The mother of New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani once said her son is “not an American at all,” describing him instead as fully rooted in Indian and Ugandan identity while using language critics argue is openly dismissive—even hostile—toward the United States.
In a 2013 interview with the Hindustan Times, filmmaker Mira Nair made the remarks while her son was a 21-year-old college student at Bowdoin College, where he co-founded the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine and advocated academic punishments against Israel. “He is a total desi,” Nair said, using a term referring to people of South Asian origin. “Completely. We are not firangs at all. He is very much us. He is not an Uhmericcan 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.”
The term firang in Hindi and Urdu is commonly used to describe Westerners or outsiders, and critics say it carries a derogatory connotation. Mehek Cooke, an attorney born in India and now a GOP strategist, told Fox News Digital the term is “not some harmless cultural descriptor—it’s 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 argued that rejecting the American identity while benefiting from it is “ungrateful, disrespectful, and frankly repulsive,” adding, “If you raise your child to believe he was ‘never a firang,’ never an American, what message are you sending? That he owes nothing to this nation? That he can take the benefits without any sense of belonging or loyalty?”
Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and moved to the United States at age seven, holds dual citizenship with the U.S. and Uganda and was naturalized in 2018. His mother emphasized in the same interview that their household identity was deeply rooted in South Asian culture, saying, “We only speak Hindustani at home,” and describing her son as a “very chaalu fellow,” a term meaning shrewd or street smart.
His father, Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani, echoed that his son’s politics were shaped by their intellectual environment. “He’s his own person,” he told The New York Times earlier this year. Nair, however, interrupted to insist their worldview absolutely influenced him, saying, “Of course the world we live in, and what we write and film and think about, is the world that Zohran has very much absorbed.”
Mahmood Mamdani has drawn criticism for his far-left ideological positions, especially his anti-Israel activism and his advisory role on a council that promotes boycotts and sanctions of Israel. A resurfaced video of him claiming Adolf Hitler was inspired by Abraham Lincoln recently went viral online, fueling further controversy.
Earlier this year, Mamdani sparked headlines when he identified himself as “Black or African American” on a college application. Asked about his identity, he told The New York Times he identifies as “an American who was born in Africa.”
For Cooke, it all reflects a broader issue. “This isn’t just about identity—it’s about values. Rejecting the label of ‘American’ while living under the flag, enjoying the freedoms, and cashing in on the opportunities is a rejection of American values themselves,” she said. “That mindset breeds resentment. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing play out in politics today.”