What the attacks on Mamdani reveal about us
The status quo isn’t working for the majority of New Yorkers in the same way it isn’t working for the majority of Americans. Shouldn't Democrats rally around someone pledging to fix it?
By Shalise Manza Young
In the 2008 presidential campaign, Republican nominee Sen. John McCain held a town hall in Minnesota. When a woman said the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, was “an Arab,” McCain took the microphone from her and stated without equivocation, “No ma’am. He’s a decent family man citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.”
How very far we are from that day.
Over the 16 years since McCain’s rebuke, it has become clear that while some behaviors—racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia—were frowned upon in polite society (all of which are once again becoming acceptable, but that’s another column for another time), Americans of all backgrounds have no such issues with open Islamophobia.
We’re seeing it now with Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City. He won last month’s primary by a comfortable margin.
Since Mamdani celebrated his win, the torrent of hatred has been breathtaking though unsurprising, particularly from the MAGA set. Their naked bigotry is encouraged by President Donald Trump, who called Mamdani a “Communist Lunatic” on social media and has threatened to have the 33-year-old arrested.
Before Trump, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) wrote a letter to the Justice Department calling Mamdani “little Muhammad” and asking for his deportation. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted a photo of the Statue of Liberty covered in a black burqa and mentioned the possibility of “a Muslim takeover or possibly Sharia law.” Far-right influencer Charlie Kirk indicated that merely by being Muslim, Mamdani could be part of another 9/11-style attack on the city, posting on X, “America’s largest city was attacked by radical Islam 24 years ago, and now a similar form of that pernicious force is poised to capture city hall.”
Disgusting doesn’t seem a strong enough word.
Most recently, the New York Times ran a ridiculous hit piece on Mamdani, using information from a data breach it received from a known white supremacist eugenicist, “reporting” that in 2009 Mamdani checked both the “Asian” and “African American or Black” boxes when he applied to Columbia University—a school he didn’t get into.
For most of us, it’s easy to see how a 17-year-old who was born in Uganda to Indian parents and who spent two years in South Africa before moving to the United States when he was 7 would logically claim those backgrounds. For most of us, we know that heritage can present complications not easily clarified in a couple of boxes on a college application.
All of this follows a familiar pattern of white supremacy: It must be clear where you fall in the American hierarchy, Blacks and Native Americans at the bottom and everyone else fighting for the rungs above; the misdeeds of some Black people invariably means all Black people are culpable, and the misdeeds of some Muslims mean all Muslims are culpable; but the white Christian man who killed a Minnesota state senator and her husband and shot at two others will never be portrayed as a reflection of all white Christian men.
And when it comes to Mamdani, it’s not just MAGA.
When a caller to a New York radio show claimed Mamdani would target the Jewish community, not only did Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand not shut it down, she said, incorrectly, that Mamdani supported “the global intifada…a statement that means, ‘Destroy Israel and kill all the Jews.” Gillibrand has since privately apologized to Mamdani.
Mamdani has repeatedly been asked to defend those words, which he did not say (he is a sharp critic of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the International Criminal Court has charged with war crimes for action he’s directing in Gaza). What he has said is that he does not agree with those words but will not outright condemn them because he does not want to “police speech” as an elected official.
Mamdani has also pledged again and again to address and work to quell the rising anti-semitism in New York and has gotten vociferous support from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, the highest-ranking Jew in the city. Lander also ran for mayor.
Other New York elected officials who would be termed establishment Democrats–Sen. Chuck Schumer, Reps. Hakeem Jeffries and Tom Suozzi, and Gov. Kathy Hochul–have spoken out against the poisonous discourse around Mamdani, but all stopped short of endorsing him, pushing back harder against a mayoral candidate than against Trump’s increasingly dangerous rhetoric and actions.
None of those politicians would be called progressive. Mamdani is pledging to freeze rents, make buses free, open city-run grocery stores, and increase taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents to help pay for services, all of which are popular not just with millennials and younger voters but also would seem to be the very “kitchen table issues” we hear about every cycle.
A related aside: There’s been a lot of handwringing over the wealthy deserting the city instead of paying their fair share, and that’s likely bunk—Massachusetts voters approved a “millionaires tax” in 2022; all residents pay a 5% income tax, but if you earn over $1 million in annual income, the money over that threshold is taxed an additional 4%. Data from the two-plus years since it went into effect shows the number of millionaires in the state has increased, and it led to over $2.2 billion in additional revenue for the state in just the most recent fiscal year; that money goes toward education and transportation.
The status quo isn’t working for the majority of New Yorkers in the same way it isn’t working for the majority of Americans. Zohran Mamdani isn’t the status quo, and that’s the point. He should be embraced by his party for checking all the right boxes—a young politician willing to reach out to all constituents, looking to enact broadly popular policies meant to help not harm, and capable of bringing voters to the polls.
Shalise Manza Young was most recently a columnist at Yahoo Sports, focusing on the intersection of race, gender and culture in sports. The Associated Press Sports Editors named her one of the 10 best columnists in the country in 2020. She has also written for the Boston Globe and Providence Journal. Find her on Bluesky @shalisemyoung.
Such a convincing review of all the reasons for the voters choice for Mayor. As you so powerfully explain, Mandami isn't the status quo and that's the point. Hopefully, you will help more elected Democrats get the point as well.
who's gonna say no to that smile with some good ideas ??