UT-Austin students fire back after Republican’s ‘blatantly racist’ post

University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) students fired back Monday against a “blatantly racist” post from the Republican nominee for Texas railroad commissioner, Bo French.

French posted an image over the weekend of UT-Austin students, many of whom were South Asian, with the caption: “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.”

One student, Dhairya Gupta, who was shown in the images French shared, told The Dallas Morning News on Monday that he was “having some enjoyment” during the game but “now it’s just people being blatantly racist toward us.”

Gupta and his friend Rahul Kodali, who was also in the images French posted, said they were both U.S. citizens. Gupta immigrated to the U.S. when he was 5 years old and gained citizenship in childhood while Kodali was born in New York before his family moved to the Dallas area.

“Whether or not we are immigrants, that doesn’t change anything,” Kodali told the Dallas newspaper. “I’ve been an American my entire life.”

Gupta continued that he “thought it was surprising that people are going out of their way to be racist on that.”

“They have people voting for them, and they’re not scared to say this kind of thing,” Gupta told The Dallas Morning News. “It’s becoming to the point where this kind of racism just isn’t looked down upon as much as it used to be — or it feels like that.”

The incident has already been condemned by Texas GOP lawmakers — including Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Dan Crenshaw.

“Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized. This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad,” Cornyn wrote on the social platform X .

Texas state Rep. Lacey Hull (R) urged French to delete the post.

“This post breaks my heart,” she wrote on X . “I see college kids cheering on their football team. I see Texans.”

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) urged French to delete the post and said the candidate can oppose immigration policies “without demeaning people because of their race or ethnicity –– this post has crossed the line.”

French, despite the broad criticism, has not apologized for the post.

He has instead used the backlash for campaign fundraising , saying on Monday, “The radical left and their allies are attacking me.”