New information explains why the Marxist Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani claimed to be black on his college application despite insisting that he was a South Asian Muslim on his campaign trail.
Mamdani’s college application was leaked by a sophisticated politically motivated hacktivist who breached Columbia University systems and stole 1.6 terabytes of student data, including immigration records and application decisions.
The hacker said that he intended to verify whether the Ivy League institution was violating the July 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which declared race-based college admissions illegal. In March 2025, a hacker had also breached New York University and alleged that the illegal practice was still ongoing.
Meanwhile, the leaked data showed that Mamdani had checked both the “Asian” and “Black or African American” checkboxes during the application. According to the Times, Mamdani likely claimed Black heritage to benefit from race-based affirmative action.
“Columbia, like many elite universities, used a race-conscious affirmative action admissions program at the time,” the Times wrote. “Reporting that his race was Black or African American in addition to Asian could have given an advantage to Mr. Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and spent his earliest years there.”
However, Christopher Rufo notes that Mamdani had a more serious problem that would have derailed his college application. According to the conservative activist, Mamdani’s SAT scores were below the median score for admission at the Ivy League institution, which accepts only about 10% of the applications.
“I have obtained Mamdani’s full Columbia application, which might help unravel this mystery,” Rufo stated on his website. “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.”
Additionally, Mamdani’s scores were likely well below the median of Asian students but slightly above those of Black applicants. Asian students also face the most discrimination under affirmative action due to their impressive scores and the high probability of their applications being successful.
“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 explained.
However, Mamdani claimed he checked both Asian and Black checkboxes because he was born in Uganda and had Asian parents.
Rufo noted that his father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a faculty member at Columbia University, suggesting that he knew exactly what he was doing. Fortunately, the elite university rejected his application, thus dodging a major college application scandal.
According to Rufo, “there is a possibility that Mamdani’s box-checking gambit backfired” because the University likely learned of his background, as it collects the parents’ names and contact information during the application process. The application also flagged affiliations with Columbia University, and Mamdani’s address was in an affluent neighborhood.
This is hardly the first time liberal elites have lied about their race to portray themselves as victims and benefit from affirmative action.
Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren identified herself as “American Indian” on bar and job applications despite having no known indigenous roots. She was even listed as a minority at Penn and Harvard. Fact-checkers claim her minority identity did not benefit her career.
Meanwhile, the left is outraged that the far-left outlet outed Mamdani. Some radical left Reddit groups even banned the outlet for publishing the story.
Similarly, legal and political analyst Jonathan Turley also claims the Times faced internal backlash from its staff for publishing the damaging piece. However, the publication pushed back by stating that Mamdani had openly acknowledged identifying himself as Black on college application forms.
Why not White? I thought Whitey had all the privilege. (I know if he showed up in the Uganda they’d say he was as white as the driven snow.)
I’d bet this guy (despicable as he is) has DNA that shows him as closer to being black than Elizabeth Warren’s shows her to being native american. Typical liberal – say whatever you think serves you best in the short term.
‘Now he says it was because he’s “African-American” since he was born in Uganda.
One problem: he wasn’t even a U.S. citizen at the time.
Either way, it’s fraud.’
This could be a great way to lay the groundwork for his DEPORTATION
He’s trying to go the way of Obama and fake his college records as way to get to higher offices.