HOUSTON — A Houston-area mother told KHOU 11 News that her daughter is just one of the many Black Americans who received a specifically worded, racist text message the day after the Nov. 5 election.
On Wednesday, Laura Bass-Brown said her 15-year-old sent her a screenshot of the text message she received while in class. The message came from an unfamiliar number and addressed Bass-Brown’s daughter by name.
The message read:
"Greetings [name redacted]
"You have 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 enter the plantation. You are in Plantation Group K."
Bass-Brown said she was immediately concerned when she saw the text. Her daughter, a sophomore at Cy-Woods High School, later told her she wasn’t the only one to receive the message.
“It’s just disturbing that you would send it to somebody," she said. "We need to take it seriously even if the person sending it feels like it is a joke."
At first, Bass-Brown said she thought the messages were automated or came from hackers trying to upset people after the election. Then, her daughter showed her screenshots of the messages her friends had received. In some instances, when the students replied, the message sender also responded.
“They responded to the message, and the person responded back about 'they are going to have an owner, the owner is going to feed them,'” Bass-Brown said. “So I thought, no, it’s a person doing it. Why?”
In the past 48 hours, there have been similar reports of Black Americans receiving such text messages in close to a dozen states across the U.S. While it's not clear who the messages are from, there appears to be some level of coordination considering how similar the messages are.
Our national VERIFY team confirmed the FBI is aware of messages.
A spokesperson at the FBI Houston field offices said that, per policy, they “can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.” However, they ask anyone receiving the messages to report them to the FBI or local law enforcement.
Wherever the messages originated from, whether hackers, pranksters, or a foreign adversary, Bass-Brown said it’s not acceptable.
“To have somebody threaten their lives, or their livelihoods, or their family’s livelihood, it becomes uncomfortable,” she said. “Messages like this should not be sent to any students.”
In Virginia, Attorney General Jason Miyares' office has condemned the texts.
As of Thursday evening, The Texas Attorney General Office’s had not replied to KHOU 11’s request for a statement or interview on the matter.