Racist messages to Black students

A series of racist messages have been sent to African-Americans–particularly college students–immediately following the Nov. 5 election.
The texts came from anonymous phone numbers. The messages have reached people in 32 states, most notably in Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, Alabama and California. A number of students within the Los Angeles Unified School District have received the texts. The tests appear to follow a rough script with some messages including the recipients’ first name. The texts tell the recipient that they have been selected for enslavement and ordered to pick cotton on a plantation.
The FBI released a statement:
“The FBI is aware of the offensive and racist text messages sent to individuals around the country and is in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities on the matter,” the agency said in urging the public to report threats of physical violence to local law enforcement.
Black students appear to make up many of the recipients who received the robotexts, some of which were labeled as coming from Trump himself or his supporters, according to screenshots. The Southern Poverty Law ‘Center (SPLC), which tracks incidents of hate, said that it is investigating the text campaign.
“The texts sent to young Black people, including students at Alabama State University and the University of Alabama, is a public spectacle of hatred and racism that makes a mockery of our civil rights history,” said SPLC President Margaret Huang. “Hate speech has no place in the South or in our nation.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, has condemned the racist messages.
“We condemn this racist campaign of attempted intimidation aimed at Black Americans and urge our nation’s leaders to repudiate all forms of bigotry,” said CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell.