The FBI on Thursday announced it is investigating after black people received “racist and offensive” text messages.
“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 FBI said in a statement on Thursday.
“As always, we encourage members of the public to report threats of physical violence to local law enforcement authorities,” the FBI said.
According to reports, black people in Texas, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and other states received text messages telling them they had “been selected for cotton picking.”
CBS News reported:
Officials and universities in several U.S. states condemned racist text messages that were sent to Black residents on Wednesday. The messages, which had almost identical language, told the recipient they had been “selected for cotton picking.”
The texts were received by people in states including Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Ohio, CBS News found. NAACP President Derrick Johnson condemned the messages and said they represent an “alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric.”
The texts were sent from numbers with area codes in at least 25 different states, CBS News found. By Thursday, several numbers were disconnected, while others went to voicemail that identified them as TextNow users, a provider that allows people to create phone numbers for free.
Hellbound and Down 