Fackin Truth Blog

Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman and His Garden of Racial Hatred

Timing is everything. Yesterday, I finally saw the movie American History X. And today I learned that Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman is set to return to his hit show on A&E. Let me tell you how these things became related in my mind...

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In the 1998 film, American History X, Edward Norton delivers a convincing performance as Derek Vinyard, a neo-nazi skinhead. The plot centers around Derek's redemption and his efforts to prevent his younger brother, Danny, from making the same mistakes and living the same hate. Much of the story is peppered with voice-over narration from Danny's perspective as he tries to write an essay paper about his older brother.

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Throughout the movie, black and white film sequences feature flashbacks explaining Derek's journey from a suburban white kid to a vengeance-seeking white supremacist. Amazingly enough, the radical Derek went from a soft-spoken kid to a radical racist after subtle seeds planted by his father boomed into full blossom. Once his father was killed by a black man, and Derek was approached by an old-school white supremacist, Derek became a full garden ripe with radical racism.

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In fact Derek's hate wasn't real. He represented the face of fear and anger as misdirected towards "outside" groups through the barrel of xenophobia.

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I was drawn to the younger brother's realization that the father's (relatively subtle) dislike for Blacks produced a son who eventually was violent enough to murder. And this is where my fire got lit about Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman.

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You see, I used to watch Dog the Bounty Hunter. His show was on my list of favorites. I was drawn to Dog's apparent love for justice, his raw grit, and what appeared to be his golden humility.

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My love affair with Dog ended when he "niggarized" his son's black girlfriend in what was supposed to be a private cell phone conversation - and then went on to comment about how he'd feel if his daughters ever dated black men.

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After I closed my hanging jaw and marooned Dog on Moron Island, I was determined to never watch the show again. And at the time my decision was a moot point. A&E agreed with the outrage and stopped airing the show.

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Why was I glad to see the show get flushed? Because Dog represents the kind of sick and irresponsible parenting that produces neo-nazi skinheads like Derek Vinyard in American History X. Dog's mouth-service about justice clearly doesn't extend to the moral justice and integrity it takes to believe that all men were created equal.

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And that's why I'm joining any efforts to prevent A&E from bringing back the Dog series and presenting Dog like some kind of moral compass for fair justice.

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Related Posts: Marooned on Moron Island: Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman

Blogging the Alphabet: E is for "Every Parent and Child"

I can almost write a book about the dilemmas that come with parenting. For most of the 14+ years that I had my sons, I was a single parent trying to navigate strange waters.

It's amazing how new challenges pop-up like ants at a picnic. Choosing the right baby formula turned into battles over eating vegetables. Picking the right cartoons for my toddler to watch turned into protecting my son on MySpace. Teaching ABC's turned into teeny-tiny wars over grades and study habits in junior high school.

But in addition to being a mother for 14+ years, I've been a daughter for 36+. Through both experiences - and countless conversations with other parents - one dilemma stands-out as the biggest:

How to adjust after releasing grown children into the world and into God's hands.

As my oldest son progresses through high school, I find myself almost daydreaming about the process of releasing him to college and beyond. I wonder if he can really commit to college. I wonder when he will marry. And my heart wonders how often he'll call home to say, "I love you."

In an amazing case of "perfect timing," I'm in a personal struggle with my relationship with my own mother. She's not satisfied when I don't take her advice. And I'm not satisfied that her advice comes with a hint of command - as if my own goals, wisdom, growth, and desires are flimsy and irrelevant.

But in her defense, when do parents really stop seeing  their child  as  A child? My mother pulls things from my failed marriage, my 20's and even my teenage years during a disagreement. I replace temporary hurt and anger with permanent waiting...

I'm waiting with a broken heart for her to see me as an almost-40 woman.

I'm waiting for what I want from life to have more relevance in her eyes.

I'm waiting for her to realize that I learned more from the inside of my mistakes than she could possibly perceive from the outside of my mistakes.

Most of all, I'm waiting for her to realize that God didn't consult her when he created the purpose for my life.

And before I close my eyes at night, I wonder if I'll be able to do the same as a mother to my sons. Will they ever have to wait for me?