Politics and Current
North Carolina Plantation Descendants Won’t ‘Cower’ From ‘Disrespectful’ Massive Texts About Slavery After Donald Trump’s Election
Descendants of certainly one of North Carolina’s largest plantations have condemned mass text messages sent to Black Americans across the country informing them that they’ve been “selected to pick cotton” the day after Donald Trump was re-elected president.
Black people across the country were sent the identical message with slight differences, informing them that that they had been “selected to pick cotton on the nearest plantation.”
Dozens of text messages informed recipients that the “executive slaves” would arrive in a “brown van” that will transport them to the plantations after which inform the victims which “plantation group,” marked AZ, they belonged to.
Beverly Evans said ABC11 that “people who received these messages felt disrespected, and all of us, as Black people, felt disrespected because of this.”
The 76-year-old recently learned that she is descended from a family that was once enslaved on the Stagville Plantation in Durham, North Carolina. According to Stagville’s websitethe plantation belonged to the Bennehan-Cameron family, which enslaved over 900 people across 30,000 acres of land within the state.
The North Carolina Department of Historic Sites reported that some people even received text messages mentioning the Stagville plantation:
“We have become aware that some North Carolinians have received alarming text messages regarding the Stagville State Historic Plantation Site. North Carolina Historic Sites condemns these acts that sought to incite fear and division by weaponizing history. Stagville is a sacred space where visitors can grapple with the history of slavery, emancipation and injustice. We will cooperate with law enforcement to investigate these hateful and fraudulent messages.”
Another person whose family was once enslaved on the Stagville plantation asserted that he wouldn’t be unnerved by messages designed to stoke fear and intimidation.
“We don’t hide anymore. We are no longer intimidated. Those days are over,” said Ricky Hart. “They can try the intimidation factor or the fear factor, but it won’t work anymore.”
The news sparked a social media firestorm and was condemned by many state and federal elected officials. Authorities strongly urged anyone who received the message to contact local FBI field offices and state agencies.
Federal agents opened an investigation and dispatched criminal, cyber and counterintelligence agencies to analyze the matter. It is unclear right now whether the lyrics come from the United States or abroad.
A spokesman for CTIA, the official trade association representing the U.S. wireless communications industry, he told NBC News blocked many messages and the numbers that sent them. The association urged people to send spam text messages to 7726 or “SPAM” to report them to their wireless service provider.
Divisive and hateful rhetoric has increased throughout the last presidential election cycle. Trump has been hailed by his opponents as a significant influencer of this rhetoric, raising concerns that race relations within the country will proceed to deteriorate once he returns to office.
The NAACP released an announcement stating that the 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 many of us feel in the wake of Tuesday’s election results.”
Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, condemned the text messages last week, stating: “If we can find the origin of these messages that promote this kind of ugliness on our behalf, we will of course take legal action to stop it.”
Politics and Current
Here’s what Byron Donalds said about Trump not appointing any Black Republicans to his team
Despite campaigning heavily for Donald Trump throughout the 2024 election cycle, to the curiosity of many, Republican Byron Donalds of Florida has not yet been appointed to the president-elect’s future administration. In fact, no Black Republican has been elected among the many greater than two dozen appointments and nominations Trump has revamped the past week.
During an appearance on CNN with Laura Coates, Congressman Donalds he said He was “not surprised” that he was not chosen for a position within the Trump-Vance administration and has vocally defended President-elect Trump against criticism from Democrats reminiscent of the Rev. Al Sharpton.
“That doesn’t mean I won’t do other things in the future,” added Donalds, who’s rumored to be considering a run for Florida governor in 2026 or a run for U.S. Senate if Trump is nominated for U.S. secretary of state, Sen. Marco Rubio has been confirmed.
Donalds rejected criticism that Trump has not appointed any Black people to his Cabinet or administration, suggesting that Democrats are simply upset about losing the 2024 election. He argued: “They are still licking their wounds over the fact that it didn’t work out the way they thought it would.”
