When he applied to Columbia U he checked in the race ID boxes that he was “Black/African American” and “Asian” . He was not trying to cheat or get any advantage from this as had been the case with Senator Elizabeth Warren. He just tried to "capture the fullness of his background. (He was born in Uganda to ethnic India parents ) . “I wanted my college application to reflect who I was.”
Mamdani Identified as Asian and African American on College Application - The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/nyregion/mamdani-columbia-black-application.html)The problem of course was not in how he filled out the application. The problem was that the application asked such questions at all.

When affirmative action was instituted it's goals were to end racial discrimination ;not to create diversity quotas . His was not a case of historical discrimination. If anything he is the child of privilege having a dad who is a professor at Columbia U and a mom who is a film maker who was nominated for an Academy Award

He is proof positive that the system is too easy to game . It was never meant to be enshrined permanently .It's very existence violates the concept of equal protection. Time to end it .