US authorities probe text messages invoking enslavement of Black people
Al Jazeera
Texts telling recipients to go to ‘nearest plantation’ prompt alarm across US states.
Authorities in the United States are investigating reports of Black people across the country receiving text messages invoking slavery following Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.
The racist text messages have been reported by people in more than a dozen US states, including California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia and Alabama.
The wording of the messages varies but follows the same basic script of telling the recipient they have been “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation”, according to local news reports and social media posts.
Some of the texts were labelled as coming from a “Trump supporter” or included the hashtag, #MAGA.
Frances Carmona, a Native American woman in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told local media that her 15-year-old niece had received one of the messages, which said she should be ready to be “searched and patted down once inside of the plantation”.
