Racist text messages invoking slavery sparked concern across the country this week when they were sent to students including black men, women and middle school students, sparking inquiries. FBI And other agencies.
The anonymously sent messages were reported in several states, including New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
They generally used similar intonation but differed in wording.
Some instructed the recipient to appear at an address at a particular time “with his belongings”, while others did not include any location.
Some of them mentioned the incoming presidential administration.
It was not yet clear who was behind the messages and there was no detailed list of where they were sent, but high school and college students were among the recipients.
The FBI said it was in contact with the Justice Department over the messages, and the Federal Communications Commission said it was investigating the messages “with federal and state law enforcement.” The Ohio Attorney General’s Office also said it was looking into the matter.
Tasha Dunham of Lodi, Calif., said her 16-year-old daughter showed her a message before basketball practice Wednesday evening.
The text not only used his daughter’s name, but instructed her to report to a “plantation” in North Carolina, where Dunham said he had never lived. When he looked at the address, it was a museum location.
“It was very disturbing,” Dunham said. “Everyone is just trying to figure out what does this all mean to me? So, I definitely had a lot of fear and anxiety.
His daughter initially thought it was a prank, but her emotions ran high after Tuesday’s incident. presidential electionDunham and her family thought it might be more nefarious and reported it to local law enforcement.
“I was not in slavery. My mother was not in slavery. But we’re a few generations away. So, when you think about how brutal and horrible slavery was for our people, it’s horrifying and disturbing,” Dunham said.
About six middle school students in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, also received messages, said Megan Schaefer, acting superintendent of the Lower Merion School District.
“The racist nature of these text messages is extremely disturbing, made even more disturbing by the fact that children have been targeted,” they wrote in a letter to parents.
Students at some major universities, including Clemson in South Carolina and the University of Alabama, said they had received the messages. The Clemson Police Department said in a statement that it was notified of “deplorable racially motivated text and email messages” and encouraged anyone who received them to report them.
Fisk University, a historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, issued a statement calling the messages “deeply disturbing” that targeted some of its students. It urged calm and reassured students that the texts were likely from bots or malicious actors with “no real intent or credibility.”
Missouri NAACP President Nimrod Chappell said black students who are members of the organization’s Missouri State University chapter received messages referencing Trump’s victory and calling them “cotton-pickers” next Tuesday. Went.
Chappell said police in the southeastern Missouri city of Springfield, home to the university, have been notified.
“This points to a well-organized and resourceful group that has decided to target Americans on our home soil based on the color of our skin,” Chappell said in a statement.
Nick Ludlam, senior vice president of CTIA, a wireless industry trade group, said: “Wireless providers are aware of these threatening spam messages and are working aggressively to block them and the numbers they come from.”
David Brody, director of the Digital Justice Initiative at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said he was not sure who was behind the messages, but estimated they were sent to more than 10 states, including most of the Southern states, Maryland Were. , Oklahoma and even the District of Columbia. The district’s Metropolitan Police force said in a statement that its intelligence unit was investigating the origin of the message.
Broidy said several civil rights laws could be applied to hate incidents. Leaders of several other civil rights organizations condemned the messages, 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.”
“The threat – and the mention of slavery in 2024 – is not only deeply troubling, but perpetuates a legacy of evil that predates the Jim Crow era, and now prevents Black Americans from enjoying the same freedom to live Wants to stop freedom and happiness,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson. “These actions are not normal. And we refuse to allow them to be normalized.”
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