To the disappointment of many liberals, Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was outed by The New York Times last week for claiming to be black on an application to Columbia University.
According to a report published Thursday in the Times, Mamdani checked the boxes for both “Asian” and “Black or African American.”
The bombshell information was discovered within a trove of stolen data released last month. An anonymous hacker was checking to see if the Ivy League school was still using affirmative action in its decision making, despite a Supreme Court ruling that labeled it discriminatory.
The question is: ” With such an elite background, why did Mamdani feel the need to falsely portray himself as black?” It appears a report from Christopher Rufo has some answers. The radical socialist didn’t have high enough SAT scores to make the cut.
“I have obtained Mamdani’s full Columbia application, which might help unravel this mystery,” Rufo wrote on his website Monday. “According to the materials, Mamdani scored a 2140 out of 2400 on the SAT. At the time, this was below the median SAT score for admitted students at Columbia.”
He added, “Given the prevailing distribution by race, well below the median SAT score for Asian students, but likely above the median SAT score for black students — hence, the advantage of marking ‘black.’”
Rufo also pointed out that Mamdani’s father has been a professor at Columbia for years and that it would be absurd to think the mayoral candidate didn’t know exactly what he was doing when he filled out the application.
Another interesting part of the saga is that despite his father working there — and his mother being a known filmmaker — Columbia rejected him anyway. Was the school upset about him stepping over the line, when he checked the box for “black”?
Mamdani’s hypocrisy also begs the question about “cultural appropriation.” He’s trying to help lead a movement that is constantly angered when people use elements of a minority race in their clothing, diet, and everyday activities.
Will Mamdani be the next mayor of NYC?
Why is the left not angered that Mamdani tried to appropriate black culture to get himself into college? Because he is one of theirs. They want him to win.
This isn’t the first time far-left lawmakers have lied about something serious, only to be let off the hook. It’s also not the first instance when the Times was forced to call it out.
Think of Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts claiming to be Native American or Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut saying he fought in Vietnam, when he did not.
With Mamdani, however, the Times’ coverage drew considerable backlash. Not just from readers living in their own eco-chamber, but from the newspaper’s own staff.
Law professor and legal commentator Jonathan Turley wrote about the incident on his website Sunday, detailing the drama that unfolded at the “paper of record.”
“The paper was denounced by its own staff and liberal pundits called for the entire editorial staff to be canned,” Turley wrote. “Why? Because The New York Times actually reported news that was deemed harmful to the Democrats, specifically Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.”
The Times’ assistant managing editor for Standards and Trust, Patrick Healy, wrote a long thread on the social media site X that stated: “When we hear anything of news value, we try to confirm it through direct sources. Mr. Mamdani confirmed this information in an interview with The Times.”
What a mess.
Mamdani has committed a cardinal sin, a famous newspaper held him to account, then the outrage got directed at the NYT. Whatever the outcome of the election, in the end, they all deserve each other.
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