I missed Duane “Dog” Chapman’s appearance on Hannity & Colmes last night…actually I never wanted to see it in the first place. However, just like having to gawk at a car wreck, I took a peek at a follow-up article on msn.com.
And there it was. I tip my cap to his “handlers”. With enablers like Hannity, et. al, I would say ol’ Dog should be canonized as the “real victim” (checking my watch) any minute now.
Maybe I’m giving too much credit to “Dog”, a disingenuous, ex-Kirby vacuum cleaner salesman, for a mea-culpa strategy that was clearly disingenuous and ex-vacuum-cleaner-salesman-like.
All I’ve heard from Dog and his soul confessors are the apologies and explanations and excuses for his misuse of the “N” word.
Case in point are these quotes from his appearance on Hannity & Colmes….
“I thought that I was cool enough in the black world to be able to use that word as a brother to a brother,” he said. “I’m not. I didn’t know really know until three or four days ago what that meant to black people.”
“I now learned I’m not black at all,” Chapman said. “And I never did it out of hate.”
“All black people in America I owe an apology to,” Chapman said.
“Whether, how dark I think I am, I cannot say that word. I owe the rest of the people, whether they are black or not in America, an apology because people look up to me.”
“If I could kill myself and people would forgive me, I would do that,” he said.
In reference to his desire (now) to be buried at a historic slave burial ground near George Washington’s Mount Vernon home, he said, “I want to be buried right where they’re at because I will never be forgiven as (long as) I’m alive,” Chapman said.
“I referenced it, the only word I know, that would hurt his feelings or catch his attention very fast — never as a prejudicial or racial slur or anything like that,” Chapman said to Larry King.
Okay, get the picture? All of these quotes share the same purpose; minimize the damage to his career by focusing on the “N” word, and NOT on the racism that obviously permeates his personality. And why do that? Well, by focusing all the attention on the word, he can position himself as an innocent victim of his own perceived place in our culture.
If he always thought he was “cool enough” to use the “N” word “brother to brother”, why would he be freaking out by his son’s choice of a girlfriend? hmmmmm. He’s a racist exposed by his own hypocrisy.
He didn’t even apologize to the woman he directly offended. Even after he decsribed her very specifically as a “f***ing n*****” in his rant. Monique Shinnery, the girlfriend, reports that it was Duane’s ATTORNEY that called to apologize. Not Duane. He’s too busy apologizing to you and I for the use of a word, and trying to save his gravy train.
He’s focusing on the superficial and avoiding the true message, the true attitudes he exposed. The sad thing is all the Hannitys and O’Reillys and enablers (notice I did not say “forgivers”) will buy it, package it, and try to sell it to all of us. They’ll tell us how we are all over-reacting to a word that is seemingly okay to use by the hip-hop crowd but not anyone else. And once again they will be missing (or intentionally avoiding) the point.
Take another look at the full context of the call….
| Duane “Dog” Chapman: I don’t care if she’s a Mexican, a w**** or whatever. It’s not because she’s black, it’s because we use the word n***** sometimes here. I’m not gonna take a chance ever in life of losing everything I’ve worked for for 30 years because some f***ing n***** heard us say n***** and turned us in to the Enquirer magazine. Our career is over! I’m not taking that chance at all! Never in life! Never! Never! If Lyssa [Dog’s daughter] was dating a n*****, we would all say ‘f*** you!’ And you know that. If Lyssa brought a black guy home ya da da… it’s not that they’re black, it’s none of that. It’s that we use the word n*****. We don’t mean you f***ing scum n***** without a soul. We don’t mean that s***. But America would think we mean that. And we’re not taking a chance on losing everything we got over a racial slur because our son goes with a girl like that. I can’t do that Tucker. You can’t expect Gary, Bonnie, Cecily, all them young kids to [garbled] because ‘I’m in love for 7 months’ – f*** that! So, I’ll help you get another job but you can not work here unless you break up with her and she’s out of your life. I can’t handle that s***. I got ’em in the parking lot trying to record us. I got that girl saying she’s gonna wear a recorder…. |
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You see, Dog is afraid that the REAL Dog will be exposed to the public. So who is it we’re watching on his A&E “REALITY” show? What is he trying to hide? Well, that’s pretty apparent now. It’s not the “N” word, it’s the fact that he does not want “n*****s” in the Chapman inner circle. He gives no credible reason to think otherwise.
Sure ol’ Dog, you have Black friends and a Black pastor! You can’t be a racist! Hell no. Look at what one of his son’s said in his defense and tell me this family is not a little off….
Christopher Hecht tried to defend his mulleted father by offering, “My dad’s not a racist man, if he was, he would have no hair, he’d have swastikas on his body and he’d go around talking about Hitler.”
More evidence into how this family (and sadly many others) thinks. I guess the only racists we have left out there are extroverted Nazis.
Bottom line: He will not allow his sons or daughters dating, bringing home or-God forbid-marrying anything but an Anglo. Friends are different. They can lock ’em out at night.
It isn’t just about singling out a word, it’s about the meaning and the entire thought process.
The Bard wrote, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. In his rant, Dog could have NEVER used the “N” word or any offensive language, and still his racism would have been evident. It wasn’t the word, it was the message he sent to his son.
And I think its time we scrape this Dog’s crap off our shoes.