Racist Text Messages Threaten Black Students Nationwide After Trump Win
Source: Bill Clark / Getty
Black students at the University of Alabama have reported receiving racist text messages after Donald Trump’s presidential election win—an incident that seems to be turning into a nationwide trend.
According to the Crimson White, Black UA students have been receiving racist threats from a slew of anonymous phone numbers. The numbers feature area codes inside and outside the state, making it difficult to trace.
One of the messages said the recipient had been “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.”
“Be ready at 1:00 pm SHARP with your belongings. Our Executive Slaves will come get you in a Brown Van, be prepared to be searched down once you’ve entered the plantation. You are in Plantation Group C. Good day,” the racist text read.
Parents and students, including those who received the texts, expressed fear and dismay about the messages.
Arleta McCall, the mother of Alyse, a freshman at UA, said her daughter skipped classes on Wednesday because she fears for her safety and that, as a parent, the texts made her feel “uneasy,” “disappointed,” and unsafe.
She also said she didn’t know how the sender knew so much about her daughter, including her phone number and the fact she was Black.
Other students who received the texts said it felt like a joke at first, but that feeling quickly became fear and stress.
Hailey Welch, a freshman biology student, recalls receiving multiple threatening messages as well as experiencing racial slurs from individuals wearing MAGA hats.
“At first, I thought it was a joke, but everybody else was getting them. People were texting, posting on their stories, saying 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.”
Welch also decided not to go to class on Wednesday in fear for her safety and also says the texts weren’t her first encounter with racism since Trump won the election.
On Wednesday, while walking outside her door, Welch saw two men wearing MAGA hats shouting their support of Trump when they turned their racism towards Welch.
“They started yelling at me and calling me racial slurs and said go back to where I came from, even though I was born here and I’m American,” Welch said.
The incident has sparked significant outrage in the community, as McCall’s Facebook post has received thousands of shares and comments.
The sender’s identity remains unknown, and the ongoing investigation has prompted calls for the university to make a statement about the racism on campus.
Since Donald Trump won the presidential election, racists have felt emboldened to make their bigoted voices heard.
NewsOne can confirm the messages have been sent to Black students all over the country, as one of our writers was also sent the threatening text.
Police in Georgia and North Carolina were also investigating alleged racist threats circulating on social media that white supremacist groups are planning to attack Black Americans “from now until the Inauguration.”
According to the Ledger-Inquirer, the information on the alleged threat began before Election Day with a single post by a woman who said she learned from a friend in the Gwinnett County, Georgia, Sheriff’s Office that Ku Klux Klan members from Lexington, North Carolina, “are plotting against Blacks, especially Black women because, in their eyes, we are easy targets!”
As previously reported by NewsOne, on Saturday, the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook that investigators learned of “a circulating text thread suggesting potential attacks on African American women ‘from now through the inauguration,’” but said, “We have not received any information indicating threats to any group(s) on or after Election Day.”
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