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 Editorials | Opinions | November 2007 
The Only Surprise About Chapman’s Rant Was Black Folks’ Reaction to It
 Gregory Kane - BlackAmericaWeb.com
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Duane Chapman’s own son threw him under the bus and backed it up about 15 times.
Chapman is better known as “Dog the Bounty Hunter.” Until recently, he had a reality show on the Arts and Entertainment network in which he would chase down assorted bail jumpers and return them to incarceration.
Last week one of Chapman’s children, Tucker Chapman, sold out his dad by selling a father-son taped telephone conversation to “The National Enquirer.” The subject of this particular family discussion was Tucker Chapman’s black girlfriend. Clearly, the Dog is no fan of interracial love affairs.
“I don’t care if she’s a Mexican, a whore, whatever,” the Dog told his son. “It’s not because she’s black. It’s because we use the word n****r sometimes here. I’m not going to take a chance ever in life of losing everything I’ve worked for, for 30 years, because some (expletive) n****r heard us saying ‘n****r.’”
The Dog quickly made public apologies once he was outed as a closet Klansman. Panicked honchos at the A&E network moved swiftly, if somewhat less than decisively. Last Friday they issued this weasel statement:
“In evaluating the circumstances of the last few days A&E has decided to take ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ off the network’s schedule for the foreseeable future. We hope that Mr. Chapman continues the healing process he has begun.”
Translation: the show is on hiatus; we’ll put it back on when we think you silly Negroes have cooled down and forgotten this incident.
I first learned of the Dog’s tirade last Thursday, from a hip-hop station I listen to while driving. The very next day, a black student at a private school in Baltimore asked me what I thought of the Dog’s views on race relations.
I began my answer by telling her where I had first learned of the controversy. Then I pointed out why a hip-hop station is the very last place that should be discussing the Dog’s comments.
“Those members of black America’s generation hip-hop who’ve been saying that the n-word is just a word, that it’s harmless and that we make too much of it should excuse themselves from this conversation,” I told her and the rest of the students assembled.
That IS the almost official position of black America’s generation hip-hop on the n-word. That generation has no say about what the Dog said. The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton can get angry, and they probably will. Author and commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson has already chided the A&E network for not permanently canceling the Dog’s show.
But we should hear from no one in black America’s generation hip-hop. When it comes to the n-word, they’ve removed themselves from this debate. Having defended the use of the word by the hip-hop community, they’ve shown themselves to be not qualified to judge the Dog.
One of the on-air personalities of one of the hip-hop stations I listened to tried to insist this wasn’t the case. When the Dog used that word, the commentator said, it was an expression of racism.
Exactly. Which is why those of us who’ve insisted rappers tone down their use of the word want them to do so. Black America’s generation hip-hop responded quickly and effectively to the case of the Jena Six. Many of them seemed especially incensed that nooses - a symbol of lynching - were hung from a tree at Jena High School.
Well now what in the world do they think white racists said to black folks when they put those nooses around their necks? “We love ya, boo?”
No, it was probably something more like “Die, n****r, die!”
You can’t defend the use of the n-word and then claim to get upset by a display of hung nooses. The two kind of go hand in hand. It’s sheer hypocrisy to give black rappers a free pass for using the n-word and then get upset with the Dog for using it in what was a private conversation.
Is anyone really surprised that a white guy who calls himself “Dog” and hunts down bail jumpers for a living calls the black folks he hunts down by the n-word? Is this really news?
No, it would be news if we found out the Dog DIDN’T use the n-word. But I’m willing to bet even money that the Dog and his associates probably use that word a lot less than it’s heard in, say, the first 15 minutes of the notorious “Stop Snitching” DVD filmed in Baltimore.
The people who appear in that video are all part of black America’s generation hip-hop. Is anyone really surprised by THAT? |
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