WELL, HE JUST LOCKED UP RACHEL DOLEZAL AND ELIZABETH WARREN’S ENDORSEMENTS: Zohran Mamdani Said He Was Black on Columbia University Application.

I guess that means he identified as black on his Bowdoin College application as well, the place where he did get in and go to school. Did Bowdoin College give an advantage to Black students at the time? I don’t know for certain but if it did then Mamdani would have gotten an advantage over other applicants.

He told the Times these applications were the only instance he can remember where he identified himself as “Black or African American.” The Times says it wasn’t able to identify any speeches in which he’d referred to himself in this way.

Maybe this was a one off but if so does that make this better or worse? It suggests he wasn’t dumb enough to make this claim out loud but he did do it on applications where a) it could benefit him and b) no one would ever find out he was lying. Indeed, it’s likely no one would have ever known if he hadn’t won the mayoral primary (raising interest in his biography) and if someone hadn’t hacked Columbia’s application data. It reminds me of this story I wrote two years ago. What’s to stop people from just lying on their applications to gain an advantage? Not much it seems.

It goes without saying that a conservative who tried this would be crucified for it, but the rules never really seem to apply to Democrats, or Democratic Socialists in this case. Is this going to matter to any of his voters in NYC?

As John Sexton concludes, “The memes should be amusing though.”

And: