Tape of "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Using "N-Word*" Repeatedly -- Hot Water/Backlash/Protests to Com

You can hear the tape in question here:

***Warning: Contains language that may offend some of your delicate PC sensibilities!!

Duane Chapman Tape


My comments on this:

SO WHAT? Why is it that the only racial slurs in this country that can ruin your life pertain to black people? Hell, at least the guy keeps his opinions private and isn't out there trying to cause some sort of race war by trying to rally everyone against the blacks.

Seriously, why is it that Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and others aren't made news every time they throw "cracker" out?

It's about time crap like this stopped. Hell, black people don't seem to care about the word until it's made a national news story that some white guy says it. It certainly never seems to bother them any time some rapper says it or when black Grandma calls the little trouble making kid down the block one.

I have had many many black friends in my day and I have also spent a great deal of time with their families. I have NEVER heard the word thrown around as much as I heard it when I was in their home. Hell, it was an everyday occurence to hear "Girl you need to leave that 'n-word' alone and find yourself a good black man".

This is the way I see it, there is a huge difference between a "'n-word'" and a black person just like there's a difference between "white trash" and a white person. Why such a big deal is made out of this word, I will NEVER know. I have NEVER in my life had a long term relationship with anyone during which I didn't hear them use the word at least a dozen times (and yes that include my black friends) in a negative way pertaining to a black person.

That being what it is, why is it that this word is one of the few words that are considered slurs that can RUIN someone for life? The way it's covered and talked about when it happens, you would think that the guy in the news had just went on a racial rampage killing as many black people as he could.

Is it wrong to throw the word around in your everyday vocabulary and at every black person you see? Of course it is.

Should someone's life be ruined because of it? Hell no!


If anyone can let a WORD harm them so bad as to emotionally cripple them, they need to seek some kind of help.

If someone decided to show enough ignorance that they feel they must call you a "'n-word'" when you know damn well you aren't one, ignore them and let them go about their day. In the end, they aren't hurting anyone but themselves anyway.


Jasn

Interesting.

You approach this with hostility because of an apparent double standard, but you are hostile about it before anyone can even respond. Not one black member has said a word, and you're crying foul. Foul before anyone has had a chance to step on the court.

Before anyone in the dominant culture can understand this concept, they must first understand the privileges of living in the dominant culture.

I believe the dominant culture has plenty of areas where they receive preferential treatment, yet when one thing doesn't go our way, we approach things with such hostility.

Do we really need everything?

Is it that big of a problem if black people do not want white people to use the term, even though plenty of black people do?

So what?

I don't use the term, and I really don't care when other black people use it on one another.

I listened to the whole tape and quite frankly, this is pathetic.

This pathetic excuse of a man (and I use the term loosely) told his son he was fired if he didn't break up with his girlfriend because she's black and Dog and family can't control themselves enough to not use racial slurs. He knows people will think poorly of it and it will affect his TV career, so his solution is to force his kid to either A) dump a girl he really cares about or B) get fired. Then he goes on to say that any one of his children that dates a black person is not welcome in his house.

'It's not that she's black, it's that we use the n-word' - What?!?!? :shk:

Yeah, what a hero and great father...

And I agree with chissler (what a surprise ), I don't care to use that word, and it doesn't matter to me if black people want to use it. I can't control their behaviour, only mine.

reply to post by Duzey


Actually, I'm with you 100% on this issue. The thing I found offensive about it was not what he was saying, but the fact that he was pretty much kicking his kid to the curb for dating a black chick.

I understand what he's saying about it potentially causing the "business" problems, but hell......the business can go when it comes to family.


To chissler,

I'm not hostile a bit, I'm agitated. I simply don't see it as a big deal in either case. I laugh my ass off at Chris Rock's jokes like everyone else. I couldn't care less about what he says. However, I DO care about double standards. It's the double standards that make me sick.

How often do you hear someone saying "spick" or something of the nature making national news? Hell, Imus made racial slur filled cracks about hispanics and asians all the time, yet it took his "nappy head" comment to get him booted. It's stupid.

I just don't understand why the racism AGAINST blacks is the only form of racism that really seems to matter.


Jasn

I suppose you are looking at this from a US perspective. Racism against blacks isn't the top one where chissler and I are from - where I am, the First Nations take the brunt of the bad stuff and I think that it's the same on the other side of the country.

I'd guess that the reason it seems to get more attention in the US is because of historic issues and the fact that they have strong lobby groups. That's how First Nations (Native Americans to the US people) keep their concerns on top up here.

Duzey makes a great point, that pending on your demographs, each may have their own. I live in a predominately white part of the country, but there is a rather large population of Mi'kmaq. Your blacks are our Mi'kmaq.

Simius, the following is merely for discussion purposes, so do not feel that anything I say is a slight, or an assumption towards yourself or anything you say. I approach this with the intent to discuss.



