Following Donald Trump’s victorious win as president, there have been several reports of black Americans receiving racist texts across the country claiming that they are a part of a group “to pick cotton.” The respondents, including school and college students, are reported to be from Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania.
It has been reported that the FBI is investigating the offensive and racist text messages, and they are working with the Justice Department and other federal authorities. The text messages apparently started on Wednesday, the day after election day.
Additionally, the Trump campaign was mentioned in some of the text messages. However, a spokesman for the campaign told BBC News that the campaign “has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.”
It remains unclear the amount of messages that were sent and the source of the messages. A woman shared her concerns with the BBC after her high school daughter received a message, telling her that a white van would pick her up because she was selected to become a slave at her nearest plantation. The message was described as “extremely alarming” by the mother, who also said that she felt that the message was a strategised effort.
Additionally, a woman named Hailey Welch also received the message and reported that she felt afraid when she realised that many people on her school campus received the message.
According to the head of the civil rights group NAACP, Derrick Johnson, the messages came from “racist groups across the country, who now feel emboldened to spread hate.“ The messages were also labelled as “unacceptable” by Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission.
It was reported that the Federal Communications Commission is also probing the matter. Persons are encouraged by the authorities to report the messages if they receive them. Additionally, it was reported that Louisiana Bureau of Investigation officers traced some of the messages to a virtual private network based in Poland. However, a virtual private network is a method that masks the origins of electronic communications.
