Dog the Bounty Hunter addresses racism and homophobia claims and somehow makes it worse
TV personality Duane Chapman aka Dog the Bounty Hunter visits “FOX & Friends” at FOX Studios on 28 August 2019 in New York City. (Getty/Bennett Raglin)
Dog the Bounty Hunter has responded to claims that he’s racist and homophobic, insisting he was given a “pass” to use racist slurs.
The reality TV star – real name Duane Chapman – reacted to allegations from his daughter Bonnie, who accused her father of being homophobic, racist and being unfaithful to his late wife, Beth Champman.
On Wednesday (1 September), Dog, 68, denied the accusations made against him during an interview with Entertainment Tonight’s Kevin Frazier.
“I have never been a racist,” Dog said. “I’m 33.5 per cent Apache. But because of over 15 years ago, I have an Achilles’ heel because I used the wrong word.”
Dog used a racial slur multiple times to describe a Black woman who his son, Tucker, was dating in a phone call that was leaked in 2007, Reuters reported. The leaked phone call led to the cancellation of his show by A&E.
In the recent interview, Frazier, who is Black, questioned Dog about why he thought it was acceptable to use racist language. Dog insisted he had been given a “pass” from the “Black tribe” to use such language.
“I thought I had a pass in the Black tribe to use it, kind of like Eminem,” Dog claimed.
When pressed for who gave him this alleged ‘pass’, the former bail bondsman claimed it was “the brothers”, launching into a story about his time after he got out of prison in 1979.
“I had just gotten out of prison in 1979 after spending time, 18 months in Texas and it was probably three-fourths from the Black tribe,” Dog explained. “So that was a word that we used back and forth, as maybe a compliment.”
“My pass expired for using it, but no one told me that,” he added.
He then tried to claim that saying a “racist name doesn’t qualify to make you a racist”. But Frazier challenged that by saying “it makes you a racist” if an individual uses racial slurs “in your regular everyday life”.
Dog also denied Bonnie’s claims that her father used homophobic language in the past. His proof? He has hired gay men, and another one of his 13 children is part of the LGBT+ community.
“I have three men on my staff that are gay. My daughter is gay, Baby Lyssa,” Dog said. “I don’t understand why anybody would ever say that.”
“Remember proximity does not mean that you are not racist or homophobic,” Frazier responded.
“Would I die for a gay man or a Black man? I would lay down my life,” Dog the Bounty Hunter answered.
Dog then told ET that he thought his daughter, Bonnie, is “being brainwashed” and has been “fed what to say”.
But Bonnie said in a statement to ET that the idea she’s being brainwashed is the “dumbest thing my father has ever said”. She added that she is “concerned” about her father because he has “begun to believe crazy conspiracy theories”.
“The only credibility my dad has to speak about brainwashing is perhaps as a victim,” Bonnie said.
