Economic opportunities and cultural boom
Austin is one of America's fastest-growing cities, both economically and culturally. Technology jobs are constantly evolving, tourism is at an all-time high and the population of major American cities is changing. For some years now, Texas cities like Austin and Houston have been attracting Americans from other parts of the country, from big cities like San Francisco and New York, thanks to major new economic opportunities, particularly in the tech industry. For example, Elon Musk has moved Tesla's headquarters to Austin, and Houston's medical center has become one of the best research and medical care centers in the world, even treating the Emir of Kuwait. Waves of tourists from South and Central America come just for the shopping, attracted by malls like the Galleria in Houston. On an international level too, these cities are experiencing growing cultural diversification.
Culinary Tourism
A recent study found that Houston, among three other Texas cities, was one of the most diverse in the country. With that comes culinary richness, especially for a city where dining out is one of residents' major pastimes. In Houston, there are several neighborhoods with a concentration of specific cuisines: the Mahatma Gandhi district, Chinatown, Korean cuisine in Spring Branch, Vietnamese restaurants in Midtown, Venezuelan cuisine in Katy. This rich culinary concentration attracts many tourists every year, with more and more guided tours focusing on local cuisine.
The right to bear arms
As of 2021, Texas residents 21 years of age or older have the right to carry a weapon, such as a pistol, in public places without a permit, openly or discreetly. Texas law doesn't specifically place restrictions on who can carry a long gun like a rifle or shotgun. But Texas has suffered a dozen shootings since 2015, including the recent 2022 elementary school shooting in Uvalde. In 2019, there was a shooting in El Paso at a Walmart that led to gun regulations by the El Paso city government, later overturned and neglected by the state. This kind of conflict between state and local policy is recurrent.
LGBTQ+
The year 2023 is off to a bad start for the LGBTQ+ community, with laws across the country directly attacking these communities, with Texas breaking all records for anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Texas Governor Greg Abbott faced national outrage after asking the state's Child Protective Services to investigate all parents providing gender-affirming care to their children, accusing them of "child abuse". The most welcoming places for LGBTQ+ communities are generally in big cities, such as Austin and Houston, as well as more rural towns like Marfa. Since the economic growth and cultural boom of Texas' big cities, the LGBTQ+ community has long been an integral part of daily life. Once again, the divide between cities and state policies is wide.
Anti-abortion laws
The retirement of the federal Roe v. Wade law protecting abortion has reached international news. Shifted from a federal to a state matter, abortion has become illegal in half the country's states, including Texas. It goes even further, with some far-right politicians even wanting to abolish access to contraception. No wonder Margaret Atwood's The Scarlet Handmaid is classified as a banned book in Texas schools, exposing a dystopian American future. The imaginary society created by Atwood is governed by a fundamentalist regime that treats women as the property of the state, exploring themes of women subjugated in a patriarchal society, loss of female agency and individuality, and the suppression of women's reproductive rights. Perhaps a not-so-distant future after all.
The death penalty
The international press often points the finger at Texas when it comes to the death penalty, probably because it's hard to believe that in a developed country it's still possible to impose this kind of punishment. Indeed, the cowboy state is known for breaking records in this area, as Texas is home to the highest number of executions since the death penalty was reinstated in the USA by the Supreme Court in 1976. On average, inmates spend 10 years on death row before being killed. These sordid sentences are something of a tradition, with hanging taking precedence between 1819 and 1923, followed by the electric chair. In 1977, Texas adopted lethal injection. Three products are injected into the condemned man's veins. The first puts him to sleep, the second paralyzes him, and the third causes cardiac arrest. There have been numerous protests against this type of homicide throughout history, for example in 1972 when the Supreme Court described the death penalty as "cruel and inhuman". What's also raging is that a large majority of deathrow inmates are African-American, reaching 41% of the imprisoned population.
