Texas politics inflamed by MAGA cowboys v Indians row
Republican nominee Bo French faced criticism after using a photo of a University of Texas football crowd to falsely claim that international students are displacing Texans. Statistical data shows that international students make up a small fraction of the university's population, debunking the narrative of a demographic takeover.
Why it matters
The incident illustrates how political figures use misleading visual evidence to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment and the importance of fact-checking demographic claims.
The TOI correspondent from Washington: The photograph that Bo French chose to make a political argument about Indians and foreigners overrunning the University of Texas, Austin, may have been worth thousands of social media posts, but it failed the statistical smell test.French, the Republican nominee for the powerful Texas Railroad Commission, posted a photograph of Longhorn fans -- named after the famous local cattle breed -- celebrating UT Austin’s dramatic September 12 football victory over Ohio State. Because a section of the crowd appeared heavily brown -- itself surprising because cricket-mad Indians are no great fans of American football -- French presented it as visual evidence of a demographic desi takeover.“I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined," he wrote.
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