“Sharia Law” is simply an acceptable term (for them) used as cover for outright racism. North Texas has one of the fastest growing minority populations in the county and is predominantly south Asian. You can claim you’re against “Sharia Law” and no one bats an eye, but what they really mean is “don’t worry, we know that almost an entire subdivision was purchased by Indians, and they want to build a temple, and maybe open a Hindu school (to take advantage of all the school choice that was only supposed to go to Christians, right?), and why does everyone dress funny in the neighborhood!?!?” That’s all it’s about.
The sprawl is the sprawl. It’s the New Jersey to NYC of Dallas, except global companies are setting up shop in North Texas because it’s cheap and they can get away with doing anything they want.
Just to put this comment into perspective: I'm a native Dallasite but have lived in Austin since I was 13, in addition to NYC & London. I'm still up there at least once a month, however.
While I'm as alarmed by the rise of megachurches as any other given American progressive, I'd nonetheless argue that looking at Dallas solely through the perspective of its churches & suburbs is myopic, despite largely agreeing with Hamilton's points. One aspect of Dallas life you might not know absent decades of experience: the extent to which white flight occurred there, but also how much it's since been *reversed*.
I know this is true in NYC as well, but the default option for young couples is increasingly *not* a house in the 'burbs with 2.5 kids. It's even gotten its own batch of realtor-invented area names: if SoHo begat NoHo, Dallas's Preston Hollow area – its fanciest within the city limits – begat "Midway Hollow." (My own childhood neighborhood, one that's apparently now a huge draw for mid-century architecture enthusiasts.)
Further still, what *really* scares the living shit out of my state's unfortunate bigots – resulting in borderline-farce notions about "Sharia law" and the like – is reality: Texas in 2025 is only 40% white. Each of its major cities, including Dallas, is heavily Democratic, and yet people still routinely think Austin's the "lone blueberry in the bowl of tomato soup," to paraphrase Rick "Oops" Perry. The suburbs are overwhelmingly white, but Dallas proper is barely 25% white.
When my family left Dallas, Plano was still almost entirely white. Today it's not even *majority* white, and a quarter of its population is Asian.
Prestonwood Baptist Church may be the future MAGA wants for America, but that doesn't mean the inverse is necessarily true – even in Dallas. In the reality-based world, white Texans are a rapidly dwindling minority, and Republicans have successfully pissed off our largest ethnic group by far: Hispanics. Heckuva job!
Nothing says sense of place like a massive two-car garage door dominating the vernacular architecture, as you meander on a walk on the sidewalks of America, thinking about which next shopping quest is more urgent; the processed food takeout decision, or the online Amazon order. The corporate coup is complete, and the rot is extensive underneath the abundance illusion permeating our ‘little boxes on a hillside’.
We exited the milky white hellscape of DFW about two years ago, after 50 years there. Everything you see has been the tres plus ultra goal of the Christo-fascists building on the foundational stones of chattel slavery, cotton, and exploitationl of immigrants. The hypocrisy burns your eyes.
“As an out-of-towner not deeply versed in all of the sociopolitical challenges in Texas, I was surprised to learn the extent to which the state is threatened by Sharia law.” Me, too.
Funny. Christian Nationalism has always struck me as intent on imposing rules on others in the manner of the strictest of Sharia law. I wonder if they know how it is defined: a guide for Muslims “on how to live their lives according to divine principles.”
Wide variations on how to interpret this. Just like Christian denominations…
Hamilton, thanks for writing this. You captured my experience visiting Dallas for the first time last month.
Can you explain why the incredibly large concern about Muslims in Fort Bend County? Have more people been moving there? I would be interested to hear why that seems like such a threat, beyond the usual using Muslims as a boogeyman.
Just to clarify, Fort Bend County is near Houston, not Dallas, but all of this purported "concern" about Sharia law is equally ridiculous. Dallas admittedly had an influx of Persians after the shah's fall in Iran, but the grand total is about 30,000.
But Dallas's resident bigots probably don't even know they speak Farsi, not Arabic.
I think you've done a very good job of explaining the Dallas that someone from outside of Texas sees. I agree with basically all of this, but there is a lot you aren't seeing. I suppose that's for me to write, though. Great pieces.
Thanks-- it may be a consequence of splitting this into two pieces, but I said in the first piece that I am not purporting here to be writing an explainer of Everything That Is Dallas. I'm trying to describe a particular lifestyle that is ascendant in America right now, that finds its fullest expression among a certain slice of people down there.
The bigotry against Muslims among these candidates is horrifying. A sad state of affairs.
Amazing writing!
Racism towards Blacks, LGBTQ Muslims. All about creating fear and some enemy to scapegoat.
Eventually they will target Jews too. They do already but pretend otherwise.
Just as liberal minded "educated/rational " are attacked as baby killers. Or communists.
