temisan Bazunu, 22, a summer intern and Nigerian native. 'I feel like he will be a great mayor if he wins. It's nice to see someone close to your country.
'I don't think he's a liar,' Bazunu said.
Michelle Hart, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, said she understood Mamdani's choice on the application.
'There's always that question when you're filling out paperwork,' Hart said. 'So I can see him identifying as African American because he saw 'African,' where as 'other' connotes to something other than African. So he saw 'African' in 'African-American,' and I think that's OK.'
Mamdani's camp did not respond to a Post request for comment on the controversy Friday.
-Additional reporting by Hannah Fierick