The 46-year-old Florida lawmaker said the subsequent Trump administration is not about race or ethnicity, but reasonably about “the people who will carry out his agenda.” In contrast, he argued, the Biden-Harris administration had “an element of every identity” but “failed to do its job.”
“Whether you’re Black or Latinx, if the border is unsafe… does it help everyday people’s lives? “No, no,” Donalds said. He continued: “The election of Donald Trump is about restoring competence and reality to Washington in the White House, making sure that the work gets done on behalf of the American people, regardless of their race, regardless of their religion or regardless of their creed.” creed.”
“This assurance that black people will not be in the highest echelons of power in this country is… representative of that,” he argued. “It actually shows what the program is about and who it is aimed at.” But no matter whether Trump chooses a Black Republican leader for his administration, Brown stressed, “That doesn’t mean it’s safe for our community as well.”
He explained, “They would still have to agree to serve in a government that is dismantling the Department of Education, that is, dismantling DEI programs that are actually opening up opportunities for Black people to access economic and career opportunities, access to education, etc.”
Brown continued: “There are two sides of the coin where yes, there is no diversity of representation and that is by design.” He added: “But people who look like us being considered for these roles wouldn’t help us. They would help Donald Trump.”
Politics and Current
Matt Gaetz withdraws from Trump’s nomination for attorney general
Former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz is withdrawing from President-elect Donald Trump’s presidency nomination for attorney general after backlash.
In an announcement released Nov. 21 via X, Gaetz withdrew from the nomination, saying his confirmation was a “distraction.” “I had excellent meetings with senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful opinions and the incredible support from so many people. While momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation unfairly distracted from the critical work of the Trump-Vance transition,” he wrote.
“There isn’t any time to waste on an unnecessarily prolonged fight in Washington. “I am therefore withdrawing my name from consideration for the position of Attorney General.”
Knowing that the appointed attorney general should be able to serve on the primary day of the brand new Trump-Vance administration, waiting for legal proceedings would make it harder for Gaetz to meet that commitment. A former lawmaker is under federal investigation for allegedly paying two women to have sex and watch him appear on Fox News. Both women claim that in 2019, Gaetz also paid them to accompany him to a Broadway show. During testimony before the bipartisan House Ethics Committee, the ladies alleged that Gaetz paid them to travel across state lines to have sex almost twice.
The women were between 19 and 21 years old on the time of the alleged encounters. They testified that the disgraced congressman paid them to travel to the Bahamas with other young women – including one who alleged that she had had sex. with Gaetz when she was a minor.
After Trump announced his nomination to move the Department of Justice (DOJ), attention focused on outdated allegations, prompting the discharge of an Ethics Committee investigation report.
As committee members failed to determine whether to release the report’s findings, Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) characterised Gaetz’s potential confirmation as “Kavanaugh on steroids” in reference to the 2018 racial and sexual misconduct hearings. – Judge Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “He’s a smart guy, I’m sure he realizes that,” Cornyn said, in line with .
A senior member of the Judiciary Committee warned that each one details of the FBI’s investigation and committee report – each good and bad – will eventually develop into public. “It will reach us a technique or one other. There are not any secrets here,” Cornyn said.
Before withdrawing, Gaetz met with Cornynand in addition Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and John Kennedy (R-La.) .). Vice President-elect J.D. VAnka also took part within the meetings. He encouraged lawmakers to present their former colleague a likelihood to present his vision for reforming the Justice Department and to carry off on making judgments about his fitness to serve.
At the time of Gaetz’s withdrawal, Trump had not yet issued an announcement.
Politics and Current
Missouri police officer fatally shot 2-month-old baby and her mother after relative called police for help, family says
A Missouri family and community are mourning the tragic death of a 34-year-old woman and her infant daughter who were killed in an officer-involved shooting earlier this month.
