Opinion: Black people are receiving racist text messages. Blame Trump's rhetoric.

Amelia Robinson, Columbus Dispatch
·3 min read

My ancestors survived the Middle Passage.

That was no easy task. Torn from their loved ones and homelands, nearly 2 million drowned or died of sicknesses during 80-day ship voyages packed side by side below deck without room to sit up or move.

I am sure my ancestors wanted to give up on those ships or during the 400 years of American history that passed.

I am grateful they didn’t.

Their names, languages and cultures were stolen long ago but not their souls. I felt their love in my heart the night the nation I love elected a man president who fans the flames of racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia.

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I felt their strength again when I read a friend's Facebook post about text messages being sent to Black children and adults – students at Ohio State and other universities included – around this state and our nation.

The version she posted reads:

"Congratulations! you have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.

Please be prepared to leave your home November 24, 2024 you will be picked up at 8am sharp in out white van.

Also you will sit with Group C Have a nice day.

Sincerely, A TRUMP SUPPORTER."

Some of the poorly written texts include recipients' partial or full names.

Racist texts like these are showing up around the nation on Thursday.
Racist texts like these are showing up around the nation on Thursday.

It is not clear if the people behind the campaign to terrorize and marginalize are actually Trump supporters. At the end of the day, if they are or aren't doesn't matter. The president-elect's rhetoric normalized hate and fearmongering.

I fear that the racist text messages will be viewed as tame in weeks and months to come. I pray the nation I love with all my heart proves me wrong.

Those out to intimidate won't win in the end.

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My ancestors' courage gives me hope

As awful as it is to say, scare tactics and pain have always been part of the march toward a more perfect union all Americans should be on.

I still see it in the horizon even though so many did not see through Donald Trump's anger and lies. I don't hate Trump voters and know most of them don't all hate me.

It doesn't matter if they do. Rising nevertheless is in my DNA.

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I relish in the fact that my ancestors – mainly Nigerian, Western Bantu people, Ivorian and Ghanaian, Malian, Beninois and Togolese, Cameroonian and Senegalese according to Ancestry.com – survive through me.

I know them in a way.

They were slaves, but slavery and the abuse, oppression and rape that came with it – the reason 7% of my DNA is European – was not on them.

Efforts to rewrite and ignore history will not erase the reality of their courage – that's their legacy.

My ancestors survived the Middle Passage.

I will survive four more years of Donald Trump and the nastiness he carries in the White House on the bottom of his shoes.

There is no giving up.

Amelia Robinson is the opinion and community engagement editor for The Columbus Dispatch, where this column originally appeared.

You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Opinion: Who's behind those racist texts? Blame Trump's rhetoric

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