Here’s Everything There Is To Know About Tom Hanks’s Son Chet Hanks Accidentally Coining A White Supremacy Slogan

“White boy summer was created to be fun, playful, and a celebration of fly white boys who love beautiful queens of every race,” Chet said in a social media statement.

By
Stephanie Soteriou
by Stephanie Soteriou

BuzzFeed Staff

Back in 2021, Tom Hanks’s son Chet Hanks coined the term “white boy summer” in a song that seemingly intended to capitalize on phrases such as “hot girl summer” and “Christian girl autumn” that had been trending at the time.

Chet Hanks with a shaved head and beard wearing a velvet suit jacket and dark shirt stands on the red carpet
Rodin Eckenroth / FilmMagic

In a follow-up video, Chet set out some terms and conditions for using the phrase, saying: “I’m not talking about Trump, NASCAR-type white. I’m talking about, you know, me, Jon B, Jack Harlow-type white boy summer.”

I will never stop screaming pic.twitter.com/aJlwo1gbqm

— Rap Game Ina Garten (@KaraBTweets) March 27, 2021
Instagram @chethanx / Via x.com

He added that a “white boy summer” is not about there being any “ill will or prejudice towards anybody from a different background, race, or walk of life than you.”

But despite Chet’s clarifications, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) reported earlier this week that far-right extremists and white supremacists have widely adopted the term in recent months.

Jack Posobiec holds a banner reading "Whiteboy Summer" at a Turning Point Action event
Turning Point Action / Via x.com

In an article published on their site on Tuesday, GPAHE revealed that groups including the Proud Boys and White Lives Matter have been using Chet’s slogan “to spread propaganda, recruit new members, and facilitate targeted hate campaigns including acts of vandalism and hate incidents.”


Just last month, podcaster Jack Posobiec — who the Southern Poverty Law Center has linked to white supremacists — was seen waving a banner with the words “white boy summer” written on it at a conservative group meeting in Detroit, where former president Donald Trump was a keynote speaker. 


Thousands of posts using the term “white boy summer” have also been documented on Telegram — a platform known for its use by extremist groups — this year, with the New York Times adding that the term now “represents an unapologetic embrace of white heterosexual masculinity, often at the expense of women and people of color.”

And following the GPAHE and NYT’s reports, Chet has taken to his social media to condemn what is happening.

In a statement that was posted to his Instagram page on Wednesday, Chet wrote: “White boy summer was created to be fun, playful, and a celebration of fly white boys who love beautiful queens of every race.”

“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,” he went on. “I hope that we all can spread love to each other and treat each other with kindness and dignity.”

Over the years, Chet himself has been at the center of racially loaded controversy, including when he defended repeatedly using the n-word in 2015 by claiming that it “unifies the culture of hip-hop across all races.”

Tom Hanks and Chet Hanks pose together at a Toronto International Film Festival event. Chet is wearing a leather jacket, and Tom is in a suit
Michael Tran / FilmMagic

Chet has also been accused of cultural appropriation in the past, including speaking Jamaican patois during public appearances — most notably when he accompanied his dad to the Golden Globes back in 2022. 

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an organization that provides resources to help US citizens understand and stand up for their rights, as well as take action against racial injustices.

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