Chet Hanks condemns 'White Boy Summer' being 'twisted' to promote 'hate or bigotry'

The rapper said the phrase "was created to be fun, playful, and a celebration of fly white boys who love beautiful queens of every race."

White Boy Summer is canceled.

Chet Hanks, the rapper and son of Tom Hanks, is speaking out against the phrase that he coined being co-opted by white supremacists.

"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 in a Wednesday Instagram post. “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 added, “I hope that we all can spread love to each other and treat each other with kindness and dignity.”

Related: Tom Hanks asks son Chet Hanks to explain the Drake vs Kendrick Lamar feud to him: 'Who’s winning??'

Hanks’ response comes one day after the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), an organization that tracks the spread of racism, published a report revealing that "White Boy Summer" has become a slogan for white supremacists and far-right hate groups who are "using it to spread propaganda, recruit members, and incite violence against marginalized communities.”

Hanks originally created the phrase as a play on words of Megan Thee Stallion’s "Hot Girl Summer” and used it in a series of 2021 social media posts. He also released his own rap track, “White Boy Summer,” accompanied by a music video that ends with him wearing a “stop hate” T-shirt.

Hanks’ term sparked immediate backlash at the time, leading him to clarify that his target audience was not “Trump, NASCAR-type white” people. "Take it how you want it,” he said in a March 2021 video (per The New York Times). But he also laid out ground rules for his fans, stating that participating in White Boy Summer should not include anything related to “ill will or prejudice towards anybody from a different background, race, [or] walk of life than you.”

Despite Hanks' requests, the phrase has become a rallying cry for extremists. GPAHE reports that the terms “White Boy Summer” and “WBS” have spiked on Telegram — an app known to host a number of extremist groups — each summer since the trend was created.

Hanks has continued to use the phrase throughout the backlash, most recently declaring the summer of 2024 another White Boy Summer. "I have consulted with the heavens, felt a westward breeze, and walked outside of a strip club and saw my shadow,” he wrote in one May Instagram post. “This will be a #WBS #iHaveSpoken.”

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.