Authorities across the United States are investigating a wave of racist text messages targeting Black people, following Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, Al Jazeera reports.
Reports of these messages have surfaced in over a dozen states, including California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, and Alabama.
The messages, while varying in wording, share a disturbing commonality: they inform recipients that they have been “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.” Some messages even claim to be from “Trump supporters” or include the hashtag #MAGA.
One particularly disturbing incident involved a 15-year-old girl in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who received a message saying she would be “searched and patted down once inside of the plantation.”
The FBI has confirmed they are aware of the messages and are collaborating with the Justice Department and other federal authorities. The Federal Communications Commission is also investigating the texts in conjunction with federal and state law enforcement agencies. Attorney Generals in several states have confirmed they are looking into the matter.
Civil rights organizations have condemned the messages. The NAACP, one of the largest Black civil rights organizations in the US, denounced the racist rhetoric, while the Southern Poverty Law Center described the messages as a “public spectacle of hatred and racism that makes a mockery of our civil rights history.”
These incidents come amid a broader concern about rising hate crimes against Black people. According to data analyzed by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino, nearly one-fifth of hate crimes reported in major US cities in 2022 were targeted against Black individuals.
