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A Farcaster Exclusive
The New York Times’ Dangerous Alliance with Racial Pseudoscience
The New York Times’ recent reporting on Zohran Mamdani’s college application represents a new low. The paper relied on hacked Columbia University data provided by Jordan Lasker, a known proponent of racial pseudoscience who operates under the alias “Crémieux” on social media platforms. The story was co-authored by Benjamin Ryan, a freelance journalist with a documented history of anti-transgender activism. This was a deliberate decision to weaponise discredited racial theories against a political candidate using a network of right-wing media operatives.
The story centres on Mamdani’s 2009 Columbia University application, where he checked both Asian and Black or African American boxes. Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents and has lived in New York City since age 7, explained that he considers himself an American who was born in Africa and that he used the application’s additional text field to write Ugandan. He told the Times: Most college applications don’t have a box for Indian-Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background.
This explanation reflects a complex reality familiar to many in diaspora communities. The expulsion of Indians from Uganda in 1972 by dictator Idi Amin created a generation of displaced people navigating multiple cultural identities.
Mamdani was ultimately rejected by Columbia, where his father was and remains a professor, undermining any suggestion that his ethnic identification provided an advantage.
The story’s framing reflects a profound failure to understand how identity operates in diaspora communities. Mamdani’s approach to the college application, checking multiple boxes to capture the fullness of my background whilst clarifying his Ugandan birth, represents a nuanced understanding of how racial categories fail to encompass complex experiences.
But moving on …
The Times’ decision to publish this story represents multiple editorial failures. First, the paper violated its own standards by using hacked materials for a story lacking clear public interest. Comparing the story of Mamdani’s unsuccessful college application to stories about abuses of military power, or the President’s refusal to reveal potential financial conflicts of interest, seems risible.
Second, the paper granted anonymity to a source whose extreme views and questionable academic credentials should have disqualified him from serious consideration. The Times’ own criteria for anonymity include whether sources have proved reliable in the past, yet Lasker’s co-authors have faced serious accusations of academic misconduct and his research appears in venues that lack peer review.
Third, the paper allowed a racial pseudoscientist to frame a story about ethnic identity, effectively legitimising eugenic theories that the scientific community has thoroughly debunked. Eugenics remains the scientifically erroneous and immoral theory of racial improvement that has persisted in policies and beliefs around the world and continues to cause widespread harm, particularly to populations that are being marginalised.
The story also reveals profound misunderstanding of diaspora identity. Communities that have experienced displacement and migration often navigate complex relationships with national, ethnic, and racial categories.
American journalism faces sufficient challenges without lending credibility to the proponents of racial hierarchy. The Times owes its readers, and the democratic process, a full accounting of how this story came to publication and assurance that such editorial failures will not be repeated. 1 reply
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