\n<\/p>\n
One day after the presidential election<\/a>, and in the days following, Black people across the country, reportedly as young as middle schoolers<\/a>, received<\/a> text messages<\/a> addressing them by name and telling them that they would be transported to plantations to work as slaves and \u201cpick cotton.\u201d<\/p>\n While the exact language of the messages vary slightly, most appear to tell recipients that they have been \u201cselected\u201c or \u201cchosen\u201d to perform cotton picking, i.e. work that was historically performed by enslaved people in the American South. Many were told that they would be picked up by a van and then searched.<\/p>\n This content can also be viewed on the site it originates<\/a> from.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This content can also be viewed on the site it originates<\/a> from.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The messages are said to have been received by people, many of whom are Black college students, in at least 17 states<\/a>, including Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Nevada, California, Ohio, South Carolina, Michigan, Georgia, and Alabama. The New York Times<\/em> reported<\/a> that the Louisiana attorney general\u2019s office traced the messages \u201cto an encrypted virtual private network originating in Poland,\u201d though Liz Murrill,<\/strong> the state\u2019s AG, told the outlet that because the network was \u201cmasking\u201d the sender, it could have come from \u201canywhere in the world.\u201d The FBI said<\/a> Thursday that the agency \u201cis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n According to The Washington Post<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> \u201cSome, though not all, of the messages claimed to be from a Trump supporter or \u2018the Trump administration,\u2019 according to screenshots shared on social media and local news.\u201d In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign said: \u201cThe campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.\u201d<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t really any reason to believe that the actual Trump campaign is connected to the texts, a move that would be pretty stupid. Yet even if Team Trump did not press Send on the messages, critics of the former and soon-to-be current president believe he gave racists the green light to engage in openly racist behavior. In a statement, NAACP president Derrick Johnson<\/strong> said<\/a> the slavery texts show how Trump\u2018s victory has emboldened racists and reflects an increase in \u201cvile and abhorrent rhetoric.\u201d Arleta McCall,<\/strong> the mother of a University of Alabama student who received one of the texts, told the Post<\/a> that<\/em> Trump\u2019s rhetoric on the campaign trail \u201ckind of set the tone,\u201d adding: \u201cPeople who are racist, it gives them the feeling that it\u2019s okay to be publicly racist because my leader, my president, goes up there and says whatever he wants to say.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nX content<\/h4>\n
X content<\/h4>\n