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Dhairya Gupta and Rahul Kodali (right) speak out after finding themselves at the center of a major row.
Dhairya Gupta and Rahul Kodali were cheering when the Longhorns secured a victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes in a thrilling match on Saturday. A day later, they found themselves in the middle of a raging controversy over how universities in Texas are teeming with non-White students.
Texas Republican Bo French, who is contesting in a November election, raised the issue, sharing a celebration photo. Gupta told The Dallas Morning News that he never heard of Bo French. “It was just us having some enjoyment. And now it's just people being blatantly racist toward us," 21-year-old Gupta said.While the social media narrative took shape assuming that most of these Asian students are on student visa, 21-year-old Gupta told the Dallas Morning News that he is a US citizen.
So is Rahul Kodali, who was right beside him in the now-viral photo. They are Indian-origin US citizens.Gupta said he came to the US when he was 5 years old and got his citizenship in his childhood.Kodali was born in Syracuse, New York. His family moved to the Dallas area when he was a toddler. He graduated from Flower Mound High School in Denton County and receives in-state tuition.“Whether or not we are immigrants, that doesn’t change anything,” Kodali said.
“I’ve been an American my entire life.”Sen. John Cornyn warned that silence from other GOP officials would allow “intolerance and racism” to become normalized. House Speaker Dustin Burrow, R-Lubbock, also condemned the post.Both of them said that Bo French does not deserve to be elected to the railroad commission because of his post.
Who is Dhairya Gupta?
Gupta, a senior and computer science major, chose UT because he believed it was a great school with a thriving athletics department located in a major city that keeps growing, he said.
He met Kodali his first day of school as a freshman, and they bonded over their love of the English soccer team Chelsea.“Texas is broad enough that you really get to meet people of all different types,” Gupta said. “I’ve gotten opportunities here that I wouldn’t necessarily get elsewhere.”According to Gupta, racism has risen within the last 10 years — since President Donald Trump’s first campaign in 2016. He’s seen blanket racist statements before, he said, but he had difficulty describing racism being “directly applied to us.”
“I’d never seen this in lower-level elections, and then seeing this happen right now, just from an innocent moment at a football game at the state’s university, I just thought it was surprising that people are going out of their way to be racist on that,” Gupta said.He also became concerned when he realized French is seeking elected office, which gives him a platform.“They have people voting for them, and they’re not scared to say this kind of thing,” Gupta said.
“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.”“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 said. “We’re still standing behind the same team.”
Who is Rahul Kodali?
Kodali, who is also a senior and computer science major, did not like some posts seeming to defend him and other students as assimilating into American culture by attending a UT football game and wearing cowboy hats or cowboys boots.
“I’m going to the games because I like the team,” he said. “I’m not doing it for this old noble cause.”Kodali called Bo French 'narrow-minded' in an interview with Fox4News and said: "Every student that's currently at the University of Texas deserves to be there. There's no handouts or anything. So even if these people like that are making it a thing about race, everyone that's here deserves to be here, and they've done and worked hard to make it so."
'All of them are Longhorns'
The University of Texas posted a statement from Kevin P Eltife, chairman of the UT System Board of Regents, which said that when he “looked up at the seats filled with incredible fans, I saw Longhorns.” “I’m proud to celebrate all our Longhorn students today and every day,” he added.University President Jim Davis also wrote: “Our students are exceptional. All of them are Longhorns.”
