ATLANTA — The FBI is now looking into reports of racist text messages being sent to people around the country and in metro Atlanta.
On Thursday, Kayden Reynolds, 13, spoke with Channel 2′s Audrey Washington and read her the text message he received on Wednesday.
“Hello. I am one of Donald Trump’s associates and your cotton-picking sessions are from 6am to 8pm. You’d be dropped out of school and be a full-time cotton picker making 75 cents an hour, sounds good?” the text read.
“I was scared,” Reynolds told Washington.
“What were you scared of?” Washington asked.
“That I was going to get picked up out of school and have to pick cotton in slavery,” Reynolds said.
His uncle, Richard Reynolds, said he stepped in immediately.
“I just reassured him that this is not true, it’s probably a hoax, and told him you can be whatever you want to be and that we are not going back to slavery,” Richard Reynolds said.
Law enforcement agencies are now investigating similar incidents in Alabama, Virginia, South Carolina, and in metro Atlanta.
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A text message was sent to a woman in Atlanta, that read: “Greetings. You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation. Be ready at 12AM NOVEMBER 13 SHARP with your belongings. Our executive slaves will come get you on a bus. Be prepared to be searched down once you’ve entered the plantation. You are in Plantation Group B.”
“That is horrible,” said Rajiv Garg, associate professor of Information Systems and Operation Management at Emory University.
Garg told Washington that anyone can get a phone number over the internet and write a simple code.
“You can send messages to any number of people,” Garg said.
Thursday, he showed Washington how the text messages can be sent to people by gender and race.
“You write in the demographic. You just copy the code. You go to Google, you run the code and your messages are gone, like whatever message you want,” Garg said.
Kayden Reynolds said he hopes the racist text messages, stop.
“Just discriminating against people and just be friends with one another,” he said.
An FBI spokesperson told Washington officials at the national headquarters have been notified.
In a statement, the agency said:
“The FBI is aware of the offensive and racist text messages sent to individuals around the country and is in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities on the matter. As always, we encourage members of the public to report threats of physical violence to local law enforcement authorities.”