The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned racist messages sent to Black students and others in numerous states, telling them they were selected to be enslaved and to pick cotton on a plantation.
Alabama law enforcement authorities are investigating after Black college students received racist text messages. Similar messages were received in Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, Virginia, South Carolina, and around the nation.
“We condemn this racist campaign of attempted intimidation aimed at Black Americans and urge our nation’s leaders to repudiate all forms of bigotry,” said CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell.
He noted that earlier today, CAIR welcomed a hate crime charge brought against a man who allegedly assaulted a woman at a sporting goods store in North Carolina.
Mitchell said CAIR and the American Muslim community stand in solidarity with all those challenging antisemitism, systemic anti-Black racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, white supremacy, and all other forms of bigotry.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com