Chet Hanks, the perennially, shall we say, misunderstood son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, has spoken out after hate groups were found to have appropriated his 2021 song "White Boy Summer."
The 33-year-old aspiring rapper first teased the anthem on Instagram in spring of 2021, declaring the forthcoming season to be "White Boy Summer" in a nod to Megan Thee Stallion's 2019 song "Hot Girl Summer." He later released a full single of the same name on YouTube with lyrics such as: "Hit the strip club, I'm like thunder / She let me beat it, I'm the white boy wonder."
Though Hanks' intentions may indeed have been innocent in releasing the song, in retrospect, it probably didn't take a crystal ball to see what would happen, given these fraught times we're living in.
On Tuesday, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) released a report titled, "How White Boy Summer Turned Into A Transnational Hate Campaign." The report notes that it didn't take long for Proud Boy groups across the United States to begin coopting the message, and over the past few years it has since been adopted by extremist hate groups around the world.
"A slogan from a Hollywood star’s son, with a supposedly benign beginning, has escalated into a powerful global call-to-action for far-right recruitment, protest, and violence," the authors of the report write.
In the wake of the development, Hanks posted a message to Instagram decrying hate groups, after seemingly scrubbing all mentions of "White Boy Summer" from his account.
"White boy summer was created to be fun, playful, and a celebration of fly white boys who love beautiful queens of every race," Hanks wrote on Wednesday. "Anything else that it has been twisted into to support any kind of hate or bigotry against any group of people is deplorable and I condemn it."
"I hope that we all can spread love to each other and treat each other with kindness and dignity," he added, before signing off: "Love, Chet Hanks."
Unfortunately, he seems highly unlikely that this will be the final word on the subject, but hopefully Hanks will exercise more caution next time he attempts to release a breezy summer classic.
