Author. Journalist. Texan.
RICHARD PARKER covers, writes and talks about the one constant in our dynamic world: Change, big change, and how it impacts society, economics and politics.
His work includes Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America, published by Pegasus Books of New York. He writes for the Op-Ed and Sunday Review sections of The New York Times as well as The Atlantic and the Houston Chronicle. His work has appeared in Politico Magazine, The Dallas Morning News, The New Republic, the Columbia Journalism Review and other leading publications. He writes about Texas, the American Southwest, Mexico, as well as globalization, immigration, national security and politics. He has taught journalism at major universities, worked as a publisher, editor, Washington correspondent, national correspondent and war correspondent covering two presidential elections and three armed conflicts. He has won numerous honors; in 2019, NBC News named him one of the nation's 20 most influential Latinos. In 2018, he won the top award in the nation from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. He earned a B.A. in political science at Trinity University and an M.A. in political science at Tulane University. He still calls Texas home. |
By RAUL A. REYES
IN THE AFTERMATH of the El Paso shooting — the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern American history — author and journalist RICHARD PARKER has been a passionate, authentic voice for his community. In a media landscape often lacking Latino representation, he has spoken up for his fellow El Pasoans and Mexican-Americans with his pen or in person, bringing his grace and intellect to the coverage of a wrenching tragedy. Parker is a true son of Texas. The author of "Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America," the award-winning journalist is a graduate of Trinity University in San Antonio. He has written extensively for national publications about the detention camps, climate change along the border and Texas politics. But no event hit home for him like the Aug. 3 massacre at his city's familiar Walmart. He wrote about the experience in stark terms for The New York Times, describing it as “a stab in the heart not to your hometown, but to your people, in my case Latinos. (The shooter) specifically came here to my town, to kill my people.” Originally posted Sept. 16, 2019, 7:27 a.m. Reprinted with permission from NBC News. |
