Mamdani’s mom boasts: He’s ‘not an American at all’
Controversy erupts for communism-focused candidate in New York’s mayoral race
As if Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy for the job as New York City’s mayor weren’t scandalous enough, a new firestorm has erupted.
It’s because an old interview with his mother has surfaced, and in it she declares he’s “not an American at all.”
A report at Fox said the interview with his mother was when Mamdani was a 21-year-old college student and she specifically used language that is viewed as derogatory to the United States.
“He is a total desi,” Mira Nair, who works as a filmmaker, said in her interview with the Hindustan Times in 2013.
Her son was attending Bowdoin College at the time, and was establishing his radicalization by helping to start the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter there.
“Completely. We are not firangs at all. He is very much us. He is not an Uhmericcan (American) at all. He was born in Uganda, raised between India and America. He is at home in many places. He thinks of himself as a Ugandan and as an Indian,” she charged.
Fox reported, “In Hindi and Urdu, ‘firang’ is an informal term historically used to describe foreigners or Westerners.”
Mehek Cooke, an lawyer born in India who now provides commentary, said the word is a “slur.”
“It’s the word used back in India to mock outsiders, to say you don’t belong,” Cooke explained. “Using it here about your own child raised in the United States carries the same tone as calling someone a derogatory word — or worse. It’s flippant, divisive, and dripping with contempt for the very country that gave your family a better life.”
He added, “When Mamdani’s mother says her son was ‘never a firang and only desi,’ it’s a rejection of America. It’s ungrateful, disrespectful, and frankly repulsive to live in this country since age seven, receive every freedom, education, and opportunity America offers, and still deny being American.”
The report noted Mamdani was born in Uganda, moved to the U.S. when he was 7 and is a dual citizen in the U.S. and Uganda.
Mamdani’s campaign already has stunned people with his advocacy for many communist ideals such as taking control of the means of production, no private property and such.
