Who Let the Dog’s Out?
Blame Hip Hop seems to be the newest mantra for Fox News (home of ‘fair and balanced’ reporting). On last night’s Hannity and Colmes, the discussion over Dwayne ‘Dog’ Chapman‘s (of A&E‘s Dog the Bounty Hunter fame) N-word filled tirade that was caught on tape, led to a discussion of all things Hip Hop.
In a private conversation that ended up on tape between Dog and his son, the bounty hunter tore into the younger Chapman over his current girlfriend – who is black.
“I don’t care if she’s a Mexican, a whore or whatever. It’s not because she’s black, it’s because we use the word ni**er sometimes here. I’m not gonna take a chance ever in life of losing everything I’ve worked for for 30 years because some fucking ni**er heard us say ni**er 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 ni**er, we would all say ‘fuck 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 ni**er. We don’t mean you fucking scum ni**er without a soul. We don’t mean that shit. But America would think we mean that.”
The recording quickly made its rounds on the Internet and workplace water coolers, and was worthy of discussion on last night’s show.
AD LOADING...
During the second segment of the show, Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill and radio host Curtis Sliwa.
Curtis Sliwa continued the debate. It took little time for Sliwa to go after Hip Hop – and black people in general.
“With Chapman and Imus, their complexion was not their protection. If it were a black saying exactly the same thing, would we be having this conversation? The answer is no,”Sliwa said shouting at everyone – Hannity and Colmes included.
The conversation drifted further away from Dog, with Sliwa focusing on Kanye West and 50 Cent, and the massive promotions their latest albums received.
“Did the label pull its backing? Did he lose money? Did he lose his career? The answer is, you don’t ratchet it up against the brothers and sisters out there. It’s when it’s a white guy, you put the arm on him and it’s full court press and (unintelligible) civil rights insurance gets paid out and then all of a sudden, it’s hush hush, mush mush by Sharpton and Jackson.”
AD LOADING...
Hill responded with a softer, yet hard hitting jab of his own, attempting to bring the topic back on track, to no avail.
“I just find it fascinating that whenever a white person gets caught using racist language, you all of a sudden have to talk about hip hop and rap music. (and Sharpton and Jackson, he could have added). This conversation somehow got to 50 Cent and Kanye West as opposed to (Dog).”
Fair and balanced?
Hardly.
Hip Hop song under fire for anti-gay lyrics?
Hip Hop has been used to sell everything from soda to sunscreen. This week, a local Dallas rap song has caught the heat of gay and lesbian activists in the area for what they perceive to be a correlation between baggy pants and homosexuality.
In a piece by Mike Daniel of The Dallas Morning News titled “Hip-hop song links baggy pants to being gay”, Daniel tells the story of Dallas Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway (who is black), his fight against sagging pants, and local rapper Dooney da Priest.
AD LOADING...
The song in question, “Pull Your Pants Up” has caught the eye of the gay community for several subtle references to fashion sense and sexual preference.
“You walk the street with your pants way down low/I dunno; looks to me you on the down low,” Dooney raps in the song, referring to the infamous term for men (black men in particular) who lie about their sexuality.
Caraway supports the song, and only asked that one line be taken out.
“The thing that stood out when I heard the song was the lyric that said ‘gay,’ and changing that is what I suggested. And he did that,”Mr. Caraway said. “I didn’t try to analyze and change his entire song.”
AD LOADING...
Gay activists in the city are not impressed.
“I never considered saggin’ something that’s indicative of homosexual behavior,” said Cordey Lash, a Dallas-based board member of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. “For him to specifically target that aspect of what it could mean, well, it’s highly offensive and unnecessary to me.”
Lash went on to speak about rampant homophobia in the black community, implying that while the song may alleviate one issue, while stoking the flames of another.
“There are a lot of homophobic people in the African-American community that would not want to be perceived as gay,” said Mr. Lash, who is black. “But he’s adding to the intolerance and the homophobic nature in the community by using it in that way.”
AD LOADING...
Both Dooney and Caraway apologized if anyone was offended, saying they didn’t mean for the song to be a shot at gays and that they just wanted to make sagging pants ‘uncool.’
