Zohran Mamdani has won the race for New York City mayor, according to Decision Desk HQ, ushering in a new era of progressive politics in the city and reigniting the debate over the Democratic Party’s future.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, is poised to become the first millennial and first Muslim to lead New York City, after a campaign that pulled off one of the most stunning political upsets in recent memory. He defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who mounted a long-shot independent bid after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary, and Republican Curtis Sliwa in his bid to succeed Mayor Eric Adams.
Mamdani focused heavily on affordability, pledging to freeze rent, establish city-owned grocery stores and make buses free for riders. He quickly became a progressive icon as well as a polarizing figure within the party over his positions, so much so that it divided prominent New York Democratic leadership over whether to endorse him.
I’m still surprised he hasn’t been lynched already based on his name alone.
Tbh, that name doesn’t exactly sound that “scary”. Its not really a name that sounds stereotypically “muslim”. If he were arab/from the “middle east”, then someone would’ve used a photo of him next to a bunch of arabic writing and that would actually be a more damaging propaganda. I don’t think Uganda evoke that sort of phobia, I don’t think most people even have an image of Uganda, its just neutral.
The people who take offense from foreign names don’t stop to consider where the name is from, only that it’s not “'murican”
I have a Pinyin Name (romanized from Chinese) and like I always feel so awkward when people ask for my name because I know they can’t literally pronounce it in the original tonal language, its weirder when teachers keep asking me how to say it and idk how to properly answer that since I know its impossible for them (its not done maliciously, I’m sure they’re trying learn, but it just puts me on the spotlight and makes me nervous).
I doubt I could ever run for office under my current name, nobody would be abke to pronounce my name, and I’d get labeled a “communist” immediately since I was born in mainland China.
So I could kinda relate to Mamdani in a way. Its nice to see a foreign-born person being elected.
You could try finding out the international phonetic spelling and offering it to people. Teachers in particular should be fluent in it.
My name is [ˈjustəs] in it, for example.