Days after the election, the FBI and other authorities began looking into racist text messages received by Black men, women, and children across the U.S. Some messages referred to the recipients by their first names. Many used derogatory terms and references to slavery, and others mentioned the incoming Trump administration.
The anonymous text messages were reported in at least 30 states, including Colorado.
Jennifer Green said her son, a 16-year-old student at Denver’s Northfield High School, was a recipient of one of the texts while he was at school on Nov. 6.
“I read it and I just was infuriated because I'm thinking to myself, this has to be a prank from one of the kids at school. It's really racist,” Green said. She told her son to go directly to the administration and met him back at school.
“He spoke to the principal, and unfortunately he said a couple of other students received it that day and they didn't want to report it,” she said.
Messages were routed through anonymizing services
Green said she received a call from a Denver police detective later that day who told her they were filing warrants related to TextNow, a service that allows users to send text messages without using their phone number.
TextNow told Denverite it shut down accounts as soon as it "learned that one or more… may have been used to send text messages in violation of our terms of service."
CNN reported that the people sending the messages were using anonymizing software, and that some had routed traffic through eastern Europe, citing the Louisiana attorney general.
“They're just using a number that masks who they really are,” Green said. “The PD said that they traced it to Chicago, but with TextNow, the number could come from Chicago and they're in Colorado. It can come from Chicago and they're in Maryland.”
Green also said it’s frightening that the perpetrator had personal information about her son. “He's a minor and the fact that they used his actual name and the first initial of his last name is what's really scary. It felt very targeted,” she said. “I can't fathom how they would've got his number and knew that it was associated with him.”
Investigations underway as racist texts reported across Colorado
The Denver Police Department confirmed that its bias-motivated crimes unit is investigating two related incidents.
A spokesperson for the University of Colorado confirmed that two of its enrolled students had reported receiving similar messages. One was at the CU Boulder Campus, the other at UCCS in Colorado Springs. The Colorado Springs student did not want to give their name to the local police department, leaving campus police to investigate instead..
The local FBI chapter said in a statement that it is aware of the racist messages and is in contact with the Justice Department, but did not provide further details.
Omar Montgomery, president of the Aurora Branch of the NAACP, said his organization hadn’t received any reports of its members getting the messages. “That doesn't mean it hasn't [happened],” he said. “It means that it just hasn't been reported.”
He said the hateful messages are an echo of Jim Crow.
“I think about our residents who lived during that time, who are still with us today, who receive a message like that saying, ‘We're going to send a van to have you go pick cotton,’” Montgomery said. “What type of trauma does that bring to them?”
Montgomery said while the nation waits for justice, he wants people in Colorado to support each other with respect and kindness.
“Let's think about the circle around us and how we can support and love each other. How can we begin to eradicate all these disparities by figuring out what we can do to advocate, to be kind and to love each other in our immediate circle? I think if we're able to make that go viral, we can see a change in our communities,” he said.
Paolo Zialcita contributed to this report.
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