NY Times decides not to apologise for getting played by a racist.
They sincerely want to hear from you on this difficult (for them) issue
This kind of Rent control just drives rental units out of the market.
Unfair competition.
Free sleeping quarters for the homeless!
Yeah, at the very best it was a “funny once”. If that.
If he isn’t going to be able to implement much of these plans, there’s really no reason for all the millionaires and establishment Dems to be having a cow about him getting elected. Trying to sabotage their own candidate is a bad look.
A common affliction. Luckily, most people cannot afford to pay for an advertising campaign to tell us all so.
AIUI, ‘African-American’ refers specifically to descendants of people brought to America as slaves, because they don’t know exactly what countries their ancestors came from, and are anyway far enough removed from them that they have developed their own unique culture (isolation due to Jim Crow and general racism contributed to that).
I wouldn’t expect a recent immigrant to know that, but I thought it was common knowledge among Americans, especially educated ones.
This makes sense and is how I’d ideally expect such preferences to work. However, given diversity stats are reported based on the (somewhat nonsensical) Census categories, it’s plausible institutions might feel pressure to accept promising students from more advantaged backgrounds in order to bump up the numbers.
I could get behind this one. Every successful government has subsidized transportation, like all those roads built by the Roman empire.
And when i lived in nyc, my subway station was used as an informal homeless shelter. It was warm, dry, and even had a tap providing clean water at the end of the platform. Late at night, someone would give the florescent lights a half twist, except in the “late night” waiting area, so it was dark. And in the morning, right before rush hour, a police officer would come by and twist all the lights back on, and gently prod the men who were still sleeping. (I watched this a few times, when i got to the station early.) The homeless men (they were all men, one to a bench) were pretty respectful of the space. It felt like a good use of space to me.
I certainly knew that was the common meaning of the word. I didn’t realize it was the legal census meaning. And I’ve heard lots of people joke about being African American. After all, we all come from Africa if you go back far enough. And I’ve certainly heard lots of people refer to Elon Musk as an African American. I mean, everyone knows he’s a privileged white dude. But you know, African and American.
I thought it was crystal clear, based on the notes he made on the form, that he was trying to convey that he was Asian and born in Uganda.
ETA: I am US born and consider myself well-informed, and this is the first I’ve heard about an official definition that limits “African-American” to the descendants of slaves. I guess that means if you’re black and your family immigrated from Africa as free people, you’re have no right to call yourself African-American…which seems odd to me.
ETA2: If he hadn’t checked that box, the right wing would be ranting and raving about him “lying” about his place of birth.
I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing. Definitely some civil rights activists have talked about the different experiences of Black Americans with multigenerational roots in the US going back to slavery, compared to the experiences of Black Americans who are more recent immigrants; Ibrim X. Kendi has written eloquently on the topic (and sometimes just snarked on the question, which is legit); but it’s a far cry from an analysis of these different experiences, and an official government definition.
The closest I can find is from Census.gov:
About the Topic of Race
The much more interesting question here is about the NYTimes’s motives in amplifying the shenanigans of a white supremacist. The actions of these professionals and leaders in their field–not the actions of a teenager filling out an application–are newsworthy.
Exactly. What Mamdani did is a nothingburger. What the NYT did is somewhat disturbing.
I subscribed to the NYT after Trump won his first presidential election. I dropped my subscription because i was unhappy with their alarmist and misleading coverage of covid. Their facts were accurate, but presented in misleading ways, IMHO. (And as an actuary, it’s often my job to present technical data clearly and honestly. My opinion isn’t actually very humble, and is pretty well informed on this topic.) I picked it up again when a friend offered me her free second copy. So i guess i am kinda supporting them again. But stiff like this makes me very uncomfortable.
I’m not saying whether I agree with it or not, but I’ve heard this definition as a college student in the mid-90s. Recent immigrants from Africa would be identified as “Ethiopian-American” or “Ugandan-American” not “African-American” under this scheme. How popular this notion is, I don’t know, but I’ve heard it from more than one source from different racial groups. That said, I don’t think it’s the most common understanding of the term.
