Zohran Mamdani's SAT score has been made public, exposing his background to further scrutiny as he faces accusations of lying about his race.
The reporting adds another layer to an affirmative action scandal that could overwhelm his upstart campaign to be mayor of New York.
The Ugandan-born radical received a 2140 out of 2400 on the standardized test, which was below the median for Columbia University students at the time when he applied for admission, according to journalist Christopher Rufo. The bombshell is sure to raise questions about whether Mamdani tried to compensate for a below-average application when he ticked the box for "African American."
"African American" was popularized by black civil rights leader Jesse Jackson in the 1980s, and the term is widely understood to describe black people descended from former slaves.
Mamdani was born in Uganda, a country in East Africa, but has Indian heritage on both sides of his family. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a professor at Columbia.
The New York Times reported that Zohran Mamdani identified as "African American" when he applied to the school. Although he was rejected by Columbia in the end, his critics say he created a false impression about his race to score points with university admissions.
The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in 2023, but it was widely practiced in 2009 when Mamdani applied to Columbia. At the time, the median Columbia student scored between 2110 and 2300 on the Math, Critical Reading and Writing sections of the SAT.
Mamdani's score of 2140 was on the low end for Columbia and likely above the median for black students, according to Christopher Rufo.
Mamdani's history is coming under a microscope after he won the Democratic primary in New York's mayoral election.
New York mayor Eric Adams, a black Democrat who is seeking re-election as an independent, has accused Mamdani of exploiting African-Americans' painful history for personal gain.
“The African American identity is not a checkbox of convenience. It’s a history, a struggle and a lived experience. For someone to exploit that for personal gain is deeply offensive,” Adams said last week.
Mamdani has responded to his critics with word games, insisting he is “an American who was born in Africa," and also suggesting his identity is just too complex to be labeled.
"Even though these boxes are constraining," Mamdani said, "I wanted my college application to reflect who I was."
In addition to checking the "African American" box, Mamdani specified "Ugandan" on the application and also signified he has "Asian" heritage.
