Not long after Donald Trump’s election victory in the early morning hours of November 6, hundreds of Black Americans reported receiving text messages saying they had been “selected to pick cotton on a plantation.”
Now the FBI has announced that Latino and LGBTQ+ individuals also received texts and emails of a similar nature.
Related
Donald Trump is already inspiring other countries to crack down on homosexuality
A prominent lawmaker in Uzbekistan cited Trump’s electoral win in calling for a ban on LGBTQ+ “propaganda.”
“The text message recipients have now expanded to high school students, as well as both the Hispanic and LGBTQIA+ communities,” the FBI said in a statement on Friday. “Some recipients reported being told they were selected for deportation or to report to a re-education camp. The messages have also been reported as being received via email communication.”
Your LGBTQ+ guide to Election 2024
Stay ahead of the 2024 Election with our newsletter that covers candidates, issues, and perspectives that matter.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
One recipient was lesbian Diana Brier, 41, who said she was shocked when a text arrived on the Sunday following the election. The message referred to an executive order and instructed her to check in to be transported to an undisclosed location for an “LGB re-education camp,” she told The New York Times.
She said that she knew the message wasn’t real, but the specificity was unsettling.
“The timing is not a coincidence,” Brier said. “There’s a lot of concern among my queer friends about what’s going to happen to us.”
The FBI said they had already been aware of the “offensive and racist” text messages sent to Black communities around the country in the election aftermath and are working with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and other federal authorities to locate the senders.
Some texts reported by recipients referred to them by name and included middle school-age children. Many referred to Trump’s win.
On Wednesday and Thursday following the election, hundreds of social media users in over a dozen states shared the messages they had received. Some individuals reported getting voicemails, as well. Students at several historically Black colleges were among the recipients of the racist texts.