{"id":439830,"date":"2026-09-18T10:16:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T10:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/439830\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T10:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T10:16:22","slug":"fort-worth-silent-on-idiotic-bo-french-slam-of-ut-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/439830\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth silent on \u2018idiotic\u2019 Bo French slam of UT students"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bo<\/p>\n

Bo French, candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission, attends the Conservative Political Action Conference in March at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, in Grapevine.<\/p>\n

Callaghan O’Hare<\/p>\n

REUTERS<\/p>\n

FORT WORTH<\/p>\n

Bo French hates Texas.<\/p>\n

But he has oil money<\/a> and a cadre of trash-talkers behind him, so most Fort Worth leaders are too gutless to criticize him.<\/p>\n

There is no other way to explain the events of the last week, when a spoiled son of Westover Hills<\/a> went on his latest public tirade and was met with loud pushback across America \u2014 but mostly embarrassed silence in Fort Worth and Tarrant County.<\/p>\n

This time, the Republican candidate to regulate the oil industry on the misnamed Texas Railroad Commission complained about some of Texas\u2019 top college students \u2014 just because they don\u2019t look like him.<\/p>\n

French posted a photo on X.com of a crowd of happy Indian-American students. They were wildly cheering the University of Texas Longhorns\u2019 come-from-behind football victory over the No. 1 team in the country.<\/p>\n

His comment: \u201cI heard UT graduation this year looked like this. … The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n

French explained later in so many words that he was referring to residency status, not race<\/a>. Children of immigrants here on work permits are counted as residents up to age 21, meaning they count toward the state requirement that UT admit 90% residents in each freshman class.<\/p>\n

\"Tarrant Tarrant County Republican Party chairman Bo French spoke to a Republican women\u2019s club meeting Feb. 10, 2024, at the Enchiladas Ole restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas. Bud Kennedy bud@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n

But when reporters found students in the photo, the first two identified were both American citizens. About one-third of U.S. college students<\/a> are first- or second-generation immigrants, but a majority are American citizens.<\/p>\n

In other words, what French saw was mostly a section of cheering American college football fans, because a lot of the smartest kids in Texas and America today are Indian-American and Asian-American.<\/p>\n

He thinks that\u2019s all wrong.<\/p>\n

Then, Fort Worth leaders sat in near-complete silence.<\/p>\n

They shook their heads and tut-tutted the French family\u2019s wayward boy just as if he were a curly-haired brat wreaking havoc in the grand ballroom at a blue-blood country club.<\/p>\n

Look, Bo French is not a TCU frat boy anymore.<\/p>\n

\"Bo Bo French at a gala welcoming the touring company of \u201cThe Lion King\u201d to the Bass Performance Hall Aug. 30, 2002. The gala was at the Maddox-Muse Center. Sharon Corcoran Star-Telegram archives <\/p>\n

He is a relentless and power-hungry politician running for statewide office, driven to overthrow Texas leaders and use the force of law to restore control of the state to \u201cheritage\u201d white Texans and Americans.<\/p>\n

That, in turn, would keep control in the hands of two maniacal West Texas energy billionaires<\/a>: Tim Dunn of Midland and Farris Wilks of Cisco.<\/p>\n

They want Texas governed their own way, only by extremist archconservatives and only by their hardline teachings under a Christian God, without any say-so whatsoever for Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims or anyone else.<\/p>\n

Fort Worth and Tarrant County have always had a few little nut nests. We are prone to spot outbreaks of resentment, hatred and bigotry.<\/p>\n

\"The The Fort Worth Klan No. 101 gathered with 5,000 Klansmen from across North Texas for a parade through downtown Fort Worth, Texas, Feb. 16, 1922. The photo was taken before the parade in YMCA Park on West Vickery Boulevard east of Jennings Street. Roy Jernigan Basil Clemons Photograph Collection, UT Arlington Library Special Collections \"A A 1923 Ku Klux Klan gathering in Fort Worth, including a campaign sign in the background for city Finance Commissioner Chester L. Jones. Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection UT Arlington Special Collections <\/p>\n

In the 1910s, Fort Worth was the home of the movement against women\u2019s voting rights<\/a> in Texas.<\/p>\n

In the 1920s, one of the largest Ku Klux Klan<\/a> klaverns in the South marched down Main Street in white hoods and sheets under the banner, \u201cAmerica First.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Juneteenth 1939, a white mob provoked in part by Charles Stowe, a Confederate veteran\u2019s grandson,<\/a> destroyed the home of 12-year-old Opal Lee<\/a>\u2019s family in a white southside neighborhood.<\/p>\n

In 1956, whites in the then-farming-town of Mansfield rioted<\/a> against school desegregation.<\/p>\n

Today, the national white supremacist Patriot Front<\/a> group is led by residents from Haslet and Grapevine.<\/p>\n

Yet today, like in the 1920s and 1950s, our leaders are somehow unable to speak out boldly.<\/p>\n

As far as I can tell, north Fort Worth City Council member Charles Lauersdorf<\/a> is the only local Republican official who has spoken out publicly against French\u2019s sneering mockery of Indian-American students cheering at a UT football game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is exactly why a fanatic like this should never hold any office,\u201d Lauersdorf wrote in a courageous Facebook post, sharing French\u2019s X.com comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like Bo French are the problem,\u201d Lauersdorf went on: \u201cHe probably doesn\u2019t realize that a majority of what he sees are likely American students chasing the American dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a follow-up post, Lauersdorf, a Marine veteran, said he\u2019s disappointed in those who defend French\u2019s comment as conservative.<\/p>\n

\u201c Conservatism doesn\u2019t require us to abandon basic decency or pretend racism becomes acceptable just because someone on our side says it,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

I just can\u2019t imagine anyone resenting some of Texas\u2019 smartest kids cheering wildly for their football team and getting an education.<\/p>\n

Even U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz<\/a> of Houston said French\u2019s post was \u201cidiotic.\u201d<\/p>\n

We need to hear that more in Tarrant County and Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published September 17, 2026 at 1:13 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Bud Kennedy is a Fort Worth Star-Telegram opinion columnist. In a 54-year Texas newspaper career, he has covered two Super Bowls, a presidential inauguration, seven national political conventions and 19 Texas Legislature sessions..
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