On the topic of double standards, do you believe that it is all double standards that agitate you? Or just the ones that leave you on the short end of the stick? I assume that you are a white man. If incorrect, please correct me. But going with this assumption, there are plenty of double standards that exist in your life, that benefit you and you may not even be aware of them.

Is that a problem for you? Does it trouble you?

Is it a problem for you, as a white person, that you can go out and behave in any manner you which, and not have people credit your behaviour to your race? In my community; I can be a drug abuser, woman beater, and full fledged alcoholic, and I'm willing to bet that not one person would accredit that behaviour to my being white. However, if a Mi'kmaq individual were any of those qualities, it would be accredited to his culture. As a member of the dominant culture, I am inherited with this privilege of not being generalized in that manner. The truth can be said for place, any culture, anything. The dominant culture changes, the people change, the victims change. But the privileges that the dominant cultures inherit do not change.

The dominant culture isn't necessarily a "white" thing. But in most of western society, it is.

We preach about how bad double standards are, but I feel we only emphasize on those that leave us on the short end of the stick.

Before replying, please consider what I am saying. It is a concept that we are taught to ignore, taught to avoid, and taught to never acknowledge. To be faced with it, one will quickly push it aside. Before doing so, think long and hard about what I am saying.

I look forward to your reply.

I don't like Dog and I avoid anything he does on television like the plague.

He's ugly and so is everyone associated with him.

I can respect what he does, but bounty hunting has never really been a high-prestige profession.

As to this event, it is a non-event.

So, Dog uses epithets.

So does everyone else.

Anyone who says they don't is a liar.

People should be allow to say what ever they want. I don't use that word because it is a racialy charged word. So i dont say it, but i wouldn't want to try to stop other people from saying it. That is not our place.

I hope that a hundrend years from now that word is just forgotten, and when someone one listens to a rap song from these days, they can inocently ask "Whats a (blank)?' and that would be that.

The double standard is disgusting. It exists because the media feeds off of other people suffering. They don't want to offend the minorities... but thats not the right word, because here in CALIFORNIA, the whites are now the minority. So let me rephase that, they just want to defend the Blacks, Mexicans and other Latinos.

A little story, the other day, i was walking with some friends and i stepped in some nasty stuff, so i said "Oh (blank), i stepped in some Gook." And one of my friends hit me and said, "don't say Gook, you have an aprtement of Asains above you!"... i didn't know gook was a bad word.

PS, make sure you put the space in the right place when using the phrase "Friends hit"! I am glad i cought that.

I am not a big fan of Dog and quite frankly hes an idiot. As for his comments, who cares? People need to stop making such a big issue about race, if people would just forget about it and if the media would stop brining it up I feel that we would all be able to get along alot better. Its when the windbags like Al Sharpton start up that people begin to get mad and it fans racial hatred.

People also need to stop making a big deal about n----r and spic and yet ignore cracker, whitey, gringo, etc. It is just as offensive to me if I was called a gringo as it would be if I called him a spic or wetback invader. It makes no sense, calling someone a n----r is like the crime of the century but if I am called a gringo I have to just suck it up? Thats the double standard that pisses people off.

Originally posted by ChrisF231
People need to stop making such a big issue about race, if people would just forget about it and if the media would stop brining it up I feel that we would all be able to get along alot better

As a member of the dominant culture, I'm sure it would be much easier to just "forget" about it. Living in a culture as a non-member of the dominant culture, it can have a crippling affect on an individual. Would you ask a paraplegic to just drop the fact that he can not walk?

The difference here, we can see with our own eyes the disadvantage that he or she is at. But with race, we have been taught to ignore the disadvantages.

We want people to drop it, because it would make our lives easier. We can live more comfortably if we stop talking about it, because it is the indescretions of our own race that cause such pain. Now we are not accountable for the actions of those who came before us, but we should not deny their existence.

As for the assertion that derogatory comments towards blacks are any worse than terms used towards whites, Mexicans, Mi'kmaq, etc., that is up to the individual to determine. They are all despicable, and those used towards blacks are no better or worse than those used on other populations.

reply to post by chissler


"dominant culture"? Chissler, are you channeling Ceci2006? J/K.

I fail to see the big deal here. It's part of the culture Dog works in. So, he's an undereducated twit, with the launguage skills to match. I think most of us who have ever had the misfortune to watch his show knew that already.

Dog is no better then the people he goes after ... hell he served time for murder. Hes not exactly the most upstanding person around ... nevertheless he still has a right to free speech without the Thought Police going after him, what he says in his own home is his business.

holy crap! his worst fear realized. if he had just kept his mouth shut. i wonder who wore the hidden microphone???anyone know? and which kid was it? Which one is Tucker? is that the one with the long black ponytail?

