Black people are receiving racist text messages about picking cotton ‘at the nearest plantation’

By Char Adams, Maya Eaglin and Zinhle Essamuah, NBC

The FBI and the FCC have weighed in on the messages that multiple Black people across the country received on Wednesday.

Dozens of Black people across the country said they have received text messages telling them they had been “selected” to pick cotton “at the nearest plantation.”

The messages came just hours after the polarized presidential election came to a close this week. 

On Wednesday morning, Monèt Miller, a publicist from Atlanta, was reeling over Donald Trump winning the White House when she received a text message from an unknown phone number.

“Our Executive Slaves will come get you in a Brown Van,” the message read, “be prepared to be searched down once you’ve enter the plantation.”

Miller, 29, was shocked. She wondered how the person got her phone number, and questioned whether she was being watched. In a panic, she responded, “Who is this?! I’m going to find who you are” and shared a photo of the text on social media. She learned that some of her friends had received the same text. 

“It’s a scare tactic,” Miller said in an interview. “I saw it and was like, ‘What in the world?’ Usually, in any other instance, someone is racist to the point where it’s funny, it’s a bad humor sort of funny. But that day, with the climate and everything going on, I genuinely felt scared.”

Black social media users across the country said they have received text messages similar to Miller’s. Many of the recipients are college students from a wide range of schools nationwide, including Ohio State University, Clemson University in South Carolina, the University of Southern California and Missouri State University, NBC News has confirmed. 

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