Black Americans targeted with racist text messages following presidential election

The Manila Times

Black Americans targeted with racist text messages following presidential election   Federal and state authorities are investigating a wave of bigoted text messages sent anonymously that have spread alarm among Black Americans across the country this week, officials and recipients told Reuters. The messages urged recipients in multiple states, including Alabama, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Georgia, to report to a plantation to pick cotton, an offensive reference to past enslavement of Black people in the United States. Monet Miller, 29, an entertainment publicist in Atlanta, Georgia, said on Nov. 8, 2024 that she read the offensive text message while 'doomscrolling' a day after the presidential election.  REUTERS VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe  Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital  Sign up to our newsletters: https://tmt.ph/newsletters   Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #themanilatimes #worldnews #usa  #trump

Transcript

00:00I literally had just opened my eyes, I was doing a little bit of doom scrolling and then

00:14went right into my text messages and I sat straight up in the bed and I said, not this,

00:20not today.

00:34Being that it was so shocking, I immediately texted the number back, who is this, oh my

00:40god, profanity, and then I even tried to call it and that's when I found out it was from

00:44a fake text, one of those fake numbers, so it had already been discarded or whatever

00:50and I was just like, you know what, this is to be expected.

01:06These texts were the beginning of people who already lead in being nasty and mean, but

01:13it was giving them the moment to be able to push the envelope of being nastier and even

01:18more sinister and mean to the community.

01:20So I feel like when I say it already started from the results that we saw that night and

01:25then waking up to the results, I feel like, again, that just opened up a whole floodgate

01:29of letting people do what they feel like is right or feel like they can do because they

01:35can.

01:42To me, it wasn't alarming to the point where I'm like, let me go to the authorities and

01:47have them dig through this.

01:48Now the texts that these children on these college campuses and younger kids have gotten,

01:55that makes me feel like that this is just filled by hatred, that this was, you know,

02:00someone got a hold of their information and just regurgitated something they saw and was

02:04just being mean.

02:17So it was Wednesday evening, probably around maybe 8 p.m.

02:26I walked in the room and he was on his video games with his friends and he was like, uncle,

02:30I just got a text message and it said that we're going to be paid or picked up to be

02:35cotton pickers.

02:36And I was like, what?

02:37What are you talking about?

02:38And then I read the message and then I was like, you know, you don't have anything to

02:40worry about.

02:41But it was the next day that I found out that it was something that was, you know, alarming

02:45that it was going viral and that a lot of people was getting it.

02:56We're not here for hate.

02:57We're not here to spew hate or anger or any of that.

03:01Who won, won.

03:02You know, congratulations.

03:03But let's walk in peace and walk in love because love covers everything at the end of the day.

03:08I think the goal is to add fear and intimidation to a group of people, to add fear and intimidation

03:14to a group of young people who have not experienced this type of direct hatred.

03:18And our response is to remind the young people where they come from, who they are, and that

03:23we do not sit back and allow people to threaten us without a response, a nonviolent, peaceful

03:28response, but a forceful response that this is our country.

03:32We're not retreating.

03:33We built this country.

03:34We'll continue to make this country move forward and live up to the promise that it gave all

03:37the citizens.

03:48We remember what the climate in the country was like from 2016 to 2020.

03:53And so it appears that it's returning to that type of climate.

03:56Very disappointing that it's returning to that type of climate.

04:00of climate. Very disappointing that individuals would target African-Americans with such hateful

04:06comments and commentary, but we are prepared to respond. We've already reached out to our

04:10partners in law enforcement, both on the state, local, and federal level, and we're just going

04:15to make sure that we are vigilant to make sure that these threats do not escalate and that we

04:20continue to move forward in a progressive and peaceful manner.

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