A state representative in Mississippi is catching well-deserved heat after saying that the blacks in his hometown would rather spend “welfare crazy checks” than get a job.
Gene Alday represents the state’s 25th house district, located in the Mississippi share of the Memphis area–one of the reddest areas of a crimson-red state. That doesn’t make an interview he gave to Jerry Mitchell of The (Jackson) Clarion-Ledger any less jaw-dropping. Several lawmakers have called for increased education funding in order to help more third-graders be able to read at grade level. Under a 2013 state law, no third-grader in Mississippi can be promoted to the fourth grade unless he or she can read at a third grade level–the so-called “third grade gate.” Alday doesn’t think any extra funding is necessary because as far as he knows, there aren’t any schools that are really feeling the pinch. He thinks the problem is that too many local superintendents “don’t know anything about education.”
But then Alday went several miles off the deep end. Before his election to the state house, he was the mayor of Walls, a small town roughly five minutes south of the Tennessee line. He had some rather uncharitable–to put it diplomatically–things to say about his black constituents.
“I come from a town where all the blacks are getting food stamps and what I call ‘welfare crazy checks.’ They don’t work.”
This isn’t just a dog whistle, folks. This is a dog whistle being blown into a megaphone–and I can hear it all the way in Charlotte, even though I’m nine hours and a time zone east. If this isn’t the most racist statement I’ve heard from an elected official, it comes close. Really close.
I did some digging, and according to the latest census, Walls was 60.8 percent black. You’re probably wondering how a city with such a high percentage of blacks could possibly elect a knuckle-dragging racist. Well, in most Mississippi cities and towns, elections are nonpartisan.
Alday knows he stepped in it. In this morning’s Clarion-Ledger, he says he made his ugly comments because–wait for it–Mitchell called him late at night. Alday said that he had a way of talking that should be a signal to “take this off the record,” and that Mitchell took his words several miles out of context and “made me look like a fool.” He added that if he knew that sentence would appear in a story, he would have never said it. He also claimed that he’s helped Walls’ black residents on numerous occasions, whether by giving them rides or letting them buy things on credit at his family’s store.
Nobody on either side of the aisle is buying it. (Biloxi) Sun-Herald political editor Karl Hampton points out–rightly–that Alday’s claim to have been taken out of context is downright laughable considering that he said “all.” Clarion-Ledger executive editor Sam R. Hall demanded that Alday abandon his bid for reelection later this year (Mississippi state representatives serve four-year terms, unlike in most lower houses at the state level). Republicans from Governor Phil Bryant on down have condemned Alday’s remarks in the strongest terms. Bryant, for instance, said that Alday’s statements harkened back to “days long past”–a sentiment echoed by several Democratic lawmakers.
Hall is absolutely right–Alday has no business being in the state legislature. But Alday shouldn’t wait until the next election to quit. He needs to leave now. Let him know what you think–but be civil, of course–at galday at house dot ms dot gov.
