On July 3, The New York Times published a report scrutinising a 2009 college application submitted to Columbia University by Zohran Mamdani, the winner of the Democratic party primary for mayor of New York City. The document was leaked by a hacker and showed that in a question about race and ethnicity, the applicant identified as Asian and African American. The source of the information was later revealed to be the eugenicist Jordan Lasker.
Although the journalistic ethics of the article were widely questioned, it was immediately picked up by opponents in an attempt to discredit Mamdani.
Did Mamdani really try to “exploit” an African American identity to get into college, as opponents have claimed?
It’s worth noting that the two boxes he checked did not assist him to get into Columbia, where his father, Professor Mahmood Mamdani, is teaching African studies.
Was he wrong to tick the “African American” box?
There are several issues that should be brought up when considering the answer to this question.
First, Mamdani was born in Uganda to a Ugandan father of Asian origin and an Indian American mother. He lived in Africa for seven years before moving to the United States. He had only a Ugandan passport until he was naturalised as a US citizen in 2018.
On the Columbia University application form, like with many US universities, there is a section for voluntary self-identification of race and ethnicity. It asks if you are Hispanic or Latino (regardless of race) and then lists five other options to select one’s “race”: “American Indian or Alaskan Native”, “Asian”, “Black or African American”, “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander” or “white”. There is a further section for “additional optional information”.
These categories are arbitrary and reductionist and cannot capture the full complexity of identity that many people around the world have, including Mamdani and myself.
As a British Zambian of Asian origin whose family have lived in Zambia for three generations, I feel anxiety and frustration when having to select ethnicity checkboxes. I am regularly interrogated about my identity, which cannot be squeezed into one box on a form, or even two or three.
As Mamdani himself told The New York Times: “Most college applications don’t have a box for Indian Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background.” He also explained that he wrote “Ugandan” in the application, which allowed students to provide “more specific information where relevant”.
The second issue we need to keep in mind is that the history of Asian Africans – and how we fit into African societies – is complex. Between the 1860s and 1890s, the British Empire brought thousands of indentured labourers from its colony in the subcontinent to its colonies in Southern and East Africa.
In the following decades, many other South Asians followed as merchants. And then, as the British partitioned the subcontinent along religious lines in the 1940s, thousands more fled the impending chaos to Africa.
Once on the continent, the Asian population largely occupied a kind of middle position in which they were both victims and agents of colonial racism. In East Africa, many functioned as a subordinate ruling class, employed by the colonial police and administrators as part of a divide-and-rule strategy. In many countries, Asians enjoyed success in business during the colonial period and gained significant control of the economy.
This, alongside a lack of integration, contributed to widespread anti-Asian sentiment in East Africa, seen most prominently by the expulsion of Ugandan Asians by Idi Amin in 1972.
In apartheid South Africa, people of Indian descent, the majority of whom were descendants of indentured labourers forcibly transferred by the British, were also subjected to discrimination. Prominent members of the community, such as Ahmed Kathrada, who was jailed for life in 1964 along with Nelson Mandela, played a key role in the anti-apartheid struggle.
Today, younger generations are still grappling with these complex identities and histories, including Mamdani himself. In his twenties, he was part of a rap duo – Young Cardamon & HAB – with a Ugandan of Nubian descent. They rapped in six languages, including Luganda, Hindi and Nubi, and confronted social issues such as racism and inclusion.
As a mayoral candidate of one of the most diverse cities in the world, Mamdani has much to do to address persistent anti-Blackness among Asian communities. Many Asian Africans, and other Asian communities, have internalised the white supremacy of the colonial era and the belief that being closer to whiteness offers more opportunities and privilege.
Mamdani’s mother, Mira Nair, is the filmmaker behind Mississippi Masala, one of the first films to address this issue more than 30 years ago, with its rare depiction of an interracial relationship between a Black man and Asian African woman in the US. Her son credits this film for his existence: His mother met his father in Uganda at Makerere University while she was conducting research for the film.
The third issue that needs to be considered is that this hacked information seems aimed at discrediting Mamdani, who secured fewer votes in Black neighbourhoods during the mayoral Democratic primary election.
Pitting communities of colour against each other is a classic divide-and-rule tactic and a cornerstone of colonialism used to fracture alliances and weaken resistance. Its remnants can still be seen today in my country, Zambia, in areas that were historically segregated on the basis of colour.
Opponents attempting to frame Mamdani as a mayor solely for South Asians – or worse, playing into and exacerbating Islamophobic sentiment – are weaponising identity to sow division and fear. Such attempts must be resisted, especially now, when the US and much of the world are facing growing authoritarianism, xenophobia and inequality.
New York City is one of the places where I have some feeling of belonging; it thrives and shines in part due to its diversity and the fusion of so many cultures.
In a city made up of countless stories and backgrounds, perhaps having a mayor who understands what it means to navigate multiple identities, and to live at the crossroads of belonging, might offer the kind of perspective that does not weaken leadership, but strengthens it.
The story of New York has always been about reinvention. Whoever becomes mayor has the chance, and the responsibility, to redefine what progress means in one of the most diverse but unequal cities in the country. Whatever happens next, pitting communities of colour against each other serves no one.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
