Federal and state authorities are working to find the origins of racist text messages sent to Black people across the country referencing slavery and telling them they were “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.”
Children, college students and working professionals have received the mass texts from unrecognized phone numbers in the wake of the presidential election. The hate-filled rhetoric reminiscent of the country’s painful and bigoted past has been reported in more than 20 states from New York to California, and the District of Columbia.
The NAACP’s president warned of possible broader implications, while attorneys general of both parties are condemning the messages and vowing to root out their senders.
“The unfortunate reality of electing a president who, historically, has embraced and at times encouraged hate, is unfolding before our eyes,” NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson said. “These messages represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country, who now feel emboldened to spread hate and stoke the flames of fear that many of us are feeling after Tuesday’s election results.”
Donald Trump’s presidential “campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages,” spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Students from at least three historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) – Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, Fisk University in Nashville and Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina – have reported receiving the text messages, according to statements from the universities.
