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. Former Mesquite, Nevada City Manager Edward "Owen" Dickie (Right) defended himself at the April 22, 2025, Mesquite City Council meeting. (Photo: Mesquite City Council video screenshot) “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.
