Satire And Irony Of Is Texas America By Molly Ivan

Texas represents a national demographic shift that will cause the United States to become a “minority-majority” country in the near future. Texas achieved that status in 2004, when racial and ethnic minority populations, both native and foreign-born, collectively outnumber non-Hispanic whites; in addition, the state

Texas has all three political cultures all over the state, but when people outside of

“This is America. We’re entitled to our opinions.” “Wrong. This is Texas. And my opinion is the only want that matters” (Susan Elizabeth Phillips). Oh, how this quote is so accurate. Texans believe that what they say is always right no matter what. You can’t talk bad about a true Texans. I remember my first day is Texas like it was just yesterday. People used to say how everything is bigger in Texas, and they weren’t lying. Just the drive seemed like it was never going to end. I remember thinking about only seeing open road and people riding on horses everywhere in cowboy boots and hats. Too bad that wasn’t true, well not the riding around on horses and everybody in cowboy boots and hats. All I saw was trees all around me and gigantic hills that you couldn’t see anything over. Although, it seemed like it was never going to end; there was some good things about my drive. Just to see how Texas took pride in their state and the beautiful scenery. I remember when I first saw don’t mess with Texas sign and thought to myself, “Wow they are really serious.” The monuments and statues of past Texans stood tall and how you can drive on the median to take pictures with the Texas signs. So, in all it wasn’t that bad.

For centuries same sex marriage has been a dispute, especially in Texas because of how powerfully Texas believes in the bible and how extremely “old fashioned” it is. The debate has been over LGBT equality, just like the black civil rights movement and the women’s movement in the 1960’s. Due to the traditional and common law, Texas does not allow same sex marriage. Actually, the state banned same sex marriage a decade ago or more. The issue was during the 2004 presidential election when Missouri and Louisiana voters approved same sex marriage and eleven states placed amendments. Everyone held their word and continued to protect the laws of Texas. The constitutional amendments that banned same sex marriage well-defined marriage as a union between

I took my inquiries one step further; I spoke to my sister’s best friend, Rem. Rem is an active gay man. He is currently single and looking. I only mention this because most on the lookout for a relationship are fairly vocal about their needs and he is no acceptation. Something else you need to know is that he recently made the move back to his hometown of Waco from Austin. I asked him how he felt about the saying “live and let live”. Interestingly enough, he felt the same way that the gay rancher had felt, without any prior knowledge on the movie. I asked him how the difference was between the two cities. He explained that in Austin, as you probably know, 90% are very accepting of the gay community, and that Waco absolutely was not. In fact, he stated that it is hard to have and keep friends here because of his sexuality. When he had mentioned his feelings and beliefs to these unnamed people, they were not just merely put off by him; they were disgusted and would shut down on the conversation all together. Wow. I was mind blown. I had no idea how opinionated and hateful we could really be.

The fight for civil rights in Texas expanded across social, political, and even religious lines. Similar to many other states across the south, African Americans and Latinos found themselves

There are a lot of people in this world with different perceptions of how others act that don’t live in the same country. Ivins’ uses certain stereotypical assumptions of Texans and how they act rather than realizing that they are all misconceptions. Stereotypes aren’t always correct they are well known ideas or images that a lot of people think are right, but in reality they are incorrect. There are a lot of people in this world with a lot of falsified ideas about Texans, which is proven in Molly Ivins’ “Is Texas America?” article.

Texas has a reputation throughout history of differing views from the federal government in laws and politics pertaining to social, fiscal, and educational issues. On the whole, Texas operates as a largely conservative state. Because of this, policy-making is often right wing. With the institution of a Democratic, liberal president, the State’s dissent from the Federal government has only increased over certain issues. One hot topic of the 2012 Presidential election was immigration. With the major increase in immigration, it is no surprise that the issue was so emphasized. Between 2000 and 2011 there was a 30 percent

“If a man’s from Texas, he’ll tell you. If he’s not, why embarrass him by asking?” This quote by John Gunther, author of Inside U.S.A., reflects the pride I have for my great home state of Texas. Being a Texan means more than just saying one lives in Texas; it is the sense of opportunity and power, which promotes individualism and acts as the common identifier for all walks of life by instilling the feelings of belonging and pride. If presented with the decision to choose between being an American or Texan, one or the other, then my answer would be a quick ‘Texan’ as if that should even be a question.

