1 day Ago By Catherine Duckenfield, Contributing Writer
Some of you may have seen in the news or at least heard of the ominous, racist text messages that are being received by primarily Black Americans, some of whom are working people, college students and even minors, all over the United States. In an interview with NBC , a Black woman, Carin Freeman, was asked how the racist text she received made her feel. She responded, “I think that this is intentional to scare people of color, Black people, into a reality that we don’t want to go back to.
” Her opinion seems to be a plausible explanation for why these texts are being disseminated. They contain language that is reminiscent of the enslavement that Black people have been subjected to in our nation’s past, even before its founding as a country. The reality of our country at present is one that has evolved from the enslavement that Black people were historically condemned to, as that system of subjugation has been abolished; furthermore, several forms of legislation have been passed that established and protected the civil rights and liberties of Black people.
The audacity of someone to engage in the task of curating racist messages and sending them to Black Americans with the intent of instilling feelings of fear is despicable. Recent, an email was sent to the Fordham University community from President Tania Tetlow informing them of racial slurs that were written on white boards in classrooms at the Rose Hill campus that “contained the epithet so repugnant we do not say it, even to denounce it.” These racist messages that have appeared in Fordham classrooms have provoked concern within our community, knowing that there are people among us that maintain racist sentiments and took to expressing them overtly in a classroom.
The irony that these racist messages were written in classrooms, sanctuaries in which knowledge is shared and attitudes and expressions of ignorance are considered unacceptable, is disappointing. In parallel with the racist incidents that have taken place recently at Rose Hill, as well the circulation of targeted racist messaging that is occuring nationwide, both occurrences somehow remind me of “Kindred” by Octavia Butler. Butler, a renowned Black woman writer of novels in the science fiction genre who utilizes the theme of time travel in “Kindred” as a means to investigate Black people’s intergenerational trauma, with her primary intent being to introduce a new perspective on how the horrors of enslavement can be confronted in order to understand the intergenerational black experience with more complexity and clarity.
These racist text messages correlate in some respect to the plot of “Kindred,” in that they both thrust Black Americans into a reality of enslavement, since the structure of these messages imply that its content are not mere statements, but rather instructions that Black Americans are expected to follow. These messages threaten the renouncement of Black Americans’ rights and liberties, unlike Butler’s aim which is to ultimately resolve Black Americans’ trauma. One of my uncles — don’t worry, he’s Black — joked that he received one of the text messages, and sent a screenshot to my dad and my other uncle in their group chat.
Soon after, he revealed that he was joking and that he actually didn’t receive one. My other uncle scolded him for joking around, given the gravity of the matter. And here’s the thing: my uncle’s perspective is an example of one of the diverse interpretations that this massive text dissemination operation provokes.
These messages are ridiculous and meant to instill fear, but only prove ignorance. As it stands, slavery has been abolished, and the U.S.
has continued to make legal strides to equalize civil rights and liberties for Black people and other marginalized groups, meaning that it’s impossible that Black Americans will be once again subjected to enslavement. Yet, despite my uncle’s interpretation, it is imperative to recognize that it is undeniably shameful that messages like these are being sent as part of some unknown, massive operation that has yet to be uncovered. In an interview with CNN , a 13-year-old Black boy from Atlanta recited the message he received.
The message began, “I am one of Donald Trump’s associates and your cotton picking sessions are from 6AM-8PM.” Not all of the messages that primarily Black people have received mention Trump, however, these messages are hate mail, and the reality that a multitude of these text messages are being sent in 2024 is highly unsettling. It reveals, unsurprisingly, that there are indeed people that possess such ignorant, racist sentiments.
More crucially, these assailants of racist rhetoric may have very possibly regarded Trump’s re-election as an affirmation that it is acceptable to boldly project their prejudices in an overt fashion with no shame. Whoever or whatever is responsible for the circulation of these messages should be uncovered immediately and subsequently be prosecuted for federal hate crimes, as this massive message dissemination operation is unambiguously vile, and reveals that America’s citizens have a long ways to go in regards to developing civility and respect for others. Catherine Duckenfield, FCRH ’27, is an environmental studies major from Washington, D.
C..