I think what I would expect every American to know is that ‘African American’ is ordinarily understood to mean ‘black’, and you shouldn’t identify yourself that way if you are not, even if it might be correct in a literal sense. That’s why the joke about Elon Musk is funny (or was the first time of way too many).
And I take issue with the idea that someone who’s lived in America since he was 7, and who by his own account had a privileged upbringing, should not be expected to know this. It feels like maybe people are making unwarranted assumptions about him because he’s an immigrant, and based on his race and religion.
It has been observed before that media companies have a perverse incentive to get Trump elected, because he is so good for their bottom line. Everyday he creates a new outrageous story that they can use to draw more eyeballs, and sell ads and subscriptions. It’s unfortunate.
Always has been. This is how the liberal media spin and mislead without outright lying, on many different topics. Can’t believe everything you read.
It’s the ‘respectful of the space’ that’s the issue. Twitter is full of people complaining they can’t take their kids on public transport because of people smoking crack/acting out violently/assorted other antisocial behaviour. And there have been several high profile cases of people punched and/or pushed onto subway tracks by homeless men. It doesn’t take too much of that before people start seeking alternatives.
Unfair competition against whom? I assume that the purpose of these city-owned grocery stores would be to fill in food deserts, where no commercial grocery store wants to be located.
As for the race form, how should he have filled it out? Anything he put in based on the categories available on the form would have ended up misleading in one way or another.
It’s okay, if the landlords can’t afford to do repairs due to the frozen rent, the city can simply expropriate their rental units.
According to the website, New York is already subsiding grocery stores. Is there an analysis of the likely results of this policy anywhere?
The way I think Zohran Mamdani has done well is recognising that cost of living is what people care about most. His solutions may not be workable, and may not appeal outside NYC, but at least he’s focused on the right problem.
The purpose according to his platform is to lower grocery prices, which would necessitate undercutting existing stores.
He should have ticked ‘South Asian’, and optionally written in that he was from Uganda.
Well, in NYC it already is subsidized. But I was in San Jose when a version of this was tried. One night bus was always full of homeless and it required special cleaning afterwards.
Is this a bad or evil thing? No, but just be aware of what will happen.
No, since that was the standard US census/Government term for “black” back in the day. Some people seem to want it to go that way, true, but that is not it’s strict meaning.
Just a style guide but-
Race and National Origin | National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“An African American is a person whose origins are in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.”
It is the new way to define the term. But if you use it to mean "black person whose ancestors cam from Africa’ you are not wrong.
Not the way it was pushed- Creating a network of city-owned grocery stores that don’t have to pay rent or property taxes to reduce prices.
If you are replying to me,- I dont care. This is America, you are what you Self Identify as. (Unless as a full member of a recognized Native tribe). He could have filed “Human” for all i care.
Who will run them, and "takings’ means the Government has to buy them at FMV. NYC doesnt have that kind of $$. " projections show gaps of $5 billion, $6.1 billion, and $6 billion in the following three fiscal years, respectively, according to NYC.gov."
Look, not all those ideas are bad, but I was a City Commissioner for 20 years- they are clearly not well thought out.
This clearly can’t be the definition, because by this definition Nelson Mandela is African American.
He would be if he resided in the USA. But he has been dead for a while now.
Read in context.
Yeah, that’s the Census definition, and for it to be relevant, the person has to be living in the US.
I don’t really believe anyone actually cares about which boxes 17 year old Mamdani checked. This was purely a weak smear-attempt by the NYT. And it’s yet another example of how today’s corporate media cannot be trusted to do anything but hold to the line of their corporate masters.
There’s a funny story about this idea that may be an urban legend:
I think Americans of a certain age learned the term as a replacement for ‘black’, or whatever the previous favoured word was, so that’s how they used it. But Americans forgetting there is a world outside the US is also something of a meme.
It still doesn’t include Mamdani.
Tell that to all the white women who got in big trouble for identifying as Native American (and not as full members of a recognised tribe, either).
I get the impression this is a major reason establishment Dems don’t like him - they think he’s going to mess up and make the party look bad.
Fair enough, it makes some sense for the census.