When I first saw the headline, I assumed that it had to be from Brietbart or one of the other untrustworthy conservative news sources that I will no longer peruse. But it was the New York Times that yesterday evening ran a story headline,“Mamdani Identified as Asian and African American on College Application.” The piece tells us, as a high school senior in 2009, Mamdani, the presumptive Democratic candidate for NYC mayor, applied to Columbia University after claiming that he was “Asian” and “Black or African American” on his admission form. The story adds the obvious:
“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.”
One can guess some of the rationalizations for this: he was only a teenager, for example, in 2009 when this occurred. But Democrats have been ruthless about the implications of teenage misconduct, real or imagined, when it suits their purpose, like smearing Justice Kavanaugh in his conformation hearing. They also have refused to criticize a similar lie by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who climbed the ladder of success with the aid of a fake claim that she had Native American upbringing.
The Times got Mamdani to try out another tactic. He told the paper that he did not consider himself either Black or African American, but rather “an American who was born in Africa,” and that his answers on the college application were an attempt to “represent his complex background given the limited choices before him, not to gain an upper hand in the admissions process.”
Sure.
I betting the winner among his options will be the fact that he was not ultimately accepted by Columbia, because most people are suckers for moral luck. That he was not accepted as a result of his cheat in no way mitigates the fact that he cheated. “No harm, no foul,” however, is one of the most easily embraced of all the rationalizations on the list. The mainstream media, I’m sure, will pick its favorite excuse, and run with it for him.
It may be cruel of me to mention, but both Mamdani’s religion (Islam) and his political ideology (Marxism) endorse lying as a tactic when the pbjective is to prevail over the enemy, be it non-Muslims or capitalists.
Ethics Alarms 
“It may be cruel of me to mention, but both Mamdani’s religion (Islam) and his political ideology (Marxism) endorse lying as a tactic when the pbjective (sic) is to prevail over the enemy, be it non-Muslims or capitalists.”
Or, heavens to Betsy, honest and accurate….
Rachel Dolezal, Ward Churchill, Hilaria Baldwin, Elizabeth Warren, ,Kay Leclaire, et al; what do these Ethnicity Thieves all have in common?
Sheesh, what is it with these Lefties; is it all about unethically advancing their prospects or are they motivated by some perverse, overpowering sense of self-loathing?
PWS
The left and right view the world very differently, we value things differently.
The right tends towards valuing what you do, if asked to introduce themselves and say a little bit about them, they’ll usually start with things like family status, vocation, military service, educational attainment, or hobbies. And those things tend to be brags, they want people to see how well off they are, how good they’ve done. The left tends towards valuing who you are, if asked the same question, they’ll often mention things like skin color, gender, sexual identity, or family history. And those things tend to be a very different kind of brag, but a brag nonetheless, they want people to know how bad they have it.
There’s crossover there, particularly if there’s something interesting or relevant to say, but I’d bet that the average right leaning person probably doesn’t introduce themself as a straight white man. Or a gay black woman. Or or or. And I’d bet that the average left leaning person has said some variation on that theme. On the right, sometimes they will mention a who-you-are statement, to tell a story about overcoming. On the left, sometimes they will mention family status, vocation, educational attainment, or hobbies, but to tell a story about struggle. And that’s Because where the right generally values success, the left tends to focus on disenfranchisement, and if you want attention from a left of center audience, it seems like there’s this perverse incentive structure where you race to the bottom of the social totem pole to decide who gets attention.
For the left, lying about your race or sexuality is kind of like lying about your job or education on the right… But it’s harder to lie about your job or education, but even those infractions would be seen as less serious. If someone is lying about being happily married, or being successful, that’s generally more sad than malicious. The one thing the right really seems to find disgusting is stolen valor. Probably because there’s a certain amount of social credit ascribed to vets. The left has a parallel, and almost treats lying about being a disenfranchisement story like the right treats stolen valor. Probably for the same reason: The left attaches social credit to disenfranchisement, and treat someone lying about their status as steal that credit.
But that only goes so far. The King’s pass is real on the left. Rachel Dolezal was basically a nobody… She’d worked with the NAACP for years, but she didn’t have a whole lot of recognition, and so it was relatively safe to eject her. Shaun King was a little more recognizable, and his story was a little less obvious, so he’s been able to survive, but much diminished. Elizabeth Warren was, and is still, a senator, and will remain one for as long as she wants… But she’ll never get on a presidential ticket again.
