NYACK – Nyack middle- and high-school students reported receiving text messages saying they were “selected to pick cotton,” part of a trend that Black college students in the South reported receiving since Election Day.
The students who have reported the messages to school and NAACP officials are children of color, Nyack NAACP President Nicole Hines told the USA Today Network Thursday.
Nyack schools interim Superintendent Lizzette Ruiz-Giovinazzi said in a letter to the community Thursday evening that the text messages were sent specifically to Black and Brown students in the district’s middle and high school.
“While there are slight variations in the wording, these texts are horrific and explicitly racist, specifically threatening,” Ruiz-Giovinazzi said. The district was working with various law enforcement and elected officials.
“We know we must work together to respond to hatred and uplift our students,” she wrote. “Our Administrators and School Counselors are ready to wrap support around our students who are hurting and feeling threatened.”
Hines had heard reports of up to six middle school students and more high schoolers getting the texts as of midday Thursday.
At least one student received a similar message sent via Instagram.
Clarkstown Police Det. Norm Peters confirmed a report of such a text sent to a student’s phone. He said the number was untraceable and appeared to be “national spam.”
Wilbur Aldridge, NAACP Mid-Hudson Valley regional director, said in a statement: “This is where it starts.”
‘You have been selected to pick cotton’
Messages sent to Nyack students included: “Hello, you have been chosen to be a slave for the United States of America.” The messages then gave a time that they would be “shipped off” and a group designation.
One message addressed a student by name with “Greetings,” and the student’s first name. “You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation be ready at 4pm SHARP on 11/29 with your belongings,” the message reads. “Our executive slaves will come get you in a brown van, be prepared to be search down once you have entered the plantation. You are in plantation group C Trump & Vance Administration.”
College students got messages day after election
The Crimson White, the campus paper for the University of Alabama, reported that the racist messages started hitting Black students’ phones Wednesday. Officials at the school said similar messages had been received by people across the country.
People on a Reddit thread about the messages said the post had been sent to people in Minnesota, North Carolina, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
Other districts on alert
Clarkstown schools Superintendent Marc Baiocco, who serves as president of the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents, said the messages sent to children were “deeply concerning.”
“Such hateful acts have no place in our society and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms,” he said in an email to the USA Today Network.
Baiocco said he was unaware Thursday of students at other schools within the region receiving similar messages.
“We are actively monitoring the situation and encourage our member districts to work closely with law enforcement to investigate these incidents,” Baiocco said. “Additionally, we urge all students and families to report any suspicious activity to their school administrator and the appropriate authorities.”
Nyack school district’s student population is 14% Black or African-American; 34% Hispanic or Latino; 38% white; 7% multiracial; and 7% Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, according to 2023-2024 state data.
AG urges people to report texts
New York State Attorney General Leticia James on Thursday night condemned the texts, which she said were an attempt to intimidate or threaten New York families.
“The racist text messages targeting New Yorkers, including middle school, high school, and college students, are disgusting and unacceptable,” James said in a statement. “I encourage anyone in New York who has received an anonymous, threatening text message to report it to my office.”
Anyone who has received such messages can report them to the Attorney General’s Civil Rights Bureau by calling 800-771-7755, emailing civil.rights@ag.ny.gov, or filing a complaint online at ag.ny.gov/file-complaint/civil-rights.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Black Nyack NY students get ‘Slave’ texts about picking cotton