"Only after the nomination was secured did we learn that Mamdani identified as both 'Asian' and 'Black or African American' on his Columbia University application."
If true, that would make him the most prominent transracial figure to gain national prominence since Rachel Dolezal. His father, though light-skinned, is the son of Gujarati Muslims; his mother comes from a Hindu family from Punjab. Yes, both father and son were born in Africa—but that is an accident of empire, not a determinant of race or ethnicity. Being born in Uganda to parents of Indian descent does not make Mamdani black, Black or African American as those terms are conventionally understood even if his middle name is Kwame, which it is.
If Mamdani is to be embraced as black, Black and African American, then the same people who vilified Rachel Dolezal owe her not only an apology but reparations. She, after all, had no Black ancestry and was made a pariah for claiming a racial identity she did not genetically inherit.
For comparison: I was born in Venezuela to Anglo-Irish American parents. That made me a dual national by operation of law—but I would never presume to call myself Latino, nor would I be classified as such for legal or demographic purposes.
"Only after the nomination was secured did we learn that Mamdani identified as both 'Asian' and 'Black or African American' on his Columbia University application."
If true, that would make him the most prominent transracial figure to gain national prominence since Rachel Dolezal. His father, though light-skinned, is the son of Gujarati Muslims; his mother comes from a Hindu family from Punjab. Yes, both father and son were born in Africa—but that is an accident of empire, not a determinant of race or ethnicity. Being born in Uganda to parents of Indian descent does not make Mamdani black, Black or African American as those terms are conventionally understood even if his middle name is Kwame, which it is.
If Mamdani is to be embraced as black, Black and African American, then the same people who vilified Rachel Dolezal owe her not only an apology but reparations. She, after all, had no Black ancestry and was made a pariah for claiming a racial identity she did not genetically inherit.
For comparison: I was born in Venezuela to Anglo-Irish American parents. That made me a dual national by operation of law—but I would never presume to call myself Latino, nor would I be classified as such for legal or demographic purposes.