On the right…. I don’t know… Lying about service would probably get someone disqualified, but Trump seems really scandal resistant, and it’s hard to picture him trying to lie about service, with how poorly he seems to view service. It’s also really hard to fake service, because the records are there. Anyone got an example? I can’t find one this side of 2010.
Well put, HT; the perspective makes sense.
Curious; the 77 Square Miles Surrounded By A Sea Of Reality‘s own Kay LeClaire and her elaborate ruse make the news up your way?
PWS
Not really, Although, to be fair, I wasn’t familiar with the work either.
And I suppose to be fair, I should have also mentioned the financial benefit of stolen melanin. There was a recent example up here; Nadya and Amira Gill, twins born in 1998. Their Ethnically East-Indian mother (from Tanzania) posed them as Inuit to reap economic benefits like scholarships, and between the two they took in about $150,000 earmarked for indigenous support. They were finally found out in the early 2020’s and the fraud cases are still in play.
The more famous example is probably Buffy Sainte-Marie, who built an entire lifetime of a career out of a fake identity.
Say it ain’t so, Buffy! I did not know that.
It’s a fascinating story. At this point everyone basically understands that she lied about her heritage for a very long time, but the King’s Pass was so strong that the people she appropriated were clamoring to claim her, and she’s been adopted into a couple of different tribes.
“Sainte-Marie has claimed that she was born on the Piapot 75 reserve in the Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan, Canada, to Cree parents. She has also claimed that, at the age of two or three, she was taken from her parents as part of the Sixties Scoop—a government policy, started in 1951, by which Indigenous children were taken from their families, communities, and cultures for placement with families that were not of First Nations heritage.”
[…]
“As part of their reporting, CBC also published Sainte-Marie’s official birth certificate. It indicates that she was born in Stoneham, Massachusetts, to her white parents, Albert and Winifred Santamaria.”
And often, when we have these discussions around stolen Melanin, we look at cases like Elizabeth Warren, where an application had a box checked, and we can say things like “theorectically, she may have taken a spot from an actual disenfranchised minority, who might have otherwise got this spot.” Well… In the case of Sainte-Marie, she absolutely won awards for things like “Indigenous Music Album of the Year” at the Juno’s in 2018…. Imagine what winning a Juno would have done for someone else’s career (I’m not sure how sarcastically I’m writing that, but it is what it is.)
As it stands, five of her nine music awards have been revoked as was her induction to the Order of Canada.
The issue of Asian (Indian) parents born in Uganda. If being birthed in America makes you a citizen, does not being birthed in Ugnada make you a Ugandan citizen.
The NYers who vote ths guy into Gracie mansion, will rue the day thier government takes over the meansof production, the grocery stores, and the public transportation.
No. Being born in Uganda does not make you a Ugandan citizen. Nearly all of the nations that offer unrestricted birthright citizenship are in the Americas. In Africa, only Tanzania and Chad offer it; six additional nations in Africa offer restricted birthright citizenship. Uganda offers neither. See: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-with-birthright-citizenship
As for New York City, the city already owns and operates public transportation. And that system is known for [sarcasm] offering safe, clean, pleasant and enjoyable ridership experience. So what’s to worry? {/sarcasm]
According to the NYT article, he is a Ugandan citizen. “Both his parents are of Indian descent, but his father’s family came to East Africa more than 100 years ago, Mr. Mamdani said.” … “He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2018 and is now a dual citizen of the United States and Uganda.”
Counterpoint:
he doesn’t have to spin out of this at all because it won’t be covered by anyone the average NYC voter pays attention to.
(I know…)
Actually, I think a fair number of NYC voters pay attention to the New York Times, which had a story about this today.
They will talk about it as soon as Trump says he is not sure if he is black or Indian.
-Jut
Great…another Birther issue the media will liken to Obama’s birth certificate in order to shut down discussion as xenophobia and racism.
Ironically, I think he is entitled to be called an “African American.” He’s an American with substantial connections to Africa. I could probably call myself “Irish American” given all my great grandparents on my mother’s side were born in Ireland. Elon Musk could probably call himself “African American” as he’s from South Africa. Again, ironically, “African American” doesn’t have to mean a black person descended from black people who were slaves in the United States prior to the Civil War.
In any event, this story will have a useful life of about thirty-six hours.