This week, racist text messages invoking slavery were sent to black men, women and students, including middle school students, sparking national alarm and a police investigation. FBI and other agencies.
The anonymously sent messages were reported in multiple states, including New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
They generally used a similar tone, but the wording was different.
Some instructed recipients to show up at an address “with their belongings” at a specific time, while others did not include a location.
Some of them mentioned the incoming presidential administration.
It was not yet clear who was behind the messages, and there was no comprehensive list of recipients, but the recipients included high school and college students.
The FBI said it was in contact with the Justice Department about the messages, and the Federal Communications Commission said it was investigating the texts “in coordination with federal and state law enforcement agencies.” The Ohio Attorney General's Office said it was also investigating the matter.
Tasha Dunham of Lodi, California, said her 16-year-old daughter showed her one of the messages Wednesday night before basketball practice.
Not only does the document use her daughter's name, but it also directs her to report to a “plantation” in North Carolina, where Dunham said she has never lived. When I looked up the address, it turned out to be the site of a museum.
“I was very nervous,” Dunham said. “Everyone's just trying to figure out what this means for me? So I definitely had a lot of fear and concern.”
Her daughter initially thought it was a prank, but is now emotional after Tuesday's incident. presidential election. Dunham and her family thought it could be something more sinister and called local police.
“I wasn't enslaved. My mother wasn't enslaved. But we're several generations apart. So I think about how brutal and horrible slavery was to the people of our country. And that's horrifying and alarming,” Dunham said.
About half a dozen middle school students in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, also received the message, said Megan Schaefer, assistant superintendent for the Lower Merion School District.
“The racist nature of these text messages is deeply disturbing, made even more disturbing by the fact that children are being targeted,” she wrote in a letter to parents. .
Students at some major universities, including Clemson University in South Carolina and the University of Alabama, said they had received the message. The Clemson Police Department said in a statement that it had been notified of “deplorable racially motivated text and email messages” and urged anyone who received the messages to report them.
Fisk University, a historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, issued a statement saying messages targeting some students were “deeply disturbing.” He urged students to remain calm and assured them that the texts were likely from bots or malicious actors with “no real intent or authenticity.”
Missouri NAACP President Nimrod Chappell sent an email to black students who are members of the organization's Missouri State University chapter, citing Trump's victory and calling them by name to be “chosen to pick cotton” next Tuesday. He said he received it.
Chappell said police in the southeast Missouri city of Springfield, which is home to the university, were called.
“This shows a well-organized and well-resourced group determined to target Americans in their homeland based on the color of their skin,” Chappell said in a statement.
“Wireless providers are aware of these threatening spam messages and are actively working to block them and the numbers they originate from,” said Nick Ludlum, senior vice president of wireless industry trade association CTIA. “I'm here,” he said.
David Brody, director of the Digital Justice Initiative at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said it was unclear who was behind the message, but the message was sent to more than 10 states, including most southern states and Maryland. It is estimated that the message was sent. , Oklahoma, and even the District of Columbia. The district's Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement that its intelligence unit was investigating the source of the messages.
Brody said many civil rights laws could apply to hate-related cases. Leaders of several other civil rights organizations also condemned the message, including Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center. said“Hate speech has no place in the South or in our country.”
“This threat, and the mention of slavery in 2024, is not only deeply disturbing, but also perpetuates a legacy of evil that predates the Jim Crow era and threatens to disrupt the lives of Black Americans today. “We are trying to prevent people from enjoying their freedom to pursue their freedom and happiness,” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO. “These acts are not normal, and we refuse to allow them to be normalized.”
