Ayanna Alexander, Ali Swenson and Gary Fields | Related Press
WASHINGTON — Racist textual content messages invoking slavery raised alarm throughout the nation this week after they have been despatched to Black males, ladies and college students, together with center schoolers, prompting inquiries by the FBI and different businesses.
The messages, despatched anonymously, have been reported in a number of states, together with New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. They often used the same tone however different in wording.
Some instructed the recipient to point out up at an handle at a selected time “with your belongings,” whereas others didn’t embody a location. A few of them talked about the incoming presidential administration.
It wasn’t but clear who was behind the messages and there was no complete record of the place they have been despatched, however highschool and school college students have been among the many recipients.
The FBI mentioned it was in contact with the Justice Division on the messages, and the Federal Communications Fee mentioned it was investigating the texts “alongside federal and state law enforcement.” The Ohio Lawyer Basic’s workplace additionally mentioned it was wanting into the matter.
Tasha Dunham of Lodi, California, mentioned her 16-year-old daughter confirmed her one of many messages Wednesday night earlier than her basketball apply.
The textual content not solely used her daughter’s title, nevertheless it directed her to report back to a “plantation” in North Carolina, the place Dunham mentioned they’ve by no means lived. After they seemed up the handle, it was the situation of a museum.
“It was very disturbing,” Dunham mentioned. “Everybody’s just trying to figure out what does this all mean for me? So, I definitely had a lot of fear and concern.”
Her daughter initially thought it was a prank, however feelings are excessive following Tuesday’s presidential election. Dunham and her household thought it might be extra nefarious and reported it to native legislation enforcement.
“I wasn’t in slavery. My mother wasn’t in slavery. But we’re a couple of generations away. So, when you think about how brutal and awful slavery was for our people, it’s awful and concerning,” Dunham mentioned.
About six center college college students in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, obtained the messages too, mentioned Megan Shafer, performing superintendent of the Decrease Merion Faculty District.
“The racist nature of these text messages is extremely disturbing, made even more so by the fact that children have been targeted,” she wrote in a letter to folks.
Fisk College, a traditionally Black college in Nashville, Tennessee, issued a press release calling the messages that focused a few of its college students “deeply unsettling.” It urged calm and warranted college students that the texts possible have been from bots or malicious actors with “no real intentions or credibility.”
Nick Ludlum, a senior vice chairman for the wi-fi trade commerce group CTIA, mentioned “wireless providers are aware of these threatening spam messages and are aggressively working to block them and the numbers that they are coming from.”
David Brody, director of the Digital Justice Initiative at The Legal professionals’ Committee for Civil Rights Beneath Legislation, mentioned that they aren’t certain who’s behind the messages however estimated they’d been despatched to greater than 10 states, together with most Southern states, Maryland, Oklahoma and even the District of Columbia. The district’s Metropolitan Police drive mentioned in a press release that its intelligence unit was investigating the origins of the message.
Brody mentioned a lot of civil rights legal guidelines will be utilized to hate-related incidents. The leaders of a number of different civil rights organizations condemned the messages, together with Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Legislation Heart, who mentioned, “Hate speech has no place in the South or our nation.”
“The threat — and the mention of slavery in 2024 — is not only deeply disturbing, but perpetuates a legacy of evil that dates back to before the Jim Crow era, and now seeks to prevent Black Americans from enjoying the same freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness,” mentioned NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson. “These actions are not normal. And we refuse to let them be normalized.”
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