(TEXAS TRIBUNE) - Students at the University of Texas at Austin said they were dismayed - but unsurprised - by the racist attacks lobbed at them online after a Republican candidate for statewide office suggested white Americans were being "displaced."Bo French, the Republican running for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state's oil and gas industry, on Sunday posted racist comments on X that included an image of UT students of South Asian descent celebrating the victory."I heard UT graduation this year looked like this," French wrote in a post featuring a photo of the students.

"I didn't believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined."On Monday, French defended his comments on a conservative radio talk show.

But by then, the posts had reverberated across social media, attracting comments like "Bollywood University" "Are we watching a cricket game," "I didn't know the stadium was in India," and "The America we grew up in no longer exists."Dhairya Gupta, a senior at the University of Texas, is included in the bottom right of the photo, wearing a burnt orange T-shirt with his right arm extended into a "Hook 'em Horns" hand sign.