Seeking ‘The Biggest Black Aunt Jemima’ for Police Chief: Nevada City Manager Joins Unemployment Line After His Secretly Recorded Racist ‘Humor’ Goes Public
The city manager of Mesquite, Nevada, a small town north of Las Vegas, was fired by the city council after being caught on tape making racist remarks secretly recorded by the former police chief he fired in January.
City Manager Edward “Owen” Dickie had been in political hot water since early April when comments he made in private conversations with former Mesquite police chief MaQuade Chesley and others surfaced in the Nevada Current.
In two recordings, Dickie said that he told police union officials last year that if MaQuade (who at the time was under investigation for alleged threats and misconduct towards the city’s police department) were fired, he’d replace him with a tall Black woman.
“Early on, I said, ‘Guys, I’m going down to Louisiana, I’m going back to the back parishes and I’m going to find me a 6-foot-5 Black woman chief’” Dickie is heard saying in one recording from February.
In another recording, he said, “I told them, ‘I’d like to go down to Louisiana with the biggest Black Aunt Jemima and just flippin’ whip you guys into shape.’”
After the recordings were leaked, Dickie told 8NewsNow now that he regretted making the comments to Chesley, “but it was just between him and I at the time. … The gist of what I was trying to say was that maybe the department needs some diversity.”
He told the Current the residents who recorded him were alleging racism against police officers and suggested he hire a Black chief, and he was addressing their concerns.
‘I was telling them. ‘Maybe it’s an African-American woman, you know, that is qualified,’” that the city needs, Dickie said of the recorded conversation
In a third recording later provided by Chesley, Dickie used the N-word while trying to defend his earlier statements.
“I didn’t say anything like, ‘I hate n—ers,’ ‘I hate Mexicans,” Dickie can be heard saying.
He told The Current that he never used the N-word as a slur, and only used it in conversation with Chesley to clarify that he never said the word.
Dickie said he reported himself to HR once the “Aunt Jemima” recordings were leaked.
“It was a comment I shouldn’t have made, and I talked to the City Council about it, and they will hand down a reprimand,” he said on April 8.
On April 22 when the Mesquite City Council aired the issue at its regular meeting, Dickie faced a torrent of criticism from the public, and tried to defend himself. It became clear that more than a reprimand was on the table.
“I am sorry, those words were not right,” Dickie said, his voice shaking. “And I do regret it.”
“I said things I shouldn’t say at that time, trying to bring a little humor — poor taste of humor,” he continued, adding that the offending comments were made in private and recorded without his knowledge, The Current reported.
“I’ve worked with very many strong women of all colors, and they make excellent leaders,” he continued. “I just said things I shouldn’t say at that time, trying to bring a little humor — poor taste of humor,” he continued, adding that the offending comments were made in private and recorded without his knowledge, The Current reported.
“This is an attempt to smear my name and who I really am,” Dickie said.
A stream of residents took to the podium to express their anger and disgust at Dickie’s racist comments and his justification for them.
“Mr. Dickie, you don’t get it. You wouldn’t say it in public, but you’d say it in private. So it’s okay?” Mesquite resident Mitch Miller asked rhetorically during public comment. “Our city depends on tourism. Our casinos, golf courses, businesses right now – we’re a national embarrassment for even considering a written reprimand versus termination.”
Miller further said city council members who would vote in favor of retaining Dickie are “part of the bigger problem. You’re a closet racist in power.”
“This was not just a poor attempt at humor, this was a harmful, arrogant and dismissive remark that reduces Black women to caricatures, stereotypes and political pawns,” said Dr. Theresa Woolridge-Ofori, a local dentist. “I live here to be an example to people who don’t know that there are Black people that are professionals that look like me, that look like my husband.” Her husband, Dr. Edward Ofori, is a medical doctor.
“My greater concern is with the complicit behavior of those who stand by silently accepting, even enabling this kind of rhetoric,” Woolridge-Ofori added. “Silence in the face of racism is not neutrality, it’s complicity.”
Resident Eric Collings told the council his wife, a Black woman, deserved a personal apology from Dickie, and chastised the city manager for attempting to minimize his comments because they weren’t made publicly.
“That’s the point,” Collings said. “I can tell a lot more about your character by what you do in private than what you do in public. This isn’t some old guy yelling to get off the lawn. This is the city manager of the City of Mesquite.”
The crowd shouted for Dickie to resign to which Dickie responded, “I am good with that, I would like to talk to the mayor about that.”
Chesley, the former police chief, who is now suing the city for wrongful termination, piled on.
“I stand against racism. I always have. I always will,” he told the council. “And when it happened in the (police) department, I brought it forth and I was pushed out. … Mr. Dickie, it’s time for you to tell the truth, isn’t it?”
Councilman Bill Ennis, who noted he is in an interracial marriage, said that he was offended by Dickie’s remarks. As a former Navy officer, he said, “I’d fire one of my CO’s for making half of the comments you made.”
“What he said was awful,” Mayor Jesse Whipple said before the vote. “He needs to be punished and reprimanded and possibly terminated.”
Whipple and Councilman Paul Wanlass also questioned whether Dickie should be judged by one mistake, which elicited roars of disapproval from the audience.
Councilman Kevin Parrish called the episode a “PR nightmare” for the small city with a tourism-based economy.
“The buck stops here,” Parrish said shortly before the council’s vote. “Being a boss, I can’t accept what he said. He will not be able to get a job in another city. Why should he be city manager here?”
Councilwoman Patti Gallo noted a string of “bad decisions” by Dickie, including firing Chesley at the behest of the local police union. “It’s time for this city to start healing,” she said before making the motion to immediately terminate Dickie.
The council and mayor voted 5 – 1 to fire him.