Racist online attacks intensify after Trump’s election victory

Racist attacks against American Arabs, Africans, and Latinos following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US elections have increased online. 

A number of African Americans shared the messages they had received in the past three days. In one of the messages, it is seen that the recipient has been told they are being selected to “pick cotton.” 

The sender advised them to bring all their belongings, too, as all their “executive slaves” would be present there. Exaggerating the threat further, the recipient of the message is told that they should come prepared “to get searched and patted down once inside of the plantation.”

These messages allude to the dark ages of slavery and have been received by children, college students and working professionals from unrecognized phone numbers in the wake of the presidential election.

CNN reports that authorities are tracking the sender. 

However, other reports suggest that Harris’ defeat has made immigrants like Arabs, Asians and Latinxs (a gender-neutral term to refer to men and women of Latin American heritage) easy targets.

These people are being accused of ‘gifting’ Trump the presidency by not voting for Harris. From appeals for mass deportation to wishes that minorities lose their citizenship, racist and Islamophobic comments are everywhere on the internet.

Some of these attacks are directed at Muslims in the context of genocide in Gaza as one commenter said, “I hope they are all deported. And I can’t wait until Netanyahu gets the green light to turn Gaza into a parking lot.”

“Netanyahu bombs and obliterates a school in Gaza. He did this because we just elected Trump, who told him ‘finish it off’ — and this is what he meant. To the Arab voters in Michigan who voted for Trump — this is on YOU,” Cheri Jacobus, a political strategist, pundit and writer, tweeted.

However, many in her replies pointed out that this has been happening for a year with the support of Joe Biden’s administration, of which Kamala was a part.

Some other commentators were outrightly ferocious, “I HOPE HE DEPORTS THEM ALL TO THE GULFS (Arab and Muslim Trump voters) coming from one.”

Exit polls have revealed that more than 50 per cent of Muslims in America actually voted for Green Party’s Jill Stein. 

Other figures indicated that Trump gained support in communities of colour — including a 5.5-point shift in majority-Black counties and a 6.8-point increase in Latino-majority counties. Still, a notable share of voters—18.37pc—opted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who campaigned on ending US support for Israeli military actions in Gaza. In contrast, Harris maintained a pro-Israel stance and totally alienated Muslim voters.