Adams and Cuomo rip Mamdani for identifying as African American on college application

[summer_in_TX]

11. I can see why many are calling the NYT latest "bombshell" about Mamdani a hit piece.

Mamdani Once Claimed to Be Asian and African American. Should It Matter? - The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/nyregion/mamdani-college-black-reaction.html

The data itself came from a hacked college admissions archive, leaked over a decade ago. The source goes by Cremieux Recueil online, and is followed by Elon Musk who has retweeted his posts on X. He wrote and article titled "Elites are genetically different" for a pro-eugenics Substack outlet named Aporia.

He has a history of opposing race-based admissions, and apparently believes that Mamdani was trying to get a seat set aside for an African-American through a quota. Mamdani was not admitted to Columbia, even though his father is a professor there.

A Guardian investigation points to his identity being Jordan Lasker, a grad student whose writings are about "race science" and is a pro-natalist. He spoke at a pro-natalist conference at the University of Texas under his Cremieux alias in March. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/03/natal-conference-austin-texas-eugenics

It is certainly ODD that the New York Times did not provide that information to readers in their article on Zohran Mamdani and his checking boxes including South Asian and African-American both, and writing Uganda beside the latter as a 17-year-old applying for colleges. Here's all they said about the source:

Mr. Mamdani’s answers on the Columbia application were included in data obtained through an internal data hack of Columbia University that was shared with The Times, and then confirmed by Mr. Mamdani. The cyberattack was apparently carried out by an opponent of affirmative action, who was attempting to determine if Columbia was still using race-conscious policies after the Supreme Court effectively banned the practice in 2023.

Looking at the article, it strikes me how many times NYT quotes people framing that as negative.

• "two [rivals] suggesting potential fraud and calling for further investigation.:
• "Right-wing pundits call Mr. Mamdani a liar"
• "a spokesman for the Adams campaign, said that Mr. Mamdani had “misrepresented his racial identity to gain admission to Columbia University,” adding: “This is not just dishonest — it’s possibly fraudulent. It may have taken a place away from a qualified African American applicant and misused a process designed to correct real, systemic inequities.”
•"Mr. Cuomo’s campaign said that Mr. Mamdani’s Columbia application raised questions as to whether he was hiding other information."
• “Mamdani, his proposals, his funding, and his background received absolutely no scrutiny from the press,” said Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo’s campaign. “This issue must be fully investigated, because, if true, it could be fraud and just the tip of the iceberg.”
• [Another candidate running as an independent] asserted "that Mr. Mamdani was “the most poorly vetted candidate in history.”

Although they observed that he didn't claim to be black or African-American anywhere but in those applications, they do not mention that many mixed race people have trouble completing that information on the census.

The New York Times could find no speeches or interviews in which Mr. Mamdani referred to himself as Black or African American, and he said in an interview that applications to Columbia and other colleges were the only instances when he could recall describing himself as such.

Patrick Healy, assistant managing editor for NYT said:

“Mr. Mamdani shared his thinking about the limitations of identity-related boxes on application forms like Columbia’s, and how he wrote in ‘Uganda,’ the country of his birth, to explain why he checked the box — a decision many people with overlapping identities have wrestled with when they have been confronted with such form requests. Mr. Mamdani’s thinking and decision-making were newsworthy and in line with our mission to help readers better know and understand top candidates.”

Kamala Harris's biracial identity was questioned too.

I can attest that there's a escandal being made out of this news story. I saw a LOT of negative comments about it online.