WASHINGTON, DC – Several anonymous racist text messages were reported in multiple states, including New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee around the elections earlier this month, according to reports from the Associated Press.
Although the messages were individual, all had similar tones and mentioned slavery and were sent to “Black men, women and students,” and surprisingly “middle schoolers,” according to AP, which added the FBI has opened an investigation.
AP said while the messages were varied, the general content discussed the upcoming American presidential election, while others were more dangerous, with recipients asked to “show up at an address at a particular time ‘with your belongings.’”
At present, there is no clear answer as to who is responsible for sending these messages, said the FBI, along with the Justice Department, the Federal Communications Commission, and federal and state law enforcement agencies.
What officials found most alarming, added AP, were the messages sent to underage high school and middle students, pervasively expressing racism and hate speech.
For example, the 16 year old child of Tasha Dunham reported she received a message directing her “to report to a ‘plantation’ in North Carolina… When they looked up the address, it was the location of a museum,” wrote AP.
Thought of as a harmless prank, the teen thought nothing of it until remembering the election that transpired the preceding week, and reported it to the family’s local police.
Tasha Dunham, mother of the victim, commented to AP, “when you think about how brutal and awful slavery was for our people, it’s awful and concerning.”
Six middle school students in Pennsylvania were also targeted by this message, and the superintendent of the school district said, “The racist nature of these text messages is extremely disturbing, made even more so by the fact that children have been targeted.”
Other than middle school and high school students, college aged Black men and women were also victims, said AP.
The Clemson University Police Department stated, according to AP, it had been “notified of the ‘deplorable racially motivated text and email messages’” and encouraged anyone who received one to report” them.
Other students attending major southern universities report the emotional distress receiving these messages has caused them.
University of Alabama student Alyse McCall reported “getting those messages and then walking around or not even going to class because you’re scared to walk on your own campus,” reported AP.
HBCU in Nashville also issued a statement calling the messages that targeted some of its students “deeply unsettling,” wrote AP, adding the school advised students to remain calm in the likelihood the texts had “no real intentions or credibility.”
Director of the Digital Justice Initiative at The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law David Brody said the messages were targeted towards those persons inhabiting southern states, and that “a number of civil rights laws can be applied to hate-related incidents.”
Other institutions continue to investigate the origin and legal implications of the incidents, and condemn the actions of the anonymous messenger, AP wrote, adding the CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center Margaret Huang stated, “Hate speech has no place in the South or our nation.”
AP said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson stated, “the mention of slavery in 2024…perpetuates a legacy of evil that dates back to before the Jim Crow era,” designed to prevent “Black Americans from enjoying the same freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.”