Several conflicts, including the Civil War, forced many Mexicans out of Texas due to xenophobic attitudes towards them (Collier et al. 14). Despite these troubles, years of cultural assimilation and population growth has led to Hispanics composing 38.6% of the state’s population as of 2014, according to the data presented by Collier et al., making Texas a majority-minority state (28). This term can be applied because Hispanics, being an ethnic minority, make up a large part of population of the state, and have a large influence on politics and culture due to how ingrained they have become in the history of Texas (Collier et al. 27). Overall, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo denotes a turning point in the history of Texas because it represents the point at which the core aspects of the state were defined, allowing for Texas to develop through the years into a modern, multicultural, and diverse state (Collier et al.

The 1950s was probably the most important decade for Mexican-American citizens in Texas. Discrimination has always been a big issue for Mexican-Americans because they have always been treated as invisible white people in Texas. Supposedly they are citizens of our country, but somehow they were not given equal rights. There were occasions in Texas where a white citizen, for no good cause, shot a Mexican-American unexpectedly. Texas restaurants wouldn’t serve Mexican-Americans. They had separate restrooms and schools between white and Mexican-American. In this essay we will be discussing the case Hernandez v. Texas, 1953; the details and the outcome.

On July 1, 2013, Texas Senator Wendy Davis made a speech at Texas’s State Capitol. She had an audience of about 5,000 people, as she spoke about Women’s Rights and Texan power. In “Stand with Texas Women”, Wendy Davis argues that Texas is all about fairness, so women deserve equal opportunity. Specifically, Davis states that Texas has pushed to be fair, but politicians have been selfish in their careers. Her point is that creating equal opportunity for women will help not only Texan families, but Texas as a whole. She also points out that Texas needs politicians who want what is best for the state and the people. Davis uses her Texas pride as an advantage in her speech. She talks about growing up in Texas and she shows some vulnerability

2) Newell, C., Prindle, D., & Riddlesperger, J. (2011). Texas politics. (12th ed.). Boston, MA:Wadsworth.

In 2010 the Texas population grew by about 4.3 million people. Latinos accounted for 65 percent of the increase, blacks 13.4 percent and Asian-Americans 10.1 percent (Barnes). According to Texas Department of State Health Services, data taken from The Census Bureau in 2010 showed that the out of the 25,145,561 people in Texas the Black Population was 3,003,149 (11.94%) and the Hispanic Population was 9,460,921 (37.62%) meaning that 49.56% of Texas was comprised of Black and Hispanic minority groups. Census data taken from the 2012 national election showed that minority groups favored the Democratic Party and that has been historically so for many years with only a few shifts to the Republican Party. However, in Texas Democrats make up 11 of the 38 seats in Congress, including both the Senate and House of Representatives. Ironically though, 28.94% of the Congressmen from Texas are democratic whereas 49.56% of the population of Texas is comprised of minority groups that traditionally vote democratic. This discrepancy between the Texas population and the Texas congressional population goes to show that gerrymandering in order to favor white majority groups who typically vote republican did indeed occur in the 2012 election following the 2010 Census which is a violation of Article 2 of the Voting Rights

When I was a kid, and I moved from the plains of Colorado to the backwoods of North Houston, I asked myself a few questions. What is Texas? What is a Texan? And most importantly, do I get to ride my horses to school? These were all good questions and as I spent more time in Texas, I came to realize these questions were more common than expected. Throughout my time in this state, I came to understand that Texans have their own cultural identity. In fact, I found Texans have a sense of group identify based on their shared history and their cultural distinctiveness. Although the stereotypes point to being Texan as throwing on your cowboy hat, going to the rodeo, and eating everything and anything fried, it is not necessary to do these things to be classified as a Texan. While some of our population participates in ranching and cowboy culture, a true Texan is so much more diverse.