The FBI is investigating a series of racist text messages sent to Black Americans across various states, including Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania. The disturbing messages, which began circulating the day after the election, included offensive instructions for recipients to report to a plantation “to pick cotton.” Some messages even mentioned the Trump campaign, although it strongly denied any connection.
A mother from Indiana shared the alarming text her high school-aged daughter received, which read: “You’ve been selected to become a slave at your nearest plantation,” along with threats of being picked up in a white van and searched upon arrival. The mother, who chose to remain anonymous for safety reasons, expressed how unsettling and vulnerable the messages made her feel.
Other recipients, such as University of Alabama student Hailey Welch, described similar messages circulating among students on campuses. At first, Welch thought the texts were a joke, but after hearing others had received them, she became frightened and stressed.
The source of the texts and the number of messages sent remain unclear, but they appear to have originated from multiple area codes across at least 25 states. Some texts were sent from numbers associated with the mobile service provider TextNow, which later deactivated the accounts after discovering the violation of their terms of service.
Civil rights groups, including the NAACP, condemned the messages, calling them a product of the divisive political climate following the election. NAACP President Derrick Johnson stated that the rhetoric represented an alarming rise in hate and fear from racist groups across the country.
Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), joined in condemning the actions, stating that they were unacceptable and would be taken seriously. Various state law enforcement agencies, including Nevada and Louisiana, have started investigations into the source of the messages, with some traced to a virtual private network (VPN) originating in Poland.
Despite the possibility that the messages could have come from abroad, the mother from Indiana argued that knowing the messages might be foreign doesn’t make it any less frightening. She emphasized that the perpetrators understood the mindset of America.
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