From The Texas Tribune · Megan Menchaca · · 1m 20s
UT students hit back at Bo French's racist post
A Texas Railroad Commission candidate posted a graduation photo to claim white Americans are being displaced, and the students in it are speaking up.
In brief
A Texas Railroad Commission candidate posted a graduation photo to claim white Americans are being displaced, and the students in it are speaking up. The students in the photo saw nothing wrong with it, and that gap is the whole story: a candidate turned a normal graduation into a grievance. Originally reported by The…
A graduation photo weaponized
Bo French, a Republican running for the Texas Railroad Commission, posted a photo on X of UT Austin students of South Asian descent celebrating their graduation.
What he actually wrote
French framed the photo as proof of decline, saying he hadn't believed reports about UT graduation until he saw it.
“I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn't believe it.”
He doubled down Monday
Rather than walk it back, French defended the post on a conservative radio talk show the next day.
The pile-on that followed
By then the post had spread across social media, drawing replies like "Bollywood University" and "I didn't know the stadium was in India."
“The America we grew up in no longer exists.”
A student in the frame
Senior Dhairya Gupta is in the bottom right of the photo, throwing a Hook 'em Horns sign in a burnt orange shirt. He said seeing a candidate say it was "insane."
“When I look at that picture, I don't see a problem.”
Even Karl Rove bailed
The Republican strategist said he'll break a 30 year streak of backing only Republicans to vote against French, calling him a bigot.
The one thing
The students in the photo saw nothing wrong with it, and that gap is the whole story: a candidate turned a normal graduation into a grievance.
