The Texas Observer

The Texas Observer is an Austin-based nonprofit news organization known for fearless investigative reporting, narrative storytelling and sophisticated cultural criticism about all things Texan.

The Texas Observer • A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES SINCE 1954 VOLUME 113, NO. 2

DIALOGUE

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

TRIVIA TEXAS

TEXAS TALLY • The news, in numbers

TEXAS OBSERVED

STRANGEST STATE • NOTES FROM FAR-FLUNG TEXAS

Optics of Power

LOON STAR STATE

Barrier Breaking • U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, the first Black woman to chair the House science committee, talks racism and COVID-19 disparities.

ABANDONED IN THE PERMIAN • ACROSS THE PERMIAN BASIN, SCORES OF ABANDONED OIL WELLS ARE WREAKING UNTOLD ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE. STATES HAVE NOWHERE NEAR ENOUGH MONEY TO CLEAN THEM UP.

PORTRAITS OF THE PANDEMIC • ORDINARY STORIES FROM AN EXTRAORDINARY YEAR

Diedrick Brackens Returns to Texas • The textile artist from Mexia uses animals, silhouette, and texture to recast symbols of life and death in Texas.

Truly Texas Mexican Bites Off More Than It Can Chew • A new food documentary fails to recognize the complexities of Indigenous identity in Texas.

Captivity Narrative • News of the World unsuccessfully tries to redeem the Western at its most harmful.

On a Dime • The rules of barrel racing, the only female-dominated rodeo sport, are simple. It’s the execution that’s hard.

MY COUSIN DIES, LIKE A DEER, ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

EYE ON TEXAS