New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing renewed scrutiny over a clip in which he appears to use an accent different from the one typically associated with him.
The clip was part of a promotional video Mamdani made for his mother’s chess prodigy film.
Mamdani has yet to address the criticism, which comes days after he was heavily booed off stage at an NYPD event in the city.
4Seeing Mamdani appear to speak in a Ugandan accent has once again angered some within conservative circles.
Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt was among those who took the forefront in verbally attacking the New York mayor when the clip resurfaced.
He claimed that Mamdani was “appropriating African culture” with the fake accent before slamming him as a communist.
“Communists are all frauds. EVERY single one. Don’t ever trust a communist, or else you’ll get Galloway’d and stranded in a gulag,” he wrote.
Joining the criticism was The Benny Show host Benny Johnson, who argued that Mamdani was no different from other Democrats who have faced scrutiny over allegedly changing their accents.
“Mamdani does an obviously fake Ugandan accent while promoting a Disney movie based in Africa,” he said. “How many Democrats have been caught using fake accents at this point? They’re all frauds.”
What The Resurfaced Clip Was About
The resurfaced clip dates back to Mamdani’s 2016 appearance on South Africa’s Kaya 959 radio station to promote the movie Queen of Katwe, about a chess prodigy.
The movie was directed by his mother, and at the time, Mamdani used the opportunity to discuss his Ugandan heritage.
“The difference for me is I’m from Uganda, but I also grew up in New York. In New York, you go out, some guys are very hesitant to dance,” Mamdani remarked with enthusiasm.
He also said, “You know, if they’re not grinding, they’re just standing. In Kampala, you will just not find that. People are all dancing. Everybody’s dancing, men, women, and it’s fantastic that way.”
Expert Defends Mamdani Accent Switch
4As the resurfaced clip continued to attract viral attention, media personality Steve Kastenbaum came forward to defend Mamdani.
“People’s accents can change after they move from one geographic location to another. They can work on their dialect, too,” said the CNN Radio correspondent.
“I worked to lose my Brooklyn accent in order to get on the radio. A friend who grew up in NYC and moved to London 30 years ago now has a British accent,” he added.
Some netizens, however, maintained that it was simply a case of “code-switching” and that there was nothing wrong with it.
“It’s called code-switching. He knows his audience,” one wrote.
“Code-switching is a linguistic flex. But you have to know more than one code to do it. Some folks only have one. Sorry to those people,” another individual remarked.
Mamdani Gets Booed At Staten Island Event
4Days ago, Mamdani was the subject of boos at an event in New York’s Staten Island.
The event was one of the Big Apple’s pro-police celebrations, bringing together some 3,500 residents and families.
When the mayor stepped onto the stage, he was heavily heckled with loud jeers and profanities, seemingly forcing him to keep his speech to under one minute before running off.
The heckling continued even as Mamdani stepped off the stage, and he appeared to brush it off by smiling and spending some time taking pictures with willing attendees.
Mamdani’s Administration Faces Lawsuit Over Pied-à-Terre Tax
4Mamdani’s administration was recently hit with a lawsuit challenging the rollout of his planned pied-à-terre tax, a surcharge on high-value residential properties that are not owners’ primary residences.
Three homeowners argue the city improperly placed the burden on residents to prove they are exempt after receiving notices that their primary homes could be subject to the tax.
The plaintiffs are not challenging the state law authorizing the surcharge, but how the city is implementing it. They want the city prevented from acting on the notices requiring them to prove they don’t have to pay the tax, and they are also seeking removal of a public list identifying about 900,000 potentially affected properties from the Department of Finance website.
The city plans to vigorously defend the lawsuit, as it believes the surcharge will help fund public investments.
