In the middle of dealing with a historic pandemic – and declaring a local health disaster – Fort Bend County Judge KP George told Inside Texas Politics, he’s also dealing with racism.
“Don’t call me any less of an American than anybody else,” George said.
Judge George recently tweeted that he wasn’t born in America, but he "got here as fast as" he could.
A naturalized American citizen who’s lived in the country for nearly 30 years, he recently asked his fellow Texans to stand up for their neighbors if they observe racism or anti-immigrant behavior.
The judge quickly received many hateful responses.
“It is surprising. And also it is kind of ignorance because they haven’t seen how the county changed," George said. "We have almost one-third of the population was not born in the United States, they came from outside, including me."
Fort Bend County is the 10th largest county in Texas with a population of more than 811,000.
In 2018, the U.S. Census and the Kinder Institute declared Fort Bend County the most ethnically diverse in the nation.
With more than 6,000 current COVID-19 cases, Fort Bend currently has the 11th most cases in the state, a few hundred more than 12th place Collin County as of July 24.
And of Fort Bend county’s hospital patients, George told Inside Texas Politics that nearly 70% of them are dealing with COVID-19.
“We used to have around five people, 5% per 100, testing positive. Now it is up to 13.9% in Fort Bend County," he said.
George also announced a new initiative launched this week to help Fort Bend County businesses steamrolled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among other incentives, the program is offering one-on-one business coaching and a custom COVID-19 business recovery plan.
You can find more information at fortbendentrepreneur.com.
