WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — After racist text messages from an unknown source were sent to many people in the Black community this week, the emotional toll is being expressed across the U.S.

Several iterations of the text messages are being reported across the U.S., instructing the recipient to be a “slave” and to “pick cotton,” “at the nearest plantation,” according to several screenshots seen online.

At Howard University, an HBCU, students lamented the messages. Four people DC News Now spoke with Friday, including a Maryland woman who received a similar text, believe the racial messages are tied to people feeling emboldened in the current political climate.

“I think this election has given a lot of people an excuse to, maybe be openly racist,” said Pypah Miller, a Howard student.

“We honestly just can’t escape racism no matter where we are,” Ariel Williamson added.

Holli Holliday received one of the racist texts Thursday that this could be “part of our new reality.”

“What got me to the point of being angry was how widespread it was being received by other people, particularly young voters who are way more vulnerable to this kind of behavior,” she said.

Students in Montgomery County also were among those who received those texts, according to an email sent to staff and parents from the public school district Thursday.

The FBI said it’s in contact with the Justice Department about the situation as a whole.

When asked what Holliday would say to young people on the receiving end of the hurtful messages, she said she would “acknowledge however they’re feeling about that.”

“Remind them that as a community, we have been through worse and that that’s why it’s important to lean on community, that is why it is important to have conversations with people so that you can discern those people who are really supporting you, versus people who are not,” she said.

Attorneys general in D.C., Maryland and Virginia have all admonished the widespread messages.

If you received one of these messages, police said to copy and forward it to the Federal Trade Commission’s reporting system at 7726. 

Recipients can then report the message as spam and block the number.