ORLANDO, Fla. — A Central Florida mother is speaking out after she said her daughter received a racist text message.
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The girl, who is only 13 years old, joins a number of other victims across the country who reported receiving the very same message.
“It’s unacceptable in 2024; completely unacceptable,” said Kim Keller, the teen’s mother. “My next thought was, how the hell do they know who you are, and how do they know you’re black?”
In the text message, the 407 number writes, “You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation,” and it goes on to say, “Our executive slaves will come get you.”
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Keller’s daughter is biracial, and she doesn’t think the message was random. “She shared with me that a bunch of her friends got the message. My next question was, did any of your white friends get the message? And she said, no, it was only her black friends.”
The FBI is now looking into similar messages that have been registered in at least 24 states, primarily targeting black teens and adults.
“We really don’t know what has been breached, but it certainly does sound like there’s unauthorized access to a or multiple databases that then was utilized for this,” said Andrew Von Ramin Mapp, an Orlando-based Cyber Security Expert.
A child psychologist says this kind of invasion of privacy could have long-lasting consequences. “It’s something that we want teens to know who to go to if they are getting something of that nature, and how to access supports and how to report something because it is something that can really affect someone’s sense of safety,” said Dr. Katrina Stone, a child psychologist.
“As adults, it’s really important we’re modeling that this isn’t acceptable, that it’s not part of our values, and that something action will be taken when messages are sent like this in such a targeted and hateful way.”
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