USA: “Come to the plantations to pick cotton”

USA: “Come to the plantations to pick cotton”

In the two days after the US presidential election, African-Americans reported receiving anonymous, racist messages on their cell phones.

According to the NAACP, one of the main African-American rights organizations, black residents of North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama and Pennsylvania received messages asking them to “to report to the plantations to pick cotton”.

A reference to slavery status which was valid until shortly after the mid-19th century in the USA.

“The sad reality of having a president who has historically embraced, and sometimes encouraged, hate speech is taking shape before our eyes.”commented Derek Johnson head of the NAACP.

The sender of these messages is not known, but the US Federal Police, the FBI, indicated that they have “updated” for this campaign “racist SMS”without specifying whether an investigation has been opened.

The American press reported yesterday, Thursday, that racist text messages have been sent to African-American students in several states, some of which had the signature of “a Trump supporter”.

“You have been chosen to be a house slave at Abington Plantation”read one of the messages posted on social media.

“These people feel they have the freedom to now say out loud what they’ve always been thinking inside.”wrote Joshua Martin, the user who posted the message.

“The message being sent to young African-American students at the University of Alabama is a public expression of hatred and racism.”commented Margaret Huang, civil rights director at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

During his election campaign, Donald Trump increasingly used racist and authoritarian rhetoricmainly against immigrants. This did not prevent him from increasing his share of the African-American vote.

In 2023 they were recorded in the USA 11,447 hate crimesaccording to the FBI. From 2020 at least 30% of these crimes targeted African Americans.

From 1525 to 1866 more than 12.5 million Africans were forced to cross the Atlantic in the slave trademostly to work on cotton plantations in the US.

Source: RES-MPE



Source: www.enikos.gr