The United States is agitated by a case of racist text messages and emails received by African-Americans, in more than twenty states, after the victory of Donald Trump in the presidential election on November 5 . The authorities have announced the opening of investigations to determine who is behind these mailings, and how the victims were identified and targeted.
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With our correspondent in New York, Loubna Anaki
“ It is clear that the authors of this campaign have prepared their coup well. said New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who ordered an investigation after hundreds of African-American New Yorkers received text messages or emails racist. Messages told them, for example, that “ a van would come and pick them up to go grow cotton on the nearest plantation “.
Similar messages were also received by many African-Americans in around twenty other states from the East Coast to the West Coast, including Virginia, South Carolina and Texas, again giving rise to investigations from the Department of Justice and the FBI.
One of the main questions that investigators are asking: how were the authors of these messages able to target only African-American people, sometimes addressing them directly by their first names? Some experts mention the possibility of personal data purchased on the internet. Those responsible would also have used services that allow text messages or emails to be sent from anonymized telephone numbers.
This affair, which caused a lot of noise, provoked the anger of associations fighting against racism, who believe that the victory of Donald Trump and his overtly racist rhetoric will only further encourage these kinds of incidents.
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