BY: Vincent L. Hall
My first time hearing this young brother was all sound and no video. He was riffing with another opponent in the primaries, and his candor, cadence, and confidence sounded so familiar.
I thought I was listening to Barack Hussein Obama, but it was actually Zohran Kwame Mamdani.
This young brother could take the world by storm and is arguably the second reckoning of the “audacity to hope” campaign.
Barack Obama rode it from the streets of South Chicago to the South Lawn of America’s premier government-sponsored housing. Or as we call it in the hood, “the projects!”
Last Tuesday night, fueled by a youthful electorate and the overly zealous interference of Donald Trump,
Mamdani defeated all comers. Zohran beat the moron by turning Trump’s insults into votes. In the words of Obama, don’t boo, vote!
And they did.
Listen to an excerpt of his acceptance speech and see how he threads the needle of hope and weaves the blanket of unity reminiscent of Obama.
“We as a model for the Democratic Party, a party where we fight for working people with no apology. A life of dignity should not be reserved for a fortunate few.
It should be one that city government guarantees for each and every New Yorker. If this campaign has demonstrated anything to the world, it is that our dreams can become reality.
Dreaming demands hope and when I think of hope, I think of the unprecedented coalition of New Yorkers that we have built.
For this is not my victory, this is ours. It is the victory of the Bangladeshi auntie who knocked on door after door until her feet throbbed and her knuckles ached. It is the victory of the 18-year-old who voted in their first ever election and it is the victory of the Gambian uncle who finally saw himself and his struggle in a campaign for the city that he calls home.
Dreaming demands solidarity and when I look out at this room and out onto the midnight skyline that is what I see.”
Damn. That is so hopefully Obamaesque!
What Mamdani did was to incorporate four of Obama’s key elements into a campaign that yielded more votes for him than for any candidate in New York City’s mayoral history.
More than Dinkins, Giuliani, Bloomberg, de Blasio, or any name that ever appeared on a NYC mayoral ballot.
Mamdani not only invoked a message of shared hope for the masses, but also built a grassroots organization that touched every brick and borough in the Big Apple.
Like Obama, he used his diverse background to his advantage.
Mamdani holds dual citizenship in the United States and Uganda. Barack, of course, overcame the fact that he was a native of Hawaii whose father was a Kenyan.
You may know Kenya as one of those “shithole countries” that Trump shamelessly belittled.
Zohran owes a debt of gratitude to Donald Trump. Rather than running from Trump’s social media missives, he engaged the ogre in a battle of “I’m rubber, you’re glue, and whatever you say to me bounces off of me and sticks to you!”
Mamdani has the potential to go far, given all he has had to overcome. The “funny” non-generic American name. The aegis of his Muslim faith in a world that has sullied a whole religion for the sake of a few zealots.
And finally, he has overcome the scorn and open hatred of a president whose folly and filth are attractive to almost 40% of this nation.
Someday, we may see Mamdani sitting in the same government projects that Obama was in.
They are a lot alike.
long-time Texas Metro News columnist, Dallas native Vincent L. Hall is an author, writer, award-winning writer, and a lifelong Drapetomaniac.
