If you want to buy Dog the Bounty Hunter a T-shirt, don’t get one with a chicken or a dragon or some other animal on it. The only likenesses he’ll wear on his shirt are of Jesus or Harley Davidsons.

And that–but of course!–pretty much describes Dog’s aesthetics, Jesus and Harleys (presumably in that order, because Jesus doesn’t like it if he’s second in your life). That’s the (carefully cultivated) image of Dog and his little entourage — Jesus and Harleys, praise the Lord!

Dog and his crew are one big happy, fugitive-busting, American family — father Dog, two sons and a daughter, wife Beth, and a brother — and they all romp around Hawaii bringing in bail-jumpers. Dog is the patriarch, and he runs his clan with a bemused but iron hand. He’s been in trouble before, but he’s straightened out with the help of Jesus. More power to him on that one.

But here’s the thing: I’ve been watching the Tuesday-night Dog-a-thon on A&E, and I haven’t seen one of their prey who is white. Every one I’ve seen has been of Asian/Hawaiian/Pacific-Island descent. And suddenly, it all becomes clear–the key to the show’s success is not all the over-the-top, white-trash kitsch, although that certainly plays a part. It’s Dog and his white, ostensibly Christian clan versus the others, the outsiders, the not-Christians. It’s iconic post-9/11 TV, with the Christian forces of good arrayed against the — non-white — forces of darkness. It leaves a nasty racial taste in my mouth.