{"id":443942,"date":"2026-09-22T10:54:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T10:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443942\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T10:54:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T10:54:32","slug":"hook-em-but-not-all-of-em-the-daily-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443942\/","title":{"rendered":"Hook \u2018em, but not all of \u2018em \u2013 The Daily Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This month, the Texas Longhorns beat the Ohio State Buckeyes in a thrilling game that ended with a stunning victory. The student section was pumped with school spirit, on the edge of their seats for this high-stakes win \u2014 and win we did.<\/p>\n

Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas railroad commissioner, saw images of passionate students cheering and logged onto X to say<\/a>, \u201cI heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn\u2019t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.\u201d He doubled down, saying Americans have been \u201cdisplaced by foreigners.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said this because the image featured students of South Asian descent, particularly Indians, celebrating.<\/p>\n

The official U.S. Department of Education went on to make an Instagram post<\/a> of a picture of Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium with the words \u201cMake College Football Great Again.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was born and raised in the United States. I have always been aware of the fact that many people wouldn\u2019t consider me American because I\u2019m also Indian, but it wasn\u2019t until I came to Texas that I realized how oddly particular and deep the specific disdain for Indians was.<\/p>\n

During sorority recruitment, I was immediately dropped from houses that didn\u2019t take women of color, or I was intentionally (and rather awkwardly) paired with the one South Asian girl in each chapter. Fraternities make lists of brown girls to poke fun at; guys pointedly say, \u201cI voted for Trump, but I promise I\u2019m not racist\u201d; and I might not have anything in common with someone, but because we are both brown, everyone mixes us up. Then there\u2019s the sheer amount of people who don\u2019t seem to realize that their racist Instagram reels likes about Indian people are, in fact, public.<\/p>\n

I quickly learned that because there are so many<\/a> Indian people in Texas, there are just as many people who don\u2019t want us here.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that anti-Indian sentiment doesn\u2019t exist outside of Texas. This is a countrywide issue. But in this state in particular, it seems almost normalized to be racist toward brown people.<\/p>\n

Texas state law requires that 90% of incoming freshmen are residents of Texas. Most of the people in that picture Bo French posted aren\u2019t just Americans; they\u2019re Texans. The only reason he \u2014 and many others \u2014 think they aren\u2019t is because they\u2019re not white.<\/p>\n

I can turn my nose up and say it\u2019s jealousy. I can brush it off and say I don\u2019t care. I can laugh along with the jokes. I can even try to ignore it, but I\u2019d be lying to myself.<\/p>\n

I do care, and it does bother me, because I am American. I belong in that student section too, along with every person in that picture Bo French posted.<\/p>\n

I debated publishing this article because speaking out about these kinds of things makes you the one who couldn\u2019t let it go. You\u2019re the one who made it political \u2014 who made it racial. My paranoia itself is a quiet mechanism that makes this feel so normalized in the first place.<\/p>\n

But belonging isn\u2019t Bo French\u2019s to hand out, nor anyone who thinks like him.<\/p>\n

That Saturday, when we beat Ohio State, no one was thinking about where we or our parents were born. The only thing that mattered was that we won. The whole stadium, all of us wearing burnt orange, was throwing up Hook \u2018Em and cheering alongside strangers and friends \u2014 alongside everyone.<\/p>\n

That says more about Bo French and anyone else who has an outdated racist outlook on what it means to be an American and a Texan than us.<\/p>\n

Thakkar is a government junior from Winter Park, Florida.<\/p>\n