Will Stancil Defends Zohran Mamdani's Blackness

How was the Asian kid supposed to grasp that in America his mom's leading man, Denzel Washington, is "African American" but he isn't?

Will Stancil tweets in defense of NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani checking the “Black or African American” race box on his college applications:

Part of the reason race drives people insane is that they're trying to create some kind of logically complete racial taxonomy and it CANNOT BE DONE. "Race" in the US is a bunch of loose social groupings associated with appearance, ancestry, national origin, religion, language

These categories roughly reflect social groups that exist on the ground but they NEVER, and CANNOT, work around the edges. All racial taxonomies break apart when you look at the edges, because they're just trying to capture big fuzzy social groupings at the highest level

It's important to collect demographic data but you will get many many cases (such as the fact that a lot of people migrated to Africa from Gujarat and identify as "African") that will confound whatever clean categories you set up. That's a defect of the taxonomy, not the people …

People from Mamdani's community in Africa identify as African. So what are they supposed to do when they encounter a form that has "Black or African-American" and NO OTHER AFRICAN OPTIONS?

They check a bunch of different stuff, like "African" and "Asian," which is what he did.

Yes, but the grievances of Indians in Africa against Indians in India over which Indians will marry which Indians is not why American colleges ask about race. It’s to hand out affirmative action to some races, especially sub-Saharans, and to deny it to others, especially Asians. Everybody knows the most privileged race box to check is “Black or African American,” which is why this ambitious young fellow, who is now running for mayor of New York City at age 33, checked it.

“African American” is not there for Elon Musk or Zohran Mamdani to check, it’s just there as a synonym for “black,” the way “Negro” was on the Census up through 2000:

That really isn’t too complicated to know.

Will goes on:

What I find so insane about this is how people are simply not smart enough to put themselves in someone else's shoes, and instead assume the US racial categories and codes - such as African-American meaning EXCLUSIVELY black people, not people from Africa - fit for everyone.

Some of you desperately need to talk to someone from another country. They'll tell you, US categories are often a poor fit for them and when they're asked to describe their background they throw up a mess of different answers.

But, his supporters like Stancil ask, how was a 17 year old Bronx Science student who had been living in America for 10 years, whose Columbia professor dad writes books on race and identity, whose mother directed Denzel Washington in a movie about race in the modern American South:

supposed to be able to understand a complex concept like, “Sorry, kid. In America, Denzel is ‘black or African American.’ You aren’t ‘black or African American’”?

Honestly, the whole world knows about American racial categories.

Bertolt Brecht, East Berlin, 1948 (nah, it’s Mamdani’s dad)

I expect Mamdani supporters to soon suggest that the 1899 children’s book Little Black Sambo confused Mamdani, whose dad looks like a more Aryan version of Congressman Barney Frank, about his race:

You see, tigers don’t live in Africa, they live in India, so Sambo must be Indian. But he’s black! How can a Columbia applicant not be so baffled that he checks the race box that comes with the most affirmative action Pokemon points?

And indeed, Brits and Australians used to tend to call everybody from, roughly, Calais southward “black,” until American racial terms conquered the world.

Although they are not a good excuse for Mamdani, in general, Stancil’s complaints about racial categories for affirmative action tend to be somewhat true. Indeed affirmative action will increasingly be bedeviled by more and more ridiculous edge cases, such as if your great-grandfather was a Freudian psychoanalyst in Buenos Aires, should you get affirmative action in America for being 1/8th Hispanic?

That’s one reason (among many) why the Trump Administration can be on the warpath against racial preferences with surprisingly little backlash so far.

Paywall here.

But, when I looked into these categorization conundrums in detail a quarter of a century ago, expecting to find that affirmative action had already gotten snarled up into unworkable absurdity due to the ambiguity of racial/ethnic categories, I ultimately had to conclude that so far … America’s racial/ethnic categories were good enough for government work.

In particular, there has been remarkably little disagreement around the Big One of affirmative action categories: non-Hispanic black.

For example, at my son’s high school graduation, the kids were surprised to find that three classmates had qualified for the Hispanic version of National Merit Scholar for being 1/4th Hispanic without anybody knowing over the last four years that they were the slightest bit Latino.

In contrast, the girl who won the black version of a National Merit Scholarship was popular with her classmates for being totally legit racially. Her black mom was a doctor and her dad, who was there for her graduation, had been the Heavyweight Champion of the World, beat Mike Tyson twice, and almost won Dancing With the Stars.

In general, white Americans, especially white American men, tend to be remarkably honorable about not trying to exploit loopholes to qualify for affirmative action benefits for blacks. (You can’t say the same about progressive white women academics and their career-advancing fantasies about being American Indian princesses or salsa queens.)

You don’t see too many stories like this one from ABC News 16 years ago:

'White African-American' Suing N.J. Med School for Discrimination

Med student says he was suspended for saying he was African-American.

By ABC News

May 12, 2009, 9:45 AM

Can a white guy be African-American?

Paulo Serodio says he is.

Born and raised in Mozambique and now a naturalized U.S. citizen, Serodio, 45, has filed a lawsuit against a New Jersey medical school, claiming he was harassed and ultimately suspended for identifying himself during a class cultural exercise as a "white African-American."

I can’t find a picture of Paulo Serodio. There’s a person of that name at the U. of Essex, but he seems to have a different academic background.

"I wouldn't wish this to my worst enemy," he said. "I'm not exaggerating. This has destroyed my life, my career."

The lawsuit, which asks for Serodio's reinstatement at the school and monetary damages, named the Newark-based University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and several doctors and university employees as defendants.

Filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, the lawsuit traces a series of events that Serodio maintains led to his 2007 suspension, starting with a March 2006 cultural exercise in a clinical skills course taught by Dr. Kathy Ann Duncan, where each student was asked to define themselves for a discussion on culture and medicine.

After Serodio labeled himself as a white African-American, another student said she was offended by his comments and that, because of his white skin, was not an African-American.

According to the lawsuit, Serodio was summoned to Duncan's office where he was instructed "never to define himself as an African-American … because it was offensive to others and to people of color for him to do so." …

Neither the American Civil Liberties Union nor the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People responded to messages seeking comment on the meaning of African-American.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines African-American as "an American of African and especially of black African descent."

"There are people of all races who are African," Serodio said, adding that he's never had a problem identifying himself as an African-American until that day in Duncan's class.

Zeff pointed out that Serodio only labeled himself after his instructors asked him to do so and was then penalized for it.

But from NJ.com five years later:

'White, African American' lawsuit filed by former UMDNJ student tossed out by Newark federal judge

Published: Jun. 17, 2014, 7:30 p.m.

By Thomas Zambito | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Chesler dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former medical student at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey who claimed he was harassed after describing himself as "White African American" in a cultural diversity class.

U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Chesler sided with lawyers for the medical school, who contended the decision to suspend the student, Paulo Serodio, in May 2007 had little to do with how he identified himself and was more about the sexually explicit material he included in class notes.

Serodio was born in the Republic of Mozambique in southeastern Africa and immigrated to the United States in the 1980’s, eventually becoming an American citizen. He earned a doctorate in neuroscience from New York University in 1995 before attending UMDNJ, according to court papers.

In December 2006, the Serodio published an essay in a school newspaper explaining why he identified himself as a "white African American" in a cultural diversity class in which students were asked to define themselves.

Serodio claimed the school’s dean of student affairs, Dr. Thomas Cohen, warned him against publishing the essay, telling him that his "life and career would suffer irreparably," according to Serodio’s 2009 discrimination lawsuit.

But Chesler questioned the claims made by Serodio’s attorney, Alexandra Garcia, that the suspension was linked to the essay.

"He makes a leap from the purported conversation with Dr. Cohen about the essay and his suspension, without addressing significant intervening events directly related to the disciplinary charges brought against Serodio," the judge noted.

Garcia could not be reached for comment.

Specifically, Chesler said that in December 2006, Serodio sent an email to the entire student body promoting a talk he planned to give on diversity.

"Following the talk there will be a master ceremony," the email said. "I’ll be hung from a tree in front of the Sheraton Hotel, by none other than a Lynch Mob of people that disagree ... If I survive, (sic) will be lynched later in the hospital."

In January 2007 Cohen wrote to Serodio informing him that he had violated several of the school’s rules and policies, including misusing the school’s intranet system to send the email.

Cohen told Serodio that he would have to participate in diversity training and seek counseling, Chesler noted, and that failure to do so would result in disciplinary action.

The same month, the school — which was broken up last year — said Serodio included sexually explicit photographs in what were called "scribe notes" shared with fellow students for a school lecture on "maternal adaptations to pregnancy."

Included in the notes was a picture of a pregnant woman participating in a bikini contest in what the student described as "lactating lovelies," the decision said.

The notes, which Cohen said were offensive and violated professional standards of behavior, prompted the dean to push the school to hold disciplinary proceedings against Serodio, the judge said.

"The evidence does not point to ongoing antagonism against Serodio following his December 2006 essay," Chesler wrote. "Rather, it shows several instances of misconduct by Serodio, leading ultimately to his suspension."

Serodio did not return to the school until 2010. "Upon his return to school in 2010, as a result of continued harassment and retaliation by students and faculty, the medical school dismissed him from the program," his attorneys claim in court papers.

Chesler’s decision noted that after his reinstatement, Serodio was dismissed from the school because of "academic failures."

So, I don’t know what the full story is here.

Anyway, among non-Hispanics, the working definition of black seems to have worked pretty well up through now. The working definition of black is that at least one of your parents identified as a member of the black community and was recognized by the black community as a member of the black community.

There can be legitimate edge cases. Say that, due to a series of tragedies, a child who is all white winds up being raised by his black stepfather’s mother in an all-black community. I’ve never heard of an example like this, but I’m sure there are some. I’d be sympathetic toward however he felt like checking that box.

Or what about the descendants of individuals who passed as white? Can they reclaim membership in the black community?

Apparently not after two generations of passing in the case of British actress Rebecca Hall when she directed the 1920s novel Passing about two part black women who pass as white. Hall’s grandfather had passed from black to white, but her mother was clearly part black, but Hall is completely white-looking.

So you might think she would have been perfect to star in her movie Passing. But, it was the racial reckoning, so it was crucial to center black actresses and she was too white.

So she wound up hiring two black actresses who could never pass as white, which defeated the plot. Critics wrote a lot about how this brilliant casting proves that race is just a social construct. But mostly people just didn’t watch the movie.

Because American had a one drop rule concerning race and marriage, most people married into either the black community or the white community. Passing from one to the other was difficult and emotionally wrenching.

So, a 2014 study by Harvard geneticist David Reich of 23andMe’s database found that America still doesn’t have all that many people with complicated identities that don’t quite fit the working definition of at least one parent who identified as black and was recognized as blacks by other blacks. The vast majority of non-Hispanics in America self-identify on whether they are black or white in ways that both Reich and the black lady in HR in charge of making sure whites and Asians aren’t stealing DEI privileges would find reasonable.

But what black lady in HR would buy this guy’s story for why his race is “Black or African American?”