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A racist text message sent to the mayor of Atlanta about reopening the city amid the novel coronavirus pandemic is being looked into by Georgia's attorney general.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said Friday his office will be investigating who sent the message, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms posted a screenshot of the text message to her Twitter account: "With my daughter looking over my shoulder, I received this message on my phone. I pray for you. "Conscientious stupidity or sincere ignorance." ~Martin Luther King, Jr."
The text message reads: "[Racial slur], just shut up and Re-open Atlanta!"
Bottoms told the Atlanta Journal-Constitutional in an interview that she released the message to the public to highlight that "no matter what title we have, no matter our economic bracket, we're not immune to racism in America."
Newsweek reached to the mayor's office for comments regarding the attorney general's investigation, but they did not respond back in time for publication.
Georgia lawmakers called for an investigation into who sent the message in a letter to the attorney general Friday citing that "this text message purported to be from an official State of Georgia email account," though they acknowledge it may have been a "spoof account."
Bottoms has come out strongly against Governor Brian Kemp for allowing businesses such as bowling alleys, tattoo parlors and hair salons to reopen Friday. While Kemp said his decision was aided by health experts and data that shows the pandemic is in its decline in the state, Bottoms said she believes otherwise and urged residents to stay home.
"We are still having thousands upon thousands of people testing positive. Our death rate is continuing to go up, and the way that it was explained to me by our public health officials is simply because we may have reached one peak doesn't mean that we won't reach another," Bottoms said in an interview on Good Morning America Friday.
President Donald Trump has also come out against Kemp reopening those businesses "too soon." At the president's coronavirus briefing Wednesday, Trump said he told Kemp he "strongly disagreed" with his decision, but that ultimately he wants Kemp to do "what he thinks is right."
Kemp announced Monday that "given the favorable data, enhanced testing and approval of our healthcare professionals, we will allow gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, estheticians, their respective schools and massage therapists to reopen their doors this Friday."
The governor said those businesses have not been able to "manage inventory, deal with payroll, and take care of administrative items while we shelter in place."
Georgia has 22,695 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 904 deaths, according to the state's Department of Public Health daily status report.
