I had the displeasure today of logging in and hearing one of the most disgusting online-radio interviews I ever encountered.

The Web site’s administrator, one Jim Giles, is a vocal constituent of state House District 62. He describes himself as “a big white man” whose worth is measured by his “ability to whip the [buttocks] of every puny man in the Mississippi Legislature incapable of whipping women public officials.”

This morning, Mr. Giles blind-sided Ms. Genny Seely, president of the Association of South Jackson Neighborhoods, with an impromptu phone call (which he then posted online), trying to slither his bigoted foot into a conversation by purporting to know some blind kid who lives at the end of her street.

He was reacting to an article mentioning Ms. Seely in the Clarion-Ledger regarding several recent incidents of black-on-white crime in Jackson. Mr. Giles is disturbed that Ms. Seely sees the problem as being a complex cultural issue rather than a simple racial one. Mr. Giles’ perspective, it seems, is that black people are genetically pre-disposed to violent crime since, prior to forced integration, our virginal streets were safe and clean.

Mr. Giles emphasizes that “it was the feds, and not whites, who forced blacks into white neighborhoods, white churches and white schools.” (Funny, I can’t seem to find an integrated church in the greater Natchez area no matter how hard I look.)

Furthermore, he claims that “every last stinking Mississippi public official [he knows] is a Christian and yet heart disease, obesity, illiteracy and crime run rampant.”

Finally, he suggests we would all get along better (like we did before integration) if segregation were re-instituted because forced integration simply “hasn’t worked out.”

I would challenge Mr. Giles to entertain the concept that “the feds” who “forced” integration upon us were actually, more likely than not, the only people who had the power to do such a thing, i.e., whites.

I even suspect that, collectively, those feds had significantly more intelligence, reasoning, wisdom, (white-quality) education and certainly more moral substance than Mr. Giles. Furthermore, as far as Mr. Giles blaming Christians for heart disease, obesity, illiteracy and crime, he might want to consider joining the pews of bin Laden and Saddam Hussein who coincidentally share those exact sentiments. Finally, Mr. Giles insists things were better for “everybody” back in the good ole days prior to integration.

I guess he means the good ole days when a regular good Sunday-go-to-lynching picnic kept those dirty, violent blacks from forcing us white folk into having to buy the gun that he implies Ms. Seely should keep in plain sight so that the blacks don’t get her. It’s unfortunate that Mr. Giles feels his home has become a bad place, but those feds probably won’t be sectioning off a Negro internment neighborhood in District 62 anytime soon; and with Christians threatening his person with illiteracy, obesity and heart disease, with all due respect, maybe he should consider repatriating to whatever country his family originated from.

Then, Ms. Seely and the rest of us who care here in Mississippi can get back to setting our backs to resolving the complex issues of poverty, crime and — yep — reconciliation. God is good, Mr. Giles, God is good. It’s the idiots who are the problem.

Sharon Marie Chester

Natchez resident

Ms. Chester is a Licensed Certified/Clinical Social Worker and a member of Erace, an interracial dialog organization based out of New Orleans. Ms. Chester’s comments herein, however, are her personal views and do not necessarily represent the views of the Erace organization or its members. Ms Chester is launching a community-wide opportunity to address personal and systemic racism through ongoing discussion and dialog meetings that will begin in February.