Zohran Mamdani: A ‘nepo baby’ in the belly of the beast

According to New York Mayor Eric Adams, who is under investigation for bribery allegations with ties to Türkiye, the next election to determine the city’s leader would be between a “blue-collar” candidate and another candidate “in a suit and with a silver spoon.”

Adams’s “blue-collar” candidate was, of course, himself. The candidate born with a silver spoon in his mouth was (surprise!) Zohran Mamdani.

Who would have thought… The frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of New York is Zohran Mamdani—a “democratic socialist” of Indian descent whose ancestors were followers of “Twelver Shia Islam.”

Mamdani, who has gained prominence with a platform including free public transport, a solution to the housing crisis, and the “denunciation of Israel,” became known in connection with the term “nepo baby,” which entered the American public discourse—thanks to Hollywood stars—with a December 2022 issue of New York Magazine.

What is a nepo baby? To say “he was born on a blessed night” [a Turkish idiom for being extremely lucky] wouldn’t be enough. It’s a term used for relatively wealthy/upper-crust celebrities who were born into privilege, with a silver spoon in their mouth, and have risen in the profession of their parents or ancestors.

City&State New York, likely envious of the nepo baby list made for the West Coast, prepared one for the East Coast (New York). The date was December 20, 2022. The list included former Governor Andrew Cuomo (whose father was also a former governor) and Andrew Giuliani, known as Trump’s lawyer (his father, too, was a former mayor).

Mamdani made it onto this list back at the end of 2022. He is introduced as follows:

“His mother is the Oscar-nominated director Mira Nair. She may not have directly helped Mamdani enter politics, but she might have had some influence on his short-lived rap career.”

Mamdani’s mother, Mira Nair, has directed films such as “Salaam Bombay!”, “Mississippi Masala,” and “Monsoon Wedding.” His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a renowned professor in the fields of international relations and anthropology.

In 2013, Nair was invited to a film festival in Israel but announced on social media that she would not go to the country “until the apartheid ends.”

Mahmood Mamdani, for his part, held informational meetings at the encampments set up at Columbia last year to protest the occupation in Gaza and criticized the university’s response to the protests.

Mahmood Mamdani is a prominent figure in the field of postcolonialism at Columbia. His academic work addresses topics such as the legacy of colonialism in Africa. As Aijaz Ahmad, who penned an excellent critique on the subject, puts it, the widespread “postcolonial” studies in the West offer a golden opportunity for members or children of the ruling classes in the colonial world to establish themselves in the West, especially in Western academia.

Nair’s career is also peculiar. She met Mahmood in Uganda, where Zohran was also born. The director was doing research for her film “Mississippi Masala.” But, according to what she told The New York Times, producers who wanted a “white hero” in her film were unwilling to provide funding.

Somehow, though, Nair eventually found “a few million dollars” and began shooting the film in Uganda, with the famous actor Denzel Washington in the lead role.

Don’t underestimate Nair’s position: Warner Bros. offered our director the chance to direct Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but Nair turned it down because she was filming The Namesake, adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri’s bestselling novel of the same name.

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Family isn’t everything, but it is important. “Colored” property owners from the former colonies of the British Empire have no trouble joining the Western ruling class aristocracy.

Prabhat Patnaik, India’s diligent Marxist, analyzes the phenomenon of these “Third World” leaders rising to prominence in imperialist countries as a “tendency toward the formation of an international middle class.” I quote at length:

“This phenomenon [the rise of politicians or businesspeople from the Third World – author’s note] not only creates an opportunity to emphasize how ‘fair’ the countries in question where they grew up are, but it also helps convince people from the middle classes in Third World countries that they will receive ‘equal treatment’ in these metropolises, and consequently, that the world has a ‘just’ order and that the country of one’s birth is irrelevant to success. One of the problems that people from the middle classes in the colonies used to face was that they were subjected to discrimination in their own countries under colonial administration and could never rise beyond a certain point in official positions. This experience made the middle class feel that they had to overthrow the colonial yoke. In contrast, the current experiences of the present-day Third World middle class convince them that such discrimination no longer exists and, therefore, that the phenomenon of imperialism itself is no longer valid.”

This brings us closer to a Nietzschean ideal of an “intermingled, (aristocratic) ruling class that disregards national borders.” There are also those, like Homi Kharas, who affirm this by calling it the “global middle class.” This “global middle class” has an ideological package that will save our planet: It will combat global warming; it will steer global capital markets and corporations toward “sustainability”…

Beyond that, confirming Patnaik’s thesis, they also “don’t believe” in imperialism. It is constantly underlined that Mamdani’s wife, the Damascus-born artist Rama Duwaji, is “Syrian.” In Duwaji’s biography, we see that she has worked with The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Apple, Spotify, VICE, the BBC, and Tate Modern. A US-based campaign account close to Iran and Hezbollah writes that Duwaji supported the foreign-backed rebellion against the Bashar al-Assad government and that Mamdani is “controlled opposition.” The picture is complete.

