Overview

• The New York Times revealed internal Columbia University records obtained via a data hack showing Mamdani selected both “Asian” and “Black or African American” and wrote in “Ugandan” on his 2009 application.
• Mamdani says he used multiple boxes to reflect his Indian-Ugandan heritage and insists he does not identify as African American but as an American born in Africa.
• Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo have called for a formal fraud investigation and urged Columbia to release Mamdani’s full admissions file.
• Critics warn his race designation may have exploited affirmative-action criteria, sparking debate over the ethics of racial self-identification and the use of hacked data.
• The dispute threatens Mamdani’s support among Black voters and adds scrutiny to his mayoral bid as he heads into the November general election.