Chet Hanks Condemns Hate Groups Using His Song ‘White Boy Summer’ for Racist Propaganda
Chet Hanks is setting the record straight about his song “White Boy Summer,” which has reportedly seen a surge in far-right extremist groups using it to promote racist propaganda in recent months.
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Three years after the musician — who is the son of Oscar-winner Tom Hanks and actress Rita Wilson — released his rap track, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism published findings that neo-Nazi organizations such as the Proud Boys, White Lives Matter and more have been using “White Boy Summer” to “spread propaganda, recruit new members, and facilitate targeted hate campaigns including acts of vandalism and hate incidents” over the past couple of months. On the song, Chet raps, “Rude boy, it’s a white boy summer, bad gyal, white don dada,” mimicking a Jamaican accent.
In response to the report, Chet has taken to Instagram to firmly and concisely distance himself from anyone using his music to promote racism. “White boy summer was created to be fun, playful, and a celebration of fly white boys who love beautiful queens of every race,” he wrote Wednesday (July 3), one day after the research was published. “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.
GPAHE has now updated its article with Chet’s statement, but cautions: “The fact remains that [the song] has been co-opted by far-right extremists to promote hate and bigotry. This underscores the profound social responsibility … for those with powerful platforms to remain vigilant against irresponsible statements that can be used for tools of hate and division.”
Though extremist interpretations of the song seem to have reached a new high this year, Chet’s latest post isn’t the first time he’s felt the need to clarify his intentions behind “White Boy Summer.” “I’m not talking about Trump, NASCAR-type white,” he said in a video posted a couple weeks before the track dropped. “I’m talking about, you know, me, Jon B, Jack Harlow-type white boy summer.”
That didn’t hate groups from co-opting the song in the months that followed its release, however, according to similar reports from around that time.
The GPAHE’s report and Chet’s response come a couple months after the latter made headlines for a much lighter reason; in May, his famous father texted him to ask for an explanation of Drake’s incendiary rap battle with Kendrick Lamar, screenshots of which the younger Hanks posted online. “Holy cow!” the Forrest Gump star texted his son after Chet filled him in. “These are fighting words. People taking sides?? Who’s winning??”
See Chet’s post about “White Boy Summer” below.
Hannah Dailey
Billboard
