The FCC and FBI are investigating a spate of racist text messages telling Black Americans they’ve been “selected to pick cotton,” per reporting from NBC News reporter Zinhle Essamuah.
“Social media sites have been flooded with people from New York to Florida who say they’ve gotten these racist messages.” Essamuah told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera Reports on Friday before adding that that one woman she interviewed believed the texts may have been sparked by “the current political climate.”
“It was this odd, ominous-feeling text message, basically saying, ‘Hello, you’ve been selected to be a slave on a plantation and you’re scheduled to get picked up at 12:00 A.M. On November 13th,’” the woman said. “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.”
Essamuah explained, “The wording of the texts appear to differ,” continuing:
Some have misspellings, others address individuals by name. But the theme is consistent, telling …