Mamdani's mother in unearthed 2013 interview: 'He is not an American at all'
FIRST ON FOX: The mother of New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani gave an interview when he was a 21-year-old American college student discussing how her son is...
By Fox News · Fox News
FIRST ON FOX: The mother of New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani gave an interview when he was a 21-year-old American college student discussing how her son is "not an American at all" while using terminology that some view as derogatory toward the United States. "He is a total desi," filmmaker Mira Nair told the Hindustan Times in a 2013 interview, when her son Zohran was 21 years old. At the time, Zohran was attending Bowdoin College where he co-founded the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and was pushing for academic sanctions against Israel. "Completely. We are not firangs at all. He is very much us. He is not an Uhmericcan (American) at all. He was born in Uganda, raised between India and America. He is at home in many places. He thinks of himself as a Ugandan and as an Indian." In Hindi and Urdu, "firang" is an informal term historically used to describe foreigners or Westerners. ‘ABSOLUTELY A COMMUNIST’: MAMDANI DODGES LABEL, BUT HIS RECORD AND EXPERT SAY OTHERWISE But Mehek Cooke, an attorney born in India who serves as a GOP consultant and commentator, told Fox News Digital that the word is not "some harmless cultural term," but rather a "slur." "It’s the word used back in India to mock outsiders, to say you don’t belong," Cooke said. "Using it here about your own child raised in the United States carries the same tone as calling someone a derogatory word — or worse. It’s flippant, divisive, and dripping with contempt for the very country that gave your family a better life." Cooke added, "When Mamdani’s mother says her son was ‘never a firang and only desi,’ it’s a rejection of America. It’s ungrateful, disrespectful, and frankly repulsive to live in this country since age seven, receive every freedom, education, and opportunity America offers, and still deny being American." Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and moved to the United States at age 7, holds dual citizenship with the U.S. and Uganda, and was naturalized as…