Family members say Maria Pike and her 2-month-old daughter, Destinii Hope, were shot to death on November 7 after police were called to an apartment in Independence, Missouri, in response to a domestic disturbance.
In the weeks for the reason that shooting, local law enforcement has released few details, but eyewitnesses have provided local media with their accounts of what happened.
said Talisa Coombs, the baby’s grandmother Kansas City Star that she was the one who called the police after a physical altercation with the kid’s mother. Family members say Maria Pike has had mental health issues, anger issues and most recently suffered from postpartum depression.
Coombs said that when she called the police, she thought authorities would arrive, arrest Pike and get her the assistance she needed. She told her son and Destinia’s father, Mitchell Holder, that she desired to press charges against Pike for assault.
When police arrived, Holder initially refused to allow them to inside, however the apartment constructing’s assistant manager persuaded him to let two officers inside.
Assistant manager Gavin Delaney told The Star that when police entered the apartment, Pike was sitting within the bedroom closet, holding Destinia, not doing or saying anything.
Destinia’s father, who witnessed the shooting, recounted the moments leading as much as the shooting to his sister, Ashley Greenfield.
Greenfield told The Star that when officers entered the apartment, she and Holder tried to take the baby from Pike as she moved from the closet to the bed. Greenfield stated that when Pike reached for an object on the nightstand, the officer shot the baby in the top while he was still in his mother’s arms.
Holder later recalled his horrified response to the shooting of “The Kansas City Defender.”
“They shot my baby,” Holder said outlet. “It looked like her head had exploded. Her blood splattered throughout my glasses and throughout me. All I could do was scream. I just kept repeating three words – the identical three words – “You killed her!” I screamed it. Time and time again.”
He added that Pike jumped after the primary shot and the officer opened fire on her.
Accounts vary as as to if Pike had a gun when officers entered the apartment.
Local news outlets reported that among the many few details police have released up to now concerning the shooting is that Pike was armed with a knife.
“When we arrived, officers encountered a woman who was ultimately armed with a knife,” said Independence Police Chief Adam Dustman. “As a result of this encounter, two people died, one was an armed woman and the other was a child.”
However, family members say otherwise. Before calling the police, Destinia’s grandmother stated that there have been no weapons in the home. Holder also said he never saw Pike holding a knife in the course of the encounter with police.
“Yes, I was in the room when it all happened,” Holder he said. “From what I saw, I never once saw Maria armed with anything. Honestly, I do not even know where that got here from. I heard crazy things like she held a baby hostage in a closet, that she had a knife, and all this crazy stuff that is not true. I mean, all I can say is that it’s possible she had a knife and I didn’t see it, but all I do know is that I never saw her holding anything – and I used to be there within the room.
Independence police said the investigation has been turned over to the Jackson County Police Involvement Investigative Team (PIIT), a team of detectives that investigates police shootings and use of force incidents.
Chief Dustman said just one officer, a “long-time law enforcement veteran,” fired in the course of the incident. The officer and two other people on the scene were placed on administrative leave.
Capt. Kyle Flowers, who heads the PIIT team investigating the shooting, said last week that investigators had reviewed body camera footage and planned to interview witnesses. According to KMBCthe team will turn over the findings of the investigation to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, but Flowers didn’t specify exactly when that will occur.
Family members have called on authorities to release the body camera footage, which is able to hopefully reveal once and for all whether Pike was armed with a knife on the time of the shooting. They also call for punishment of the officers involved within the shooting.
“Why hasn’t the body camera footage been released?” Amber Travis, cousin of the victims, he said at a community vigil for Pike and her daughter. “Give my family a break.”
“It means a lot that the community feels the same way we do,” Holder he said. “It means the world. It won’t bring her back, but no less than we all know now we have loads of support here.
AND GoFundMe page was created to assist pay for Destinia’s funeral. As of Wednesday afternoon, greater than $3,000 had been raised.
On November 22, Destinii would have turned 3 months old.
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