While the texts – sent before and after Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris on Tuesday – vary in language, lots of them indicate to recipients that they’ve been chosen to “pick cotton” on a plantation. Some messages include the recipients’ names and purport to be from the “Trump administration” or Trump supporters.

“Hello, you have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation. Be ready at 12:00 SHARP with your things,” we read in one of the text messages received by a Washington resident, reports a local TV station News4. “Our executive slaves will come pick you up in a black van. Be prepared to be searched upon entering (sic!) the plantation. You are in Plantation Group S.”

There are widespread reports on social media of racist text messages sent to black Americans that read: “You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.”https://t.co/cgS10XAYwX

— Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) November 7, 2024

Another text message sent to a Virginia resident said the recipient could be a “house slave” at Arlington’s Abingdon Plantation, which is now a historic site on land shared with John Paul II National Airport. Ronald Reagan in Washington.

According to USA todaysimilar racist text messages were reported in Alabama, Georgia, Detroit, Michigan, Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and South Carolina. Plantation texts also targeted college campuses, including Clemson University, Ohio State University, the University of Alabama, and others. Other text messages are like that warned threats from white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan.

NAACP President Derrick Johnson condemned the emergence of racist text messages and placed a few of the blame squarely on Donald Trump, the president-elect.

“The unfortunate reality of electing a president with a history of condoning and at times encouraging hatred is unfolding before our eyes,” Johnson said in an announcement. “These messages represent an alarming increase in vile and disgusting rhetoric from racist groups across the country who now feel emboldened to spread hate and fan the flames of fear that many of us feel in the wake of Tuesday’s election results.”

Johnson continued: “The threat – and the mention of slavery in 2024 – is not only deeply disturbing, but perpetuates a legacy of evil that dates back to pre-Jim Crow era and now seeks to prevent Black Americans from enjoying the same freedom to pursue life , freedom and happiness.”

The civil rights leader said the NAACP – the nation’s oldest civil rights organization – wouldn’t allow such racist messages to be “normalized.” The NAACP alerted the FBI and local law enforcement to take racist plantation text messages seriously and “respond appropriately.”

Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, condemned the messages geared toward Black Americans as “a public spectacle of hate and racism that makes a mockery of our civil rights history.”

Huang added: “Leaders in any respect levels must condemn anti-Black racism, in any form, every time we see it, and we must follow up our words with actions that advance racial justice and construct an inclusive democracy where every body feels protected and welcome community in your country.”

“This is something this president and vice chairman have done for the (last) three and a half years. We understand how vulnerable communities may feel, and it is important that we accomplish that,” Biden’s spokesman said.

Jean-Pierre said Biden wants to “set an example” in the ultimate 74 days of his term.

“That’s why we keep talking in regards to the peaceful transfer of power. That’s why we keep talking in regards to the importance of the electoral system and its results, because he thinks it is important,” she added.

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Preparing for work in an office can seem very limiting. We need to be sweet and never be considered over the top. Still, we shouldn’t surrender on our well-being simply because we’re up to this point. But for inspiration, we will turn to Kamala Harris, who seems to have all of it discovered in the beauty department. Her elegant sense of fashion, makeup and hairstyle never appear to wane. No matter how intense things get in the office, Harris will at all times be visible.

In the spirit of supporting our VP, below are our favourite office-ready looks from Harris.

No makeup Makeup

Let the electoral blame game begin.

ESPN host Stephen A. Smith has he solid his vote within the post-election ritual of pointing to someone or something as the explanation a candidate lost, pointing to Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama.

On Wednesday on his podcast “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” Smith said the media mogul and former first lady set an exclusionary tone that turned off men (Trump’s most credible voting bloc).

“If we don’t agree with you, are we against you?” Smith said, referencing the media mogul and former first lady’s speeches. “What do you think the men thought about this? So we must do what you tell us; otherwise we are against you? Did you think it worked? Do you know anything about most men? Do you think this will work?”

Oprah and Michelle O. are among the many long list of celebrities who’ve endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris. She had on her side the most well-liked artists within the country (Beyonce and Taylor Swift), essentially the most famous athlete (LeBron James) and two of essentially the most famous actors (George Clooney and Harrison Ford). Stars from the past (Madonna and Bruce Springsteen) and current (Charli xcx and Lizzo) declared their support for Harris.

But together they were all fair sermon for the choirsaid Seth Abramovitch, senior author at the Hollywood Reporter.

“Oprah, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Ariana Grande – these are artists whose audiences (black, female, liberal, queer) were already willing to vote for Kamala,” he told The Guardian.

Swift, popular with each country and pop fans, appears to be an outlier, Abramovich said, but her influence was negligible amongst two demographic groups which have shifted significantly toward Trump.

Of course, the identical may be said about famous Trump supporters. Women of color, part of the demographic most proof against the previous and future commander-in-chief, weren’t about to be influenced by the likes of Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood.

Left or right, famously, they rarely, if ever, move the counter together with voters.

“In the academic literature,” said Professor Margaretha Bentley of Arizona State University, who has studied Swift’s cultural impact, “research has shown that while celebrity endorsements can increase civic engagement and voter registration, it has not been proven to have a direct impact on the way people make voting decisions.”

When Swift endorsed Harris, she directed followers to this page voting.gov. The website was visited by 405,999 people in 24 hours. However, not everyone was convinced to vote for the previous prosecutor and current vice chairman.

In fact, Swift can have hurt Harris greater than helped. A poll conducted by YouGov shortly after her endorsement found that only 8 percent of voters can be “somewhat” or “much more” more likely to vote for Harris, well below the 20 percent of respondents who said supporting Swift would make them less more likely to vote for a Democrat.

Ashley Spillane of Harvard, who writer a study titled “Celebrities Strengthen Our Culture of Democracy” found that it’s unattainable to quantify whether a celeb endorsement translates into more votes for a candidate.

This is a change from the past. A 2008 poll conducted by Northwestern University found that Oprah’s endorsement of Barack Obama added roughly a million votes to his final tally.

But that was in less divisive times.

Smith argued that it was Oprah’s message, not Oprah herself, that turned off male voters. Her warning on the eve of the election was that a second Trump term would herald an antidemocratic takeover of the United States

“This is something that alienates the electorate, alienates the voter,” Smith said. “Because the freedom you tell them you have, you’re trying to morally confiscate it by letting them know you’re worth nothing if you don’t vote the way we think you should vote.”

“Who will decide on this in the general election?” Smith asked. “In an economy full of inflation, with over 12 million people crossing the border?”

Stephen A Smith destroys Democrats and Oprah. Listen. pic.twitter.com/PWf14XxpPw

— The Godfather (@facts215_) November 7, 2024

The high-power recommendations also served to substantiate Republicans’ findings that Democrats were an elite party.

“Ultimately, stars price lots of of tens of millions, if not billions, who most American residents imagine are incredibly out of touch with their lifestyle and the standard of it, weren’t going to run away and blame them for doing something different than what their experience says and what they should do with it do,” Smith said.

The people almost certainly to learn from a celeb’s endorsement are the celebrity themselves, says Laurence F. Maslon, an art professor at New York University.

“I think sometimes it’s a way of tying your star to someone who seems to be good for you, and maybe there’s some kind of reflected glory in that,” Maslon said.

British comedian Ricky Gervais probably said it best video – he posted in June wherein he ridiculed overly serious stars who imagine that their political beliefs really matter.

“As a celebrity, I know everything about science and politics, so trust me when I tell you who you should vote for,” Gervais said. “If you don’t vote the right way it will be like a hate crime and it makes me sad and angry so I will leave the country and you don’t want that.”