IU students sent racist text messages, part of apparent national trend

Black students at Indiana University have received racist text messages telling them they’ve been “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation” in the days since the election — part of an apparent nationwide trend that’s also been reported in places like Ohio and South Carolina.
Indiana University Police Department (IUPD) confirmed that on Nov. 6, they received a harassment report from a student “who received a text message with racially-biased content,” who advised “that others have received similar text messages.”
Cedric Harris, IU’s assistant dean for student support, said at least three Black students reported receiving messages about being “selected for plantations,” and that students said there were more cases that hadn’t been reported.
Harris said of those reported incidents, each came from a different phone number that would not connect when called. Two screenshots shared with The Herald-Times show students being addressed by their names or nicknames.
Harris said these text messages started the morning of Nov. 6, and believes they coincide with the 2024 presidential election.
More:Racist texts about picking cotton target Michigan students after presidential election
“It’s directly connected. There’s no way it couldn’t be,” Harris said. “As soon as [Kamala Harris] lost, these messages showed up the next morning.”
Messages that follow a similar script have been reported across the country, with Black college students appearing to be the most frequent targets. Harris, who responds to Bias Incident Reporting at IU, said hateful messages targeting minority students happen on occasion, but rarely on a national level like this.
Subscribe:Read the news that matters to you
“Jewish students have gotten messages out of the blue that say horrible stuff like this, too,” Harris said. “I think in some of these cases, people may go on a university website, look up people in the directory, and target these people.”
More:Expert: Mass deportation would have ‘devastating impact’ on Michigan agriculture industry
IUPD said anyone with questions or tips about the messages should report them to the FBI given the national scale. Harris encouraged any IU students who receive these messages to report them at reportincident.iu.edu.
“We’ll reach out and offer to meet with them, and offer the support and resources, and figure out if they might want to do anything about it,” Harris said.
More:Michigan First Credit Union customers upset after losing thousands to fraud
Harris said since the phone numbers are unreachable, there’s little his office can do to investigate. Still, he encourages students who receive messages or know of others who have to report them so the university can understand the scale.
“There’s a lot of things that happen that students don’t report,” Harris said. “We can’t do anything if we don’t know about it.”