A portion of a racist text message received by several people across the country. (Wisconsin Examiner photo illustration)

Along with people in other communities across the nation, some Wisconsinites woke up Thursday morning to racist text messages ordering them to report to “the nearest plantation.” The texts came less than 48 hours after former President Donald Trump won the presidential race against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Lydia, a mother in Milwaukee who didn’t want her last name published, received the text just before 2:30 a.m. She saw it two hours later, when she woke up about 4:30 a.m. The message addressed her by name. 

“You have been selected to pick cutton [sic] at the nearest plantation,” the message reads. “Be ready at 12PM SHARP with your belongings. Our Executive Slaves will come get you in a Brown Van, be prepared to be searched down once you’ve entered the plantation. You are in Plantation Group S.”

After seeing the text, Lydia posted the text online and searched to see if they had appeared elsewhere. “The crazy thing about it is they spelled cotton wrong,” she told Wisconsin Examiner with a chuckle. Still, she found the text message startling and chilling. 

“I mean obviously, I knew the election was on the fence,” she said. “So, to have this happen right after the president is elected…” 

Lydia said that she understood “where we were at with everything, like I kind of knew it could go this way.” After receiving the text message, however, “slowly I felt violated, felt fearful because it’s like a lot of supporters are really, you know, wanting to go back to that…To that 1800’s vibe…I was very concerned.” The text made her, and others in her community, feel threatened and disgusted, she said. 

Similar text messages have been reported in Alabama, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, and elsewhere. Although not word-for-word copies, the text messages all say that the recipient has been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation, that a van — sometimes brown, sometimes white — driven by “our executive slaves” will be picking recipients up to take them to a plantation where they will be searched. 

All the text messages appear to assign the recipient to a different “plantation group” organized by letters. Some of the texts end with “sincerely, the Trump Administration.”

Wisconsin Examiner attempted to contact two of the numbers sending out the texts. One was no longer in service, and another led to a generic voicemail box.

Lydia said the text reminded her of the rally Trump held at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Oct. 27, nine days before Election Day. There, comedian Tony Hedgecliff called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean,” said that Puerto Ricans “love making babies” and made remarks involving Black people and watermelon before a crowd of laughing Trump supporters.

Trump, who will take office Jan. 20, 2025,  has continued to rail against immigration from across the southern border and has branded “left wing lunatics” as “the enemy within.” The rally was compared to a Nazi rally held in 1939 in Madison Square Garden. 

“There’s just certain things you just don’t say,” said Lydia. “It doesn’t feel safe being Black in America. But now that he is president, it’s really out there. And people are really concerned, and people are really scared.”