These people are experts at group herd mind control.
Shame a loud minority has captured such an oversized political amount of power.
“Sharia Law” is simply an acceptable term (for them) used as cover for outright racism. North Texas has one of the fastest growing minority populations in the county and is predominantly south Asian. You can claim you’re against “Sharia Law” and no one bats an eye, but what they really mean is “don’t worry, we know that almost an entire subdivision was purchased by Indians, and they want to build a temple, and maybe open a Hindu school (to take advantage of all the school choice that was only supposed to go to Christians, right?), and why does everyone dress funny in the neighborhood!?!?” That’s all it’s about.
The sprawl is the sprawl. It’s the New Jersey to NYC of Dallas, except global companies are setting up shop in North Texas because it’s cheap and they can get away with doing anything they want.
Just to put this comment into perspective: I'm a native Dallasite but have lived in Austin since I was 13, in addition to NYC & London. I'm still up there at least once a month, however.
While I'm as alarmed by the rise of megachurches as any other given American progressive, I'd nonetheless argue that looking at Dallas solely through the perspective of its churches & suburbs is myopic, despite largely agreeing with Hamilton's points. One aspect of Dallas life you might not know absent decades of experience: the extent to which white flight occurred there, but also how much it's since been *reversed*.
I know this is true in NYC as well, but the default option for young couples is increasingly *not* a house in the 'burbs with 2.5 kids. It's even gotten its own batch of realtor-invented area names: if SoHo begat NoHo, Dallas's Preston Hollow area – its fanciest within the city limits – begat "Midway Hollow." (My own childhood neighborhood, one that's apparently now a huge draw for mid-century architecture enthusiasts.)
Further still, what *really* scares the living shit out of my state's unfortunate bigots – resulting in borderline-farce notions about "Sharia law" and the like – is reality: Texas in 2025 is only 40% white. Each of its major cities, including Dallas, is heavily Democratic, and yet people still routinely think Austin's the "lone blueberry in the bowl of tomato soup," to paraphrase Rick "Oops" Perry. The suburbs are overwhelmingly white, but Dallas proper is barely 25% white.
When my family left Dallas, Plano was still almost entirely white. Today it's not even *majority* white, and a quarter of its population is Asian.
Prestonwood Baptist Church may be the future MAGA wants for America, but that doesn't mean the inverse is necessarily true – even in Dallas. In the reality-based world, white Texans are a rapidly dwindling minority, and Republicans have successfully pissed off our largest ethnic group by far: Hispanics. Heckuva job!
Nothing says sense of place like a massive two-car garage door dominating the vernacular architecture, as you meander on a walk on the sidewalks of America, thinking about which next shopping quest is more urgent; the processed food takeout decision, or the online Amazon order. The corporate coup is complete, and the rot is extensive underneath the abundance illusion permeating our ‘little boxes on a hillside’.
Whew.
Yes, and what a poetic take on the foolish horrors of this American moment.
We exited the milky white hellscape of DFW about two years ago, after 50 years there. Everything you see has been the tres plus ultra goal of the Christo-fascists building on the foundational stones of chattel slavery, cotton, and exploitationl of immigrants. The hypocrisy burns your eyes.
Bastet's whiskers....
“As an out-of-towner not deeply versed in all of the sociopolitical challenges in Texas, I was surprised to learn the extent to which the state is threatened by Sharia law.” Me, too.
Funny. Christian Nationalism has always struck me as intent on imposing rules on others in the manner of the strictest of Sharia law. I wonder if they know how it is defined: a guide for Muslims “on how to live their lives according to divine principles.”
Wide variations on how to interpret this. Just like Christian denominations…
No “we” are not becoming Dallas.
Hamilton, thanks for writing this. You captured my experience visiting Dallas for the first time last month.
Can you explain why the incredibly large concern about Muslims in Fort Bend County? Have more people been moving there? I would be interested to hear why that seems like such a threat, beyond the usual using Muslims as a boogeyman.
Thanks.
Racism/ insanity.
Just to clarify, Fort Bend County is near Houston, not Dallas, but all of this purported "concern" about Sharia law is equally ridiculous. Dallas admittedly had an influx of Persians after the shah's fall in Iran, but the grand total is about 30,000.
But Dallas's resident bigots probably don't even know they speak Farsi, not Arabic.
I think you've done a very good job of explaining the Dallas that someone from outside of Texas sees. I agree with basically all of this, but there is a lot you aren't seeing. I suppose that's for me to write, though. Great pieces.
Thanks-- it may be a consequence of splitting this into two pieces, but I said in the first piece that I am not purporting here to be writing an explainer of Everything That Is Dallas. I'm trying to describe a particular lifestyle that is ascendant in America right now, that finds its fullest expression among a certain slice of people down there.
Dallas was supposed to be a river port, from the days of its founding. It did not win that one. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/port-of-dallas/