Zohran Mamdani Admits To Excluding Black Americans And Not Telling ‘The Full Story’ With Comment That ‘City Built By Immigrants’

When Coleman said “she felt a type of way,” the young mayor said it's understandable and looked right in the camera to say “that’s why I’m here to apologize.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is attempting to right a wrong by admitting he failed to include Black Americans during a previous comment made about the Big Apple being a “city built by immigrants,” The Grio reported.

During a sit-down with podcaster and historian Latoya Coleman, Mamdani admitted to being guilty of excluding Black Americans during his 2025 mayoral election speech where he described NYC as a “city built by immigrants.” As a wrap-up to the 100th Black History Month, Coleman asked how people can include enslaved people and indigenous people who have built the foundation of America in New York City as well.

The mayor jumped right in by saying he has been guilty of it and gave some insight on how to correct it. “I think the first thing is, if we’re being honest, we have to tell the full story. And when we tell a sweeping generalization like that, we lose sight of the fact that Black New Yorkers helped to build New York City,” he said.

When Coleman said “she felt a type of way,” the young mayor said it’s understandable and looked right in the camera to say “that’s why I’m here to apologize.” “Because you learn from it. And I think as much as we want to and we should support immigrant New Yorkers and their incredible place in the city, doing so doesn’t necessitate that we overlook contributions of Black New Yorkers,” he said.

“We can tell the full story.”

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The narrative of Black immigrants being overlooked has floated throughout social media as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been terrorizing American cities, resulting in protests and deaths of several U.S. citizens. During the 2026 Grammy Awards, Nigerian-American country singer Shaboozey received massive backlash for stating that “immigrants built this country, literally” during his acceptance speech.

Since his historic win as the city’s first Muslim and youngest mayor at just 34-years-old, Mamdani has made positive strides but seemingly rubbed some Black residents the wrong way with certain policies. Particularly when it comes to the housing market, residents feel like they may be driven out of the communities they built after the mayor threatened to hike property taxes as a way of targeting the wealthy.

As a 2023 article from the New York Times highlighted “the city’s Black population has declined by nearly 200,000 people in the past two decades,” president of the NAACP New York State Conference, L. Joy Williams, surveyed Black residents, showcasing that homeownership is a priority.

After Mamdani declared war on bad landlords, Williams celebrated the effort but said supporting first-time homebuyers should be a high priority. “Our members want policies that turn renters into owners to close the racial wealth gap,” she said, according to NY Mag.

“It is clear from the lack of conversation and engagement that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of focus and attention on the needs of Black New Yorkers in the city.”