Now that we have a new thread, in order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a complete and thorough read before posting!
NOTE: When providing a source, please provide a very brief summary on what it's about and what purpose it adds to the discussion. The supporting statement should clearly explain why the subject is relevant and needs to be discussed. Please follow this rule especially for tweets.
Your supporting statement should always come BEFORE you provide the source.
On July 06 2025 15:30 Gorsameth wrote: Man born in Africa living in America considers himself African-American, the audacity!
He actually doesn't consider himself one! he knows it doesn't literally mean "American born in Africa". In the same NYT article that wrote the story:
But as a high school senior in 2009, Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, claimed another label when he applied to Columbia University. Asked to identify his race, he checked a box that he was “Asian” but also “Black or African American,” according to internal data derived from a hack of Columbia University that was shared with The New York Times. Columbia, like many elite universities, used a race-conscious affirmative action admissions program at the time. Reporting that his race was Black or African American in addition to Asian could have given an advantage to Mr. Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and spent his earliest years there. In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Mamdani, 33, said he did not consider himself either Black or African American, but rather “an American who was born in Africa.” He said his answers on the college application were an attempt to represent his complex background given the limited choices before him, not to gain an upper hand in the admissions process. (He was not accepted at Columbia.) “Most college applications don’t have a box for Indian-Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background,” said Mr. Mamdani, a state lawmaker from Queens. The application allowed students to provide “more specific information where relevant,” and Mr. Mamdani said that he wrote in, “Ugandan.” “Even though these boxes are constraining, I wanted my college application to reflect who I was,” he added.
going to have to try again. And tell me why Elon doesn't count, cause I'm pretty sure he was raked over the coals mercilessly here and elsewhere for even joking about it.
But as a high school senior in 2009, Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, claimed another label when he applied to Columbia University. Asked to identify his race, he checked a box that he was “Asian” but also “Black or African American,” according to internal data derived from a hack of Columbia University that was shared with The New York Times. Columbia, like many elite universities, used a race-conscious affirmative action admissions program at the time. Reporting that his race was Black or African American in addition to Asian could have given an advantage to Mr. Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and spent his earliest years there. In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Mamdani, 33, said he did not consider himself either Black or African American, but rather “an American who was born in Africa.” He said his answers on the college application were an attempt to represent his complex background given the limited choices before him, not to gain an upper hand in the admissions process. (He was not accepted at Columbia.) “Most college applications don’t have a box for Indian-Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background,” said Mr. Mamdani, a state lawmaker from Queens. The application allowed students to provide “more specific information where relevant,” and Mr. Mamdani said that he wrote in, “Ugandan.” “Even though these boxes are constraining, I wanted my college application to reflect who I was,” he added.
going to have to try again. And tell me why Elon doesn't count, cause I'm pretty sure he was raked over the coals mercilessly here and elsewhere for even joking about it.
I mean, I wasn't going to tick the "white American" box when I applied.
When none of the boxes really describe you, you do the best you can with what's there.
Elon isn't African American. The phrase does not mean American born in Africa.
I don't give a shit about mamdani doing this cause in the current American political climate he can be guilty of this and still be in the top 1% of most ethical candidates but it is also wrong to do it.
On July 06 2025 11:18 Sermokala wrote: Bj under the impression that the only people who live in Africa are blackskinned is on brand.
Being envious of another groups given advantages while never agnowedging their disadvantages from society is also on brand.
That last paragraph is related to the point. What disadvantage did he have? when his claim of being black is that he was born in Uganda but barely lived there and had two well to do parents who moved to the US? We know what the point of the box checking is for, as you said, it's about "disadvantages". Which ones did he face? That's the point. Only the most extremely dishonest person would pretend that they wouldn't be offended if he wasn't the political belle atm.
Why is it offensive for someone from Africa who moved to America to include "African-American" as part of their identity? Because he's not poor too?
Let's not play dumb, we know why this would considered no good if someone else did it. He checked the boxes "Asian" and "Black or African American". But I guess we can pretend he did it because he's a stickler for biographical accuracy based on what his birth certificate says. I guess we should also start referring to Elon as an African-American. "Well he was born in Uganda" is the thinnest of gruels.
