Peter Rinaldi, owner and publisher of Miss-Lou Magazine and the Natchez Sun XPress, is surrounded by outrage after he published a racist column calling for black youth in Natchez, Mississippi, who were involved in gangs to meet up at the local park and murder each other for others’ entertainment.
“As the population becomes more demographically poor, uneducated, unskilled, and dominantly African-American, the number of shootings have gone through the roof,” Rinaldi wrote.
He specifically referred to “three shootings, two wounded and sadly, two deaths.” However, he went on to say that the murders might be a good thing if they get rid of “gangbangers.”
— One man’s mission to stop gang violence using social media —
So, he suggested a “Gangbangers’ Rodeo,” in which black youth involved in gangs would all come to the park and shoot it out, writing:
This is not such a bad thing, as one cynic remarked more criminals who shoot each other and are “taken out,” the safer it is for the rest of us, so the logic goes. Three shootings, three bad guys eliminated. Fifty shootings, fifty bad guys eliminated.
Open to all gang-bangers with a .45 or 9mm handgun. Limited to 20 rounds per person. Entry fee $100. Must be paid in cash in advance. No checks. Limited to the first 100 people who sign up. The 100 people will be drawn up in a circle. When the referee’s starter pistol goes off, then the gang-bangers can start shooting each other. Last man standing (or alive) wins the $10,000. If only a few people are left after rounds are fired, the judges will give each remaining contestant another five rounds to finish the job.
Of course, members of the community and city officials were floored by this overtly racist and violent column.
“I’m highly upset by this, and I’ll be addressing it in our board meeting,” Ricky Gray, supervisor of District 4, told The Root. “This is something that you would expect from the Ku Klux Klan, but I’ve been here a long time and have never seen anything like this.
Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis, alderwoman of Ward 1, said she was not surprised, because Rinaldi has been writing racist columns for some time.
“I think it’s time that we had a summit between law-enforcement officers and the community at large; that’s what Rinaldi should have been talking about,” she said. “I attended a Hip-Hop Summit last month, and I learned so much. That’s what Rinaldi should have been talking about.
“We have to start at the root of the problem that’s been building up over time,” she continued. “Our children are underserved, and Rinaldi is serving a race-baiting agenda when he circulates such dangerous stupidity in a community that needs healing from systemic issues that have left some of our youth lashing out.”