Zohran Mamdani, a New York mayoral candidate, checked both 'Asian' and 'Black or African American' on his Columbia University application in 2009. The admissions data was leaked through a hack. Mamdani confirmed these details, explaining he sought to represent his Indian-Ugandan heritage in a system with limited racial categories. He stated he does not identify as Black or African American. The context of the revelations raised concerns about motivations behind the release and potential challenges to affirmative action.
"Most college applications don't have a box for Indian-Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background."
"Even though these boxes are constraining, I wanted my college application to reflect who I was."
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