Two University of Texas at Austin students have spoken out after a Republican candidate singled out a crowd at a college football game and drew racist online attacks over their skin tone.
Hundreds of UT Austin students became targets of ridicule online after Bo French, the Republican nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission, shared a photo of the group on his X account on Sunday.
The image captured students celebrating as UT Austin’s football team secured a fourth-quarter victory over the top-ranked Ohio State University.
But the celebratory moment was quickly engulfed in racist commentary after French claimed that Texas “institutions have been overrun by illegal aliens and foreign nationals.”
“Like body-cams exposed criminals, social media is exposing how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners. It’s everywhere and far worse than any of us could imagine,” he wrote.
Two students visible in the photograph, 21-year-olds Dhairya Gupta and Rahul Kodali, are American citizens, they told The Dallas Morning News.
Gupta appears in the picture smiling and making the “Hook ’em” hand sign associated with the university. Beside him was Kodali, his friend since their freshman year, who looked stunned.
“It was just us having some enjoyment,” Gupta, a computer science major, told The Morning News. “And now it’s just people being blatantly racist toward us.”
Rahul Kodali (pictured) and his friend, Dhairya Gupta, are both 21-year-old American citizens who were photographed cheering at a UT Austin game. “Whether or not we are immigrants, that doesn’t change anything,” Kodali said.
Bo French, a candidate for public office, criticized the UT Austin student section on Sunday, claiming that US institutions have been “overrun by illegal aliens and foreign nationals.”
‘Whether or not we are immigrants, that doesn’t change anything,’ Kodali, who also majors in computer science, told the outlet. ‘I’ve been an American my entire life.’
Kodali was born in Syracuse, New York, before his family moved to Dallas when he was young. He graduated from a Texas high school and receives in-state tuition at UT Austin.
Gupta gained his US citizenship in childhood after his family immigrated from India when he was five.
‘I’m going to the games because I like the team,’ Kodali said. ‘I’m not doing it for this old noble cause.’
‘We have a different color in our skin, we might speak different languages, but at the end of the day, all of us are still going to the same university,’ Gupta told the outlet. ‘We’re still standing behind the same team.’
UT Austin has a very diverse student body of 44,000, with 30 percent being white, 28 percent being Hispanic and 26 percent being Asian, US News & World Report said.
The school is home to less than 6,000 foreign students, according to the school’s website, which is 4.3 percent of the student body.
The school requires that 90 percent of each incoming class be made up of Texas residents. Ten percent are international or out-of-state residents.
Two students in the photo French (pictured) shared hit back, saying they’re American citizens and that people are being ‘blatantly racist toward us’ since the post
And any student who graduates in the top five percent of their high school class is automatically admitted into the school, in accordance with the state law. The law requires anyone in the top 10 percent be auto-admitted, but UT Austin has been authorized to lower the threshold to the top five percent.
UT Austin President Jim Davis wrote on X: ‘Our students are exceptional. All of them are Longhorns.’
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Kevin P Eltife, Chairman of the UT System Board of Regents also reiterated this, writing on X: ‘When I stood on the sidelines at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium Saturday night and looked up at the seats filled with incredible fans, I saw Longhorns.
‘It’s the same remarkable view I have at graduation ceremonies and anytime I’m on campus. I’m proud to celebrate all our Longhorn students today and every day. Thank you for making us proud.’
Since French made the post, several Republicans throughout the Lone Star State immediately urged him to delete the post, including Senator John Cornyn, who called on others to denounce it.
He argued in his own post that French’s rhetoric threatened the future of the GOP.
‘This is the Republican nominee for statewide office. Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance or racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized,’ wrote Cornyn, whose 23-year run in the Senate is coming to an end after he suffered a primary loss to Attorney General Ken Paxton.
‘This is how great political parties self-destruct,’ he continued, calling it ‘sad.’
UT Austin is required to have 90 percent of incoming classes being Texas residents, with 10 percent being out-of-state and international students
Jared Patterson, a state representative from Austin, also declared that the post is ‘racist.’
‘It is wrong. And I condemn it without reservation,’ Patterson said.
‘There is absolutely nothing Christian or conservative about looking at a crowd of young Texans at a college football game, seeing the color of their skin and declaring that they are a “problem,”‘ he wrote, arguing: ‘These are 20-year-old kids cheering for their university – not political props and not targets for racial attacks.’
Patterson then went on to note that the Texas Railroad Commission only regulates the state’s oil and gas industry and does not set federal immigration policy.
‘Texans deserve Railroad Commissioners focused on the responsibilities of that office – not using a statewide campaign as a platform for racial division.
‘This does not represent my Christian faith. It does not represent my conservative principles. And it does not represent the Republican Party I believe in,’ he continued.
‘We should be willing to call racism wrong no matter who says it, what party they belong to or how politically inconvenient it may be,’ Patterson concluded. ‘This is wrong and I want no part of it.’
Many others called on French to delete the post.
However, the wannabe politician doubled down on Monday on The Mark Davis Show, saying Americans should be considered before international students at schools.
UT Austin President Jim Davis wrote on X: ‘Our students are exceptional. All of them are Longhorns’
‘The problem, as I see it, is that there are, and I think a lot of people would agree with this, that too many of our institutions are prioritizing people who are not Americans,’ he said.
‘It’s not racist to point out that we should be favoring Texans over foreigners.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to the University of Texas at Austin, Gupta, Kodali, and French for comment.