And re the point about "doing pretty well" I don't think so. He's been criticized for lots, this is just another thing, and it's thing that strikes at something normally the identity left would care about. You wonder if his dad who is a professor at that school in "the study of colonialism, anti-colonialism and decolonisation" would find something distasteful about it. Probably asking for too much.
Or I guess I should check the box for “Native American” since I was born here so I must be native to America.
There’s no mistaking what African American means. Suddenly insisting that non-black people count as African American as long as they were born in Africa displays either willful ignorance or a dishonest attempt at winning an internet argument.
I almost addressed this preemptively in my post because it was all too predictable that people here would offer this ridiculous point as a counter.
On July 06 2025 14:32 EnDeR_ wrote: Mandami is doing well if all they could find was that he ticked a box that was somewhat relevant to his background.
I ticked the Latin background on my box when I applied to the US for professorial positions. I took that definition to mean literally what it says. I'm whiter than milk.
Agreed. If that is worst the the republican outrage dirt machine can find after declaring him a horrible enemy, he is doing fine.
That is basically a bill as being completely clean.
Elon had parents who were American yes, he wouldn't really count. He could claim to be African American but coming from parents who moved because they loved what was going on in South Africa at the time and got rich from it would distract from his self made narrative.
Muslim people exist in africa, they're also catholics and pre schism christians there as well. It's a massive continent and has experienced massive suffering due to other countries from top to bottom. Are Egyptians and Moroccans not African anymore?
This idea that to qualify for the empathy of being an African you need to be dark skinned is both ignorant and bigoted. Especially as he would have had to grow up in new York after 9/11. I don't know if introvert is aware of it but it was a big deal in that town.
I tell people I'm German as I come from very German stock but because where my ancestors came from is currently Dutch it doesn't make me Dutch now.
It is truly despicable that 18 year old Mamdani, when faced with a form that didn't have a box that applied to him, decided to tick the boxes that he felt somewhat applied to him.
The only reason BJ and Introvert feign outrage over this is because they think it's not ok for not-so-rich non-whites to claim advantages later in life. It's only ok for rich white people to be born with inherent advantages.
As always, the right-wing tactic. Mouse into elephant. Distract from overarching problems/solutions and lazer focus on irrelevant facts.
On July 05 2025 05:08 Magic Powers wrote: I also finally found out that my argument from a few weeks ago about Trump's racism was entirely valid - an argument that BJ immediately rejected: I argued that Mexicans are much easier to deport than people from far away countries, which explains the discrepancies.
BJ argued that Trump's anti-Mexican rhetoric was actually not driven by racism, and he based this on the fact that people from, say, Africa were being deported at a lower rate. However, BJ was wrong to dismiss my explanation for this phenomenon, and here's confirmation:
This enforcement record comes against the backdrop of an unprecedented scale and demographic shifts in migrant arrivals, as more are arriving as families and coming from all parts of the world. In FY 2023, more than half of U.S.-Mexico border encounters were of people from countries other than Mexico and northern Central America, up from just 3 percent in FY 2010 and 12 percent in FY 2020. For legal and logistical reasons, it is harder to deport families and nationals of far-flung countries than single adults from Mexico or northern Central America.
So yes, racism does in fact play a key factor in Trump's deportation policy, and no, deportation rates by country are not evidence to the contrary. Thank you for listening to my ted talk.
"Close" and "didn't come with a family" are not races. If you deport people who are close, because they are close, it doesn't make you racist against close people. Your source is pretty clear why people from those countries get deported more and have been getting deported more for 3 decades, which cannot be due to Blumpf's racism.
On July 05 2025 05:08 Magic Powers wrote: I also finally found out that my argument from a few weeks ago about Trump's racism was entirely valid - an argument that BJ immediately rejected: I argued that Mexicans are much easier to deport than people from far away countries, which explains the discrepancies.
BJ argued that Trump's anti-Mexican rhetoric was actually not driven by racism, and he based this on the fact that people from, say, Africa were being deported at a lower rate. However, BJ was wrong to dismiss my explanation for this phenomenon, and here's confirmation:
This enforcement record comes against the backdrop of an unprecedented scale and demographic shifts in migrant arrivals, as more are arriving as families and coming from all parts of the world. In FY 2023, more than half of U.S.-Mexico border encounters were of people from countries other than Mexico and northern Central America, up from just 3 percent in FY 2010 and 12 percent in FY 2020. For legal and logistical reasons, it is harder to deport families and nationals of far-flung countries than single adults from Mexico or northern Central America.
