Baltimore mayor shares racist voicemail from man who called him n-word amid Trump’s crime takeover

Mayor Brandon Scott highlights the racist attacks he regularly receives amid national discourse about crime in urban cities led by Black mayors.

As Black mayors push back against right-wing claims about crime in their cities following President Donald Trump‘s federal takeover of Washington, D.C., neighboring Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has become a target. Mayor Scott shared a racist voicemail he received from an anonymous man to underscore longstanding bigoted attitudes about majority Black communities.

“I really think it’s timely for folks to hear the kind of hatred and vitriol…that still exists in the world today,” Mayor Scott said in a video posted to his Instagram page, while wearing a T-shirt that read, “Blackness Today, Blackness Tomorrow.”

Scott played the uncensored voicemail that he received in July. The unidentified man, presumably white, calls the 41-year-old Baltimore mayor a “f—king n—-r wanna be thug a– gangster” and accuses him of making the city of Baltimore a “piece of worthless s–t,” where “n—-rs like you…shoot each other and sell drugs.”

“How about you f*cking do your goddamn job and actually stop crime instead of benefiting and financially f—–g upping yourself with it,” said the man. “We all know you’re a mother f—–g wannabe Kingpin, and you are running Baltimore’s criminal enterprise.”

The racist man continued, “You are a f—–g n—-r…and every fucking n—-r that works with you is just as much of a f—–g worthless criminal n—-r as you are. F–k you. F–k all of you. Go fuck yourselves. You would be better off if you all killed yourselves.”

In response to the racist voicemail, Mayor Scott shared that while it was not the first time he was called the n-word, nor will it be the last, when he receives such messages, he believes it signals that he is doing his job well.

“I am never going to be afraid to be a proud Black man,” said the Baltimore mayor, who recently touted the city’s nearly 50-year low in homicides after President Trump called out the city as “so far gone” when it comes to crime.

Scott asserted that his administration is making Baltimore a “better” city for Black residents, which he noted was significant given its history as the “birthplace of redlining.”

“I am investing into neighborhoods like the one that I grew up in that was disinvested in on purpose. But we’re not just doing it for Black people…we’re also improving for all of our communities,” said the mayor. Scott added, “We are a Black city, Blickety Blickety Black, as I say. We’re proud of that. We’re always going to be a part of that.”

Despite Baltimore’s record-low crime, the two-term mayor said his administration isn’t “celebrating” the accomplishment but rather “acknowledging that historic progress and knowing we have even much more work to do.”

“To say that we’re not tackling the issue is simply just ignoring the facts,” said Scott, who argued that those who criticize Baltimore leadership are really bothered “we’re not tackling it their way.”

He explained, “We’re not going out and arresting every Black person just for being Black…we’re being smart on crime, which is a lot better and proven to have a lot better results in their tough on crime ways of the past.”

Scott, who was once called a “DEI hire” by conservatives, also pushed back against the man on the voicemail who suggested he was a criminal. “I have never been a criminal, contrary to popular beliefs of these racist idiots,” he said.

The topic of crime in urban cities, primarily led by Black mayors, had reemerged in political discourse following President Trump’s unprecedented decision to deploy the D.C. National Guard and take federal control of the nation’s capital local police department–all under the guise of a so-called crisis of crime.

However, according to data from the Metropolitan Police Department, crime in D.C. reached a 30-year low. Similar declines in crime have occurred in other Black-led cities often targeted by Trump and the Republican Party, including Chicago and Los Angeles.