In the days since the Presidential election, many Black people across America have received anonymous text messages summoning them for slave labor, prompting inquiries by the FBI as well as law enforcement agencies nationwide.
The texts were reported across the South and from New York to California starting Wednesday morning, not long after former President Donald Trump emerged victorious in his battle for the White House against Vice President Kamala Harris. Many of them directly address the recipient by name, ordering them to show up at a certain address and time “with your belongings.” Some of the messages also mentioned the incoming presidential administration.
“You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation starting 11/07/24. Please be ready at 8am SHARP! with your belongings,” one text reads, per CNN. “Our executive slave catchers pick you up in a brown van, be prepared to be searched once you’ve entered the plantation.”
It concluded: “You are in plantation group 7.”
New York attorney general Letitia James confirmed the messages have appeared on the phones of middle school, high school and college students in New York City and its suburbs. She also blasted the texts in a statement, labeling them “disgusting and unacceptable.”
“I unequivocally condemn any attempt to intimate or threaten New Yorkers and their families,” she said.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson similarly expressed his dismay over the texts and suggested those with racist ideologies have been emboldened by Trump’s recent victory.
“The unfortunate reality of electing a President who, historically has embraced, and at times encouraged hate, is unfolding before our eyes,” he said in a statement. “These messages represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country, who now feel emboldened to spread hate and stoke the flames of fear that many of us are feeling after Tuesday’s election results.”
A spokesman for the Trump campaign, Steven Cheung, said in an email to the New York Times that the “campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.”
The FBI in a statement on Thursday said it 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.”