So yes, racism does in fact play a key factor in Trump's deportation policy, and no, deportation rates by country are not evidence to the contrary. Thank you for listening to my ted talk.
"Close" and "didn't come with a family" are not races. If you deport people who are close, because they are close, it doesn't make you racist against close people. Your source is pretty clear why people from those countries get deported more and have been getting deported more for 3 decades, which cannot be due to Blumpf's racism.
The point went way over your head, congratulations.
It's absolutely fascinating how the pseudo intellectual right winger / contrarians here came to bring this incredibly inane gotcha point here as if it's something horribly damaging or problematic.
Introvert goes away for pages upon pages of insane Trump shit and despite being a big defender of him never writes anything down and then comes to post this, I guess the marching orders to push this one hard have came in. Sad is the life of a fascist bootlicker.
On the other hand, it's pretty good news that this is what they think will damage the guy, and it's even better news that they are so up at arms about him, the guy is truly a breath of fresh air to air out at least a bit of this heavy fascist stink surrounding the USA.
On July 06 2025 16:33 EnDeR_ wrote: It is truly despicable that 18 year old Mamdani, when faced with a form that didn't have a box that applied to him, decided to tick the boxes that he felt somewhat applied to him.
Truly, the greatest crime I've ever seen.
Imagine being of Asian descent and from Africa, and then marking "Asian" and "African American". As you said before, the fact that this is all they could find for character assassination is really the best proof how clean Mamdami is.
This is the full republican shit-throwing machine, they are really good at this. And this is what they got?
Edit: Also, any comparison to their dear leader shows the absurd hypocrisy, if anyone still doubted it. But we already knew that, and they know it, and they don't care about hypocrisy, so we really should stop taking their attack serious in any way.
On July 06 2025 16:33 EnDeR_ wrote: It is truly despicable that 18 year old Mamdani, when faced with a form that didn't have a box that applied to him, decided to tick the boxes that he felt somewhat applied to him.
Truly, the greatest crime I've ever seen.
Imagine being of Asian descent and from Africa, and then marking "Asian" and "African American". As you said before, the fact that this is all they could find for character assassination is really the best proof how clean Mamdami is.
This is the full republican shit-throwing machine, they are really good at this. And this is what they got?
Edit: Also, any comparison to their dear leader shows the absurd hypocrisy, if anyone still doubted it. But we already knew that, and they know it, and they don't care about hypocrisy, so we really should stop taking their attack serious in any way.
Exactly. It's about priorities, and all they're doing is revealing their fucked up priorities. We have a racist felon in chief who lies ten times every day and is perhaps also a rapist or an enabler of rapists according to his former temporary bae, and he's about to ruin the American economy for the working and middle class at record speed.
Sounds bad? No, wait! Here's a much bigger problem to worry about! Listen!
One sheet of paper possibly being filled out slightly inaccurately - the world is ending. Trumpists lose their minds.
For the record: Mamdani clearly stated that he in fact does NOT identify as African American or as black. He views himself as an American who was born in Africa. The reason why he checked "African American" and "Asian" is that he "simply felt the other choices on the form didn’t fully address who he is." He went with whatever seemed the least inaccurate, because nothing was accurate. That explains his choices.
But Mamdani correcting the record goes completely unmentioned by Trump's bootlickers. Because a man correcting himself is unfathomable to them. They only know Trump, who never considers correcting himself over anything - because he's literally flawless. He's THEIR flawless convicted felon.
On July 06 2025 15:48 BlackJack wrote: There’s no mistaking what African American means. Suddenly insisting that non-black people count as African American as long as they were born in Africa displays either willful ignorance or a dishonest attempt at winning an internet argument.
Is there really no mistaking it? Because in America it typically refers to the descendants of the slave population. The reason why they’re not Irish American or whatever is because they had their language and religion and culture all stolen from them. They get the generic “African” label because the only thing not taken from them was their skin.
And yet people call Obama African American. He’s not. He’s Kenyan-American/white.
People get extremely confused by this, anyone who looks vaguely black gets labeled African American. For college admission purposes they’re likely looking for descendants of slaves, not just dark skin. But at a certain point it’s hard to assign points to exactly how much privilege someone was born with and how much discrimination they faced. They need a multidimensional grid, not just asking if he’s African American or white. And if that grid existed then brown child of refugees fleeing Idi Amin’s genocide would probably be worth something.
Honest question, how black do you have to be to be able to tick the African-American box? Or the inverse, how white do you have to be to tick the white American box?
My friend who has a part philipino mom and looks vaguely mexican to me considers herself to be fully white and even exhibits clear white guilt. I could never figure this out.
On July 06 2025 11:18 Sermokala wrote: Bj under the impression that the only people who live in Africa are blackskinned is on brand.
Being envious of another groups given advantages while never agnowedging their disadvantages from society is also on brand.
That last paragraph is related to the point. What disadvantage did he have? when his claim of being black is that he was born in Uganda but barely lived there and had two well to do parents who moved to the US? We know what the point of the box checking is for, as you said, it's about "disadvantages". Which ones did he face? That's the point. Only the most extremely dishonest person would pretend that they wouldn't be offended if he wasn't the political belle atm.
You're right of course, it's an outrage. Marking a box for claiming African heritage when he was born in Africa, but not of African parents. An absolute scandal. Infinitely worse than claiming to have bone spurs to dodge the draft.
Let me remind every American what thing is currently happening.
You know the thing? You specifically will be fucked up by this thing. What thing?
The big beautiful bill.
That's the reason why they're fabricating fake outrage about Mamdani's background. They're trying to distract Americans so they'll forget about this bill that Trump's administration is attempting to stealthily shove under the rug. They want nobody in America to notice who's about to fuck them.
On July 06 2025 11:18 Sermokala wrote: Bj under the impression that the only people who live in Africa are blackskinned is on brand.
Being envious of another groups given advantages while never agnowedging their disadvantages from society is also on brand.
That last paragraph is related to the point. What disadvantage did he have? when his claim of being black is that he was born in Uganda but barely lived there and had two well to do parents who moved to the US? We know what the point of the box checking is for, as you said, it's about "disadvantages". Which ones did he face? That's the point. Only the most extremely dishonest person would pretend that they wouldn't be offended if he wasn't the political belle atm.
Why is it offensive for someone from Africa who moved to America to include "African-American" as part of their identity? Because he's not poor too?
Let's not play dumb, we know why this would considered no good if someone else did it. He checked the boxes "Asian" and "Black or African American". But I guess we can pretend he did it because he's a stickler for biographical accuracy based on what his birth certificate says. I guess we should also start referring to Elon as an African-American. "Well he was born in Uganda" is the thinnest of gruels.
And re the point about "doing pretty well" I don't think so. He's been criticized for lots, this is just another thing, and it's thing that strikes at something normally the identity left would care about. You wonder if his dad who is a professor at that school in "the study of colonialism, anti-colonialism and decolonisation" would find something distasteful about it. Probably asking for too much.
Please don't project faux racist outrage onto other people. This is such a ridiculous thing to be upset about, given how one's demographics can compromise heritage, nationality, birthplace, and more, even if they don't all have equal impact and influence.
This is just to distract from the fact that he has a progressive political vision and seems to be a generally good, positive human being. I'm going to stop being baited by this nonsensical, discriminatory topic now, as we're likely about one or two more cycles of posts away from BlackJack full-on bringing this home to his favorite three-letter acronym. We all know he wants to go there, and that's probably why he mentioned this in the first place.
On July 06 2025 18:26 EnDeR_ wrote: Honest question, how black do you have to be to be able to tick the African-American box? Or the inverse, how white do you have to be to tick the white American box?
My friend who has a part philipino mom and looks vaguely mexican to me considers herself to be fully white and even exhibits clear white guilt. I could never figure this out.
I believe Harvards lawyers argued in front of SCOTUS that it’s based on self-identification and it counts even if you had a great-great-great… grandparent that was of another race. One drop is good enough. We’ve all descended from Africa so I guess anyone attending Harvard could be African American.
On July 06 2025 16:33 EnDeR_ wrote: It is truly despicable that 18 year old Mamdani, when faced with a form that didn't have a box that applied to him, decided to tick the boxes that he felt somewhat applied to him.
Truly, the greatest crime I've ever seen.
I’m pretty sure there is an “other” box as well so everyone has at least 1 box that applies to them.
EPT
