Hatewatch Investigation: Mississippi Lawyer Tied to Online Racist Screeds

Two days after a 15-year-old black girl died in a fiery crash along a rural Mississippi road in 2009, someone using the anonymous online identity “GENERAL_LEE” began posting rants on the racist, anti-Semitic Vanguard News Network (VNN) website. One of the crash victims, Dijonaise Rutledge, died when she was thrown from the vehicle. But General Lee, in his online musings, seemed less concerned with the tragedy and more concerned with the girl’s “weirdest n----- name.”

“Dijonaise. Get it? ‘Dijon’ as in mustard + ‘Aise’ as in mayonaise = Dijonaise. Cute yes?” General Lee wrote. He continued: “Well, Dijoinaise Rutledge, along with three fellow nogs met his [sic] final fate on the highways of Wilkinson County, Mississippi. So, we’re four n------ short.”