Black Americans across the country have been receiving racist text messages about "picking cotton" following Donald Trump's win in the presidential election.
The text messages displaying messages such as "You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation," have been reported by Black Americans, largely Black students, in several states. Some of the messages were reportedly signed, "Sincerely, A TRUMP SUPPORTER."
At the University of Alabama, student Hailey Welch told the student newspaper the Crimson White that she did not attend classes Wednesday, worrying her safety might be at risk after receiving the text.
"At first, I thought it was a joke, but then everyone else was getting them. People were texting, posting on their stories that they got them," Welch told the Crimson White. "I was just stressed out, and I was scared because I didn't know what was happening."
Students at Clemson University and Alabama State University also reportedly received similar messages, according to The Neighborhood Talk.
The racist text messages were not just limited to colleges though. In Ohio, Mary Banks told the Columbus Dispatch that her teenage daughter and her friends received a similar message.
Sam Burwell, a photographer at WVEC in Virginia, also received a message in the same vein, and said his cousin got one too. "I feel like it's a spam message [and] I do feel disappointed about the message they're sending a day after the election," Burwell told WVEC.
The messages appear to be sent from burner or spam accounts, or services that allow users to create "burner" numbers to mask the sender, both the Columbus Dispatch and the Crimson White reported.
University and state officials across the nation have condemned the text messages. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights legal advocacy group, said in a statement to the Columbus Dispatch that the messages are "a public spectacle of hatred and racism that makes a mockery of our civil rights history."
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