USA: FBI investigates racist text messages after US election

The FBI is investigating racist text messages that were sent to numerous people in several states during the week of the US presidential election. “The FBI is aware of offensive and racist text messages sent to individuals across the country,” the US Federal Police said. We are in contact with the Ministry of Justice and other federal authorities on this matter.

Several US media outlets reported on a large number of cases in which black young people, students and professionals – but also children – received messages from unknown numbers that followed a similar pattern.

Recipients were often addressed by name, told that they had been “selected to pick cotton on a plantation,” and told to be ready at a certain time to be picked up by “slave owners.” Some of the messages also contained a reference to President-elect Donald Trump.

A spokesman for the Republican emphasized to the New York Times that they had “absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.” The White House strongly condemned the incidents. “Racism has no place in our country,” several US media outlets quoted a spokeswoman as saying.

The president of the civil rights organization NAACP, Derrick Johnson, expressed his anger. The news is “the sad reality of the election of a president who has tolerated and sometimes even fomented hatred in the past.” It is “an alarming example of the increasing spread of vile and hateful rhetoric by racist groups across the country who now feel emboldened.”

During his election campaign, Trump repeatedly used racist stereotypes, for example by spreading false accusations against immigrants, most recently from Haiti, and exaggerated crime statistics. He repeatedly portrayed his Democratic challenger Kamala Harris – a woman with Jamaican and Indian roots – as “stupid” and “lazy”.