University of Kwazulu-Natal

Zohran Mamdani On Civil Rights

Bonisiwe Shabane
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zohran mamdani on civil rights

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Nov. 12 gave an unequivocal defense of the diversity, equity and inclusion policies, also known as DEI, that President Donald Trump has targeted for elimination. Speaking at the ribbon cutting for the National Urban League's new headquarters in New York, the 34-year-old political phenom hailed the civil rights organization's mixed-use project as "befitting of the legacy of greatness that... "It is Black-owned in a time when we are being taught as if the words DEI are that of a slur, when in fact what they are is a representation of the fulfillment of... While Trump has assailed DEI as "tyranny," Mamdani was not the only speaker at the event to unapologetically defend the concept. "In this political climate where civil rights protections are under attack and being rolled back and programs to promote diversity, equity and inclusion by some are being dismantled, let this stand as a beacon,"...

The rise of Zohran Mamdani, who is set to become New York’s first Muslim and African mayor of South Asian descent, and his political vision is rooted in his father and Columbia University academic... Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani first came to the United States (US) from Uganda as one of the 23 recipients of scholarships offered to the East African country as a gift for independence from... He was pursuing engineering at the University of Pittsburgh when, one day, he heard the words ‘which side are you on’. Members of the racial justice organisation Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), who rode buses through the American South to uphold the Supreme Court ruling that interstate travel could not be racially segregated, sang these... The words moved Mahmood Mamdani. He got on that Montgomery-bound bus and marched there for full civil rights and racial equality for African Americans before he was thrown in jail.

When he was given one phone call, he called the Ugandan ambassador to the US and asked him if he could help. The ambassador wondered why he was in jail when they had sent him to study. Mahmood Mamdani replied that they had sent him to the US as a gift for Ugandan freedom. He added that SNCC, which was fighting for dismantling the systems of segregation and discrimination in the American South, was fighting for freedom too. ‘It is the same,’ Mahmood Mamdani told the ambassador. Speaking in June 2025, as he ran for New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani, Mahmood Mamdani’s son, said he was raised with the understanding that his father articulated to the Ugandan ambassador that freedom and...

This understanding has guided Zohran Mamdani’s refusal to budge or soften his critique of Israel, which has been charged with genocide before the International Court of Justice. It has been a critical aspect of his rise to power, even as the pro-Israel lobby in the US aggressively stamps out narratives of Palestinian dispossession and suffering. Zohran Mamdani on Affordability and Justice We use cookies on this site to enhance your experience and tailor content. By continuing to use our sites, you accept our use of cookies. For further information please see UCI Privacy and Legal Notice.

Subscribe to our events calendar to stay up to speed on all things happening in social sciences at UCI. Subscribe to our e-newsletter and get monthly updates on exciting developments in social sciences. Mailing address, phone number, questions. Mailing address, phone number, questions. On The Political Scene Podcast: Mamdani ran against New York City’s political establishment. Do his early appointments suggest he’s preparing to work within it?

When New Yorkers elected Zohran Mamdani as their mayor on 4 November, many commentators and politicians treated the result as a political earthquake. In his victory speech, Mamdani also adopted the language of epochal change. “New York will remain a city of immigrants,” he told supporters, “a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant.” Then, quoting Jawaharlal Nehru, he cast his... New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani defended diversity, equity and inclusion policies that President Donald Trump has targeted for elimination. Last Tuesday, a self-identified democratic socialist who ran on making New York affordable for the 99% won the city’s mayoral race in a landslide, defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo. And the reactions have been predictably hysterical.Some critics are claiming that Mamdani will impose Sharia law and turn New York into Venezuela.

Business leaders and billionaires are warning about a mass exodus. The Washington Post editorial board sees "class … The strong victory of the socialist Democrat Zohran Mamdani in the New York City elections is the Democratic Party’s most significant achievement in this electoral cycle. His broad coalition—which encompassed social classes, races, and all districts except Staten Island— gave him a decisive victory in the country’s most populous city and made him the most visible Democratic leader in the... However, his rise also reveals a profound p… Anti-Muslim online posts targeting New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani have surged since his Democratic primary upset this week, including death threats and comments comparing his candidacy to the September 11, 2001 attacks,...

There were at least 127 violent hate-related reports mentioning Mamdani or his campaign in the day after polls closed, said CAIR Action, an arm of the Council on American Islamic Relations advocacy group, which... That marks a five-fold increase over a daily average of such reports tracked earlier this month, CAIR Action said in a statement. Overall, it noted about 6,200 online posts that mentioned some form of Islamophobic slur or hostility in that day long time-frame. Mamdani, a democratic socialist and a 33-year-old state lawmaker, declared victory in Tuesday's primary after former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded defeat. The assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon, warns Mamdani that a race-based tax proposal is illegal. The Department of Justice’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon, is warning New York’s Democratic mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, that his policy proposal to “shift” the city’s property tax burden to “richer...

In a statement to a right-wing commentator, Benny Johnson, during his live YouTube show, Ms. Dhillon said Mr. Mamdani’s race-based tax policy would violate the law. “Racial discrimination is illegal in the United States — period. Full stop. The illegal discriminatory scheme described by Mamdani would violate federal constitutional and statutory norms, and might even violate New York law,” she said.

A 33-year-old Democratic Socialist state assemblyman, Mr. Mamdani won the Democratic mayoral primary last Tuesday, beating the favored frontrunner, Governor Cuomo. Since then, Mr. Mamdani’s far-left policy platform has been coming under closer scrutiny. In addition to promising free buses, free childcare, and a rent freeze on stabilized apartments — paid for, Mr. Mamdani says, by taxing the rich, increasing the corporate tax rate, and hiring more auditors to ferret out as much revenue as possible — he is also proposing a reworking of the property tax...

He calls varying property tax rates a “deeply inequitable system.”

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Subscribe To Our Events Calendar To Stay Up To Speed

Subscribe to our events calendar to stay up to speed on all things happening in social sciences at UCI. Subscribe to our e-newsletter and get monthly updates on exciting developments in social sciences. Mailing address, phone number, questions. Mailing address, phone number, questions. On The Political Scene Podcast: Mamdani ran against New York City’s political establishment. Do his early appoint...