CRIME
Who is sending racist text messages to Black Americans 3 days after Trump’s victory? FBI investigation underway
These messages, filled with chilling references to slavery, have raised urgent questions about the resurgence of hate in America.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential victory, a disturbing wave of racist text messages targeting Black Americans has sparked nationwide concern and prompted an FBI investigation.
Authorities are telling people to report messages saying people had been “selected” to pick cotton “at the nearest plantation”.
In other messages, a 15-year-old Native American girl received a message instructing her to prepare for a “search and pat down upon entering the plantation”.
The messages, which began circulating on Wednesday morning shortly after the election results were announced, have been reported in over a dozen states.
Who sent the messages?
Although some texts made reference to Trump, his campaign has vehemently denied any connection to these messages. Brian Hughes, a communications adviser for the campaign, described the allegations as “absolute nonsense” and stated that they would pursue legal action if they could trace the origin of these messages.
It is unclear who sent the messages but some have been linked to TextNow, a company that specialises in getting people untraceable phone numbers.
“As soon as we became aware, our trust and safety team acted quickly, shutting down the accounts involved within the hour,” the company said.
“TextNow is proud to be an inclusive service offering free mobile text and data to millions of Americans. We do not tolerate or condone the use of our service to send harassing or spam messages and will work with the authorities to prevent these individuals from doing so in the future.”
The FBI investigation should uncover who was behind the offensive messages.