Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Party’s official candidate in the New York City mayoral race, is a democratic socialist whose policies align with the far-Left fringes of the electorate. And yet he’s rapidly becoming a popular figure, much like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders — two uber-progressives whose broader appeal is consistently underestimated by their detractors.

Perhaps that’s why the latest line of attack on Mamdani seems to be sticking, at least on social media: it’s a question of authenticity. Last week, The New York Times reported that when applying to Columbia University in 2009, he listed his ethnic identity as both “Asian” and “Black or African American”, per the options on the application. Mamdani holds US citizenship, but was born in Uganda. His family is Indian. He is definitely not black. While it’s true that he is both an American and an African — in the sense that he was born in Africa — the term “African American” is understood by virtually everyone to denote blackness.

By checking the box for “Black or African American”, Mamdani likely earned himself a leg up in the admissions process. At the time, Columbia University — like most other elite educational institutions — practiced racial discrimination in favor of black, Hispanic, and Native American applicants. Status as a “Black or African American” applicant would have been worth extra points toward admission. Mamdani openly admits that this is exactly what he did, and defended his actions by noting that there was no clear way to explain his ethnicity on the form. Ultimately, Columbia did not admit him.

Mamdani’s creative deception has drawn some comparisons to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who previously misrepresented herself as having significant Native American ancestry — a claim that indigenous tribal leaders repeatedly rejected. Like Warren, Mamdani’s actions were dishonest, and it was fair for The New York Times to report on it. (It’s worth pointing out that progressive Democrats are furious with The Times for publishing this story.)

And yet it is hard to muster much indignation here. In fact, I don’t really blame Mamdani. After all, he isn’t responsible for creating a system of crude racial classification that bestowed favored status on applicants who self-identified, in some manner, as non-white: Columbia University and its ilk did that. Elite educational institutions made the conscious decision to treat skin color — and, by proxy, national origin — as an incredibly important factor when considering prospective students.

There are many problems with this approach. Most importantly, it is a straightforward example of racial discrimination and, as such, the Supreme Court has virtually ended the practice. Large majorities of Americans rightly oppose race-based admissions and contracting; even in liberal California, voters have soundly rejected affirmative action schemes on multiple occasions.

But another problem is that it’s difficult to discriminate correctly. Most people’s ethnic backgrounds are too complicated to be clearly indicated by a checked box or two. A closer look at Columbia’s leaked application form makes this obvious. In the first race and ethnicity section, university administrators give the following options: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and White. A subsequent section allows for slightly more variation: there are options for South Asian and Southeast Asian, for Puerto Rican, and for Dominican.

There’s still just one box for White/Caucasian, however. Columbia apparently invites applicants to draw distinctions between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, even though the two islands are about 230 miles apart. But it has no way of distinguishing a WASP of English descent whose ancestors migrated to the US in the 16th century and a recent Greek, Russian, or Italian immigrant.

Under race-based admissions schemes, elite universities had a noxious interest in lazy group characterizations and stereotypes: see the disclosures from Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University, in which Harvard was effectively forced to reveal that admissions officials had viewed Asian applicants’ personalities as deficient. Columbia had a box in mind for Mamdani. We should almost appreciate that he cheated their ugly system.