'No surprise': Cuomo camp says Zohran Mamdani claiming himself Black in college application 'just the tip of iceberg'

The camp of former Governor Andrew Cuomo doubled down on the NYT exposé that New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani declared himself 'Black' in a Columbia application form, despite having no African blood. Mamdani was not accepted by Columbia but he marked both 'Black or African American" and "Asian" on his 2009 application. He said that he checked both the boxes to capture the fullness of his background, as Indian-Ugandan was not an option.

“This should come as no surprise as Mamdani, his proposals, his funding, and his background received absolutely no scrutiny from the press,” Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said, adding that this could just be the tip of the iceberg.

Mamdani said he does not consider himself as black or African-American but he is proud to be an Ugandan-American of Indian origin. Mamdani's father, Mahmood Mamdani, was born in India to Indian parents and migrated to Uganda, where he was raised. Mamdani's mother Mira Nair was also born in India to Indian parents. Zohran Mamdani was born and lived in Uganda until 7 years of age before they all migrated to New York.

Mamdani told the NYT that he did not choose Black to get any advantage, but he felt that if he did not choose that option, he could not explain his racial makeup.

An earlier video of Mamdani saying that he would never identify as an African-American like Elon Musk as that would be misleading, went viral. But Mamdani supporters said that he maintained his stance even while reacting to the NYT article.

The revelation triggered a major debate over whether Mamdani indulged in fraud by checking a box knowing that he could not claim his race to be African. "Everyone also knows that the purpose of checking a race on a college application is to confer racial preference benefits to underrepresented groups. He is not black. He knows what the box is for and who is supposed to check it. He was trying to get a racial preference consideration despite not belonging to an underrepresented group," one wrote.

Some social media users pointed out that while he checked the African-American box, he was neither an African, nor an American, as he became a US citizen in 2018.