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Just because a person is born with a silver spoon in their mouth doesn’t mean they have to embrace their “class.” History is full of examples.

But Mamdani is not among them.

It seems this is the case, as a New York Times investigation into who he gets his votes from in New York is the kind of news that would soothe the heart of a Wall Street said to be trembling in fear.

The NYT writes that Mamdani pulled ahead thanks to increased turnout in gentrifying neighborhoods and strong support from Asian and Hispanic communities.

“Democratic socialist” Mamdani secured high vote shares in Brooklyn’s affluent “brownstone” neighborhoods, in the diverse neighborhoods of Upper Manhattan, and in areas of Queens with large South Asian populations.

I would like to remind you that brownstone houses in New York are expensive: one of the main reasons these homes are so costly is simply their rarity. The number of these houses is limited, and it’s not possible to build more.

Quoting again from the NYT investigation: Mamdani, who promises to solve New York’s economic crisis, performed better than his rivals in predominantly college-educated districts and in middle- and high-income neighborhoods. Mamdani won in most of the majority-Asian districts and narrowly beat his main rival, Cuomo, in majority-Hispanic districts.

An interesting data point: Cuomo received more support in majority-Black districts and in low-income districts. Mamdani, however, struggled to win over older, wealthier voters, a significant portion of whom are Jewish, on Manhattan’s Upper West and East Sides.

I quote directly from the NYT investigation:

“Mamdani, who would be the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor, received his highest vote share in gentrifying neighborhoods with young, left-leaning voters, like Ridgewood in Queens and Greenpoint in Brooklyn. Voters in Jamaica Hills, a Queens neighborhood with a large South Asian population, also preferred Mr. Mamdani by a wide margin.”

The research shows that the majority of high- and middle-income New Yorkers voted for Mamdani. Nearly half of the low-income population, however, voted for Cuomo.

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It is known that there is a search for restructuring within the Democratic Party following the disappearance of Joe Biden and the defeat of Kamala Harris.

Saikat Chakrabarti, a former adviser to New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of Mamdani’s most important supporters, has rolled up his sleeves to unseat Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco.

The Texas-born Chakrabarti, a Silicon Valley veteran of Indian descent, is a perfect fit for the “nepo baby” class. This software engineer-turned-activist is known for his goals of a “Green New Deal” and a “New New Deal.” In his manifesto titled “A Mission for America,” he complains about the bureaucracy against nuclear energy and calls on the military to normalize nuclear power in the public eye, wears a t-shirt featuring a photo of Subhas Chandra Bose, a Hindu nationalist known for his sympathy for the Nazis, and was part of the “progressive” group “Justice Democrats.”

Chakrabarti was fired from the AOC campaign, but his platform is being adopted wholesale. According to a report on NPR in April, a young generation, including the Silicon Valley veteran, was poised to become the “new AOCs.” This younger generation, advocating for a more “aggressive” stance against Trump, was deeply dissatisfied with the old Democrats.

It’s not hard to see that Mamdani is also playing to this crowd. After his initial success, Mamdani’s campaign team is looking for ways to appeal to the “general public.” Mamdani, who once advocated for defunding the police, now appears to have backed away from that position.

It is claimed that corporations are prepared to spend $20 billion to defeat Mamdani. Mamdani’s campaign, however, believes they can quickly raise an initial $8 billion. Pro-Mamdani super PACs face no limits on how much money they can raise, and the group “New Yorkers for Lower Costs” raised $1.5 million in the primaries.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) writes even more. It suggests that the broad support for Mamdani reveals how Wall Street has changed in recent years, stating:

“Mr. Mamdani received more individual donations from the big banks than Mr. Cuomo did, according to city campaign-finance records that list donors’ employers. But they were mostly among the growing ranks of tech staff and other nonfinance workers. Three Goldman Sachs software engineers, for example, were listed as giving directly to Mr. Mamdani. Only one financier at Goldman gave directly to Mr. Cuomo, records show.”

Furthermore, the WSJ reports that other bankers who quietly support Mamdani did not want to speak “on the record,” and one even tried to use a “fake name.”

According to POLITICO, following his primary victory, Mamdani met privately with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Both are “establishment” New York Democrats.

The two leaders did not immediately give Mamdani their full endorsement, but they made positive comments about him on the social media site X and said they planned to meet with him in person soon.

A person close to Mamdani, speaking on condition of anonymity, described these statements as a “positive green light” and said the team was “very, very hopeful” about what they had accomplished in the short time since the primaries.

Also, Mamdani was called to the stage on Tuesday night by New York Attorney General Letitia James. James is one of the state’s most beloved and influential Democrats, known for her legal battles with President Donald Trump.