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Feds investigate racist texts sent to dozens of Black people in multiple states

The FBI, FCC and other authorities are investigating racist texts sent to dozens of Black people in multiple U.S. states in the hours after the presidential election. File Photo courtesy U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
The FBI, FCC and other authorities are investigating racist texts sent to dozens of Black people in multiple U.S. states in the hours after the presidential election. File Photo courtesy U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Federal authorities said they are aware of racist texts, some mentioning President-elect Donald Trump, that were sent to dozens of Black people in several states on Wednesday and Thursday.

The racist texts came just hours after the presidential election results. They were sent to people states including New York, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Ohio, according to CBS News.

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"The FBI is 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," the agency told CBS News in a statement. "As always, we encourage members of the public to report threats of physical violence to local law enforcement authorities."

One of the racist texts read, "MORNING NEGRO BREED As you know Donald J Trump has won the election, with that being said you have been selected to perform in SECTION 487 at George Pickett cotton picking plantation..." NBC news reported.

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The Trump campaign's Brian Hughes denounced the texts in a statement to NBC News, denying any link to Trump.

"If we can find the origin of these messages which promote this kind of ugliness in our name we will obviously take legal action to stop it," Hughes said.

Virginia's Attorney General's Office condemned the messages.

"Our office is aware of racist messages being sent to North Carolinians. We are working with federal and industry partners to investigate the source of these robotexts," North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said on X.

The NAACP said in a statement, "The unfortunate reality of electing a president who, historically, has embraced, and at times encouraged hate, is unfolding before our eyes."

"I don't think that it's a coincidence that this is happening just a day after a Donald Trump election. I think that the election has reignited and inflamed people who have racist tendencies to show up and show out. I think that this is intentional to scare people of color, Black people, into a reality that we don't want to go back to," Florida text recipient Corryn Freeman told NBC News.

The 17-year-old son of St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones got one of the texts.

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"My grandson received this text message this morning. This is the kind of [explitive] black people have been subjected to all my life. This text is going around to young black people. It ain't funny & laughter won't be the consequence for whoever the cowardly MF is if I find (it)," his grandfather Virvus Jones said as he posted the message on X.

Thursday the Stoughton, Mass., public schools said on Facebook, "We are aware of a racist spam text some of our students of color at Stoughton High School received today. This particular text, in part, notifies the recipient that they have been 'selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.'"

The school system added, "This is part of an abhorrent nationwide trend. People from around the country have reported receiving this text, and others similar in nature, throughout the day today. The source of these text messages is unknown at this time."

The texts said "Our Executive Slaves will come get you in a Brown Van, be prepared to be searched down once you've enter the plantation. You are in Plantation Group S."

According to NBC News many of the texts were sent to college students, including at Ohio State University, Clemson University in South Carolina, the University of Southern California and Missouri State University.

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A Clemson University Police Department statement reported texts had been received on campus Wednesday.

"CUPD immediately initiated an investigation and began working with state partners to identify the source of the messages," the CUPD statement said. "These numbers have been determined to be associated with online spoofing sites...The messages appear to have been broadly distributed, as a number of other states and institutions have also reported the same or similar communications."

At least some of the anonymous numbers used to transmit the texts were tied to TextNow, a messaging service that provides users with untraceable burner phone numbers.

TextNow said in a statement it acted as soon as they became aware of it to shut down the involved accounts.

The Federal Communications Commission said inaccurate statement it is looking into the racist texts together with federal and state law enforcement.

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