Apparently his son set the whole thing up, and recorded the whole conversation. He probably knew how he'd react and what he'd say, so he was well prepared prior. After getting what he needed, I believe he sold the content to the Enquirer and watched the rest play itself out.

Greasy thing to do, but it doesn't change what was said.

The Dog can give Michael Richards a call, and maybe we'll see them on the next season of the Surreal Life.

There is no sane reason why the use of this word should cause so much grief, especially in America.

I work for a restaurant that has the motto: Help stamp out gringo food.

I'm a gringo as far as the Hispanic community is concerned.

Do I care?

No.

Not as long as no one starts stamping out gringos, in which case we gringos have a pretty good track record of gaining and maintaining the upper hand.

Some members of our society need to lighten up or there WILL be a backlash and it won't be pretty.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
There is no sane reason why the use of this word should cause so much grief, especially in America.

But that is your opinion on the matter. You are stating that a population of people, that you do not belong to, should not react in a certain way to a term that is highly offensive. Whether some believe it to be or not, the term is offensive.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
Do I care?

No.

So because certain terms do not offend you, others should not be offended? We all deal with issues in different ways, and the strength that some of us inhabit is not something that everyone can call their own.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
Not as long as no one starts stamping out gringos, in which case we gringos have a pretty good track record of gaining and maintaining the upper hand.

So by your own admission, there are times that you would find the term offensive. Yet you state in the same breath that there is "no sane reason" that any black person should ever be insulted by the n word. How?

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
Some members of our society need to lighten up or there WILL be a backlash and it won't be pretty.

What exactly are you referring to?

If black people don't lighten up about the ignorance of others, hurling racial slurs, things will get ugly?

Rather than telling them to "deal with it", maybe we should look at ourselves. "Growing a set" isn't exactly the approach I would take on this.

reply to post by chissler


I don't think you're reading my post and by parsing it, you're gutting the spirit of the post.

I like to discourage that here, but I've been unsuccessful.

I will repeat what I said.

There is no reason why that word should be the source of so much grief. There is no reason why anyone should lose a career over it.

It is used by blacks in their media and in the presence of whites.

It is used in public by blacks to intimidate whites, as I've seen it used many, many times in New Orleans, especially on the bus expressly for this purpose.

This is America! We have freedom of speech or at least we used to.

I was raised not to use the term and I rarely do except for effect.

The word is being used by blacks as a form of blackmail.

If the word is so offensive, why do I hear blacks use not only that word, but every epithet for every other race and don't deny that blacks speak this way, because I know.

We allow our entertainers to use the most vile profanity, but a word that is nothing more than a mispronunciation of the sometimes acceptable term Negro, causes grown men to cry, even the ones who use it incessantly.

Most of the rest of your points I don't understand, but as someone who studies the social sciences and who has lived for many years now, I can tell you that the pendulum swings and the further it is pushed in one direction the further it swings in the other direction.

These observations have historical validity, but they don't have to be realized if people would get a grip on reality.

I used the term gringo as an example, because it is not always used in a very complimentary light in this part of the country, but I and all the gringos who work and eat at the restaurant in which I work have a strong enough sense of self to understand its use in context.

Everyone eats and has a good time and the owner has gotten rich because gringos know how to take a joke.

That kind of spirit would do everyone a whole lot of good, except the race hustlers.

I think this elongated version says no more than my more concise version, but I hope this is more palatable than the first.

[edit on 2007/11/5 by GradyPhilpott]

The issue isn't about race or stereotypes. It's about a word. It doesn't matter that there's a huge double standard, and there is, about who can say it. What matters is that in America you have the fundamental rights to do or say whatever you want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

The Bill of Rights gives a citizen equality, in the eyes of the LAW AND GOVERNMENT. It doesn't mean that everyone should be equal as people. It doesn't mean that just because what you say offends someone, you shouldn't say it.

If you want to call someone a 'n-word', do it. If you want to call someone a cracker, do it.

For all of you that support the demonization of Dog and others like the detective in the OJ case, here's another perspective for you. It offends me that you think that, so I demand you stop.

Regards.

p.s. evidence of the double standard of racial slurs is right here, look which words in my post are censored and which aren't. 'n-word' is, cracker isn't.

what i find ironic is, he doesn't like his son's black girlfriend and thinks she is secretly recording him dropping the n-bomb but, it's his own "white" flesh and blood who nails the coffin.

justice

but come one folks, did he not fit the redneck racist stereotype?


didn't Chris Rock say what ever kind of person you hate will end up in your family.......






[edit on 5-11-2007 by jaydelay]

"Sometimes it's not what you say, but how you say it."


The man who is responsible for my mess is a huge racist. Even as a child I could never understand the concept of racism. Who is anybody to judge another about the factors in life they have no control over? I'm glad he lost his show. Maybe this is a big life lesson of what it is to portray an "understanding" human being to the public, and what it is to internalize and embrace the differences between yourself and your fellow man.