This is Mohammad Salman Hamdani. His parents were Pakistani and Muslim immigrants and came to the U.S. when he was an infant.
He was an EMT and NYPD cadet who rushed to the Twin Towers on 9/11 to help victims. He died there attempting to save lives. He was 23.
The unhinged racism and Islamphobia over Zohran Mamdani is entirely unacceptable, and it's disgusting for Andrew Cuomo to leverage the enduring trauma of that day as a political tactic by propagating the insane claim that Mr. Mamdani would cheer on another 9/11-like attack on New York City.
We cannot let this go unanswered. We cannot let it be go unaccountable. This shit has got to stop.
Muslim Americans have a long and proud history of service to this country, and when we allow people like Mr. Cuomo to endorse such a racist ideology, we dishonor not only American Muslims but the central idea of what we want America to be.
Enough is enough. I was with Zohran on September 11th 2001. We were 9 years old at school in Morningside Heights.
By 9:30AM we realized something was really wrong, because the teachers looked scared and they had paused classes. They had us call our parents to come pick us up.
I remember looking at Zohran on his dinky Nokia phone with his dad, as I was on with mine. We both had the same look on our faces because we were realizing our dads were also scared. We were wide-eyed, frightened kids who didn't know the world was changing around us in that moment. We could hear fighter jets flying low over the Hudson.
I went home and got under the covers in my parents' bed. I bet Zohran did the same. The jets kept flying overhead as I watched the towers burn on TV, then collapse. The memory of that day is indelible, as it is for every New Yorker.
You can say whatever you want about Zohran and his politics. I have, both good and bad. But the sickening weaponization of September 11th against Zohran, who was just another scared kid on that day, isn't just beyond the pale. It's a betrayal of every child and adult who spent that day dizzy with fear and confusion.
No apology or retraction is sufficient.
Booker: "I confess that I have been imperfect. I confess that I've been inadequate to the moment. I've confess that the Democratic Party has made terrible mistakes that gave a lane to this demagogue. I confess we all must look in the mirror and say 'we will do better.'"
RIP ❤️ Professor Kiah Duggins was among those lost in the mid-air plane collision at Reagan National Airport. Professor Duggins was set to begin a new chapter as a professor at Howard University School of Law this fall. May her memory be a blessing.
Affirmative action 🧵:
Yesterday I had to look up my endocrinologist’s office info to get a referral.
I happened upon the fact that she graduated Columbia 5 years after I did. Which meant I was part of the team that admitted her, a team that regularly acted affirmatively.
On Saturday, June 17, I was on a Lyft ride in Washington, D.C. that made me fear for my safety.
My driver missed numerous turns, prolonging my ride. In the midst of D.C. traffic, he almost hits a car and slams on his breaks, stopping about a foot from the car in front of him-
The College Board removing Ta-Nehisi Coates from the AP African American studies course only validates everything he was saying in Between the World and Me.