A lot of racist texts were sent to Black people across the country the day after the election. Chapters of the NAACP in the Bay Area are speaking out against this.
The exact words in the texts were different, but the message was the same: the people who received them had been “selected” to pick cotton at a farm.
It was revealed by the San Francisco Unified School District that the texts were sent to students and young people in San Francisco. The district is now working with the city and neighborhood leaders to make sure that students are safe and cared for.
“Those texts are so vicious, vile, and violent,” said Amos Brown, a famous civil rights leader in San Francisco and head of the San Francisco Chapter of the NAACP, at a town hall meeting at Third Baptist Church.
Brown said that the kids in San Francisco who got the texts told him they felt alone and unsafe.
People from the NAACP, parents, grandparents, teachers, and neighbors all came to the town hall to talk about their anger and fear over these texts.
The head of the Oakland NAACP, Cynthia Adams, was there. Adams said she did not know of any texts like this being sent to kids in Oakland’s school system.
“I am from the South in the country. I did not choose cotton. “I am pretty sure we are not going to let our kids talk about picking cotton,” Adams said.
These text messages are being looked into by the FBI, but as of Sunday night, a spokesman said they had nothing new to say.
The senders of these texts and how they got the phone numbers are not clear. Text Now, the company that provides the service, told NBC News in a statement that it is aware of the messages.
“As soon as we became aware, our Trust & Safety team acted quickly, shutting down the accounts involved within the hour,” said TextNow.
Brown said that because young people in San Francisco are getting these texts, the San Francisco NAACP is working with the San Francisco Unified School District and the city’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families to help Black kids.
“We are joining together to announce not a meeting but a movement,” he said.
“To make sure that those children know that somebody cares about them and that they are not alone,” he said. This group will work to find ways to help Black kids in San Francisco with their schoolwork and their feelings.
He said that Dr. Maria Su, the new director of schools in San Francisco, plans to go to an upcoming NAACP meeting. Also, people from the community and the NAACP plan to protest these texts even more at the SFUSD board meeting on Tuesday.