Chet Hanks defends 'White Boy Summer' trend after it's adopted by far right groups

Tom Hanks' son, Chet Hanks' unintentionally sparked a hateful meme – and has since stepped in to defend himself.

Chet first coined the 'White Boy Summer' joke off the back of Megan Thee Stallion's 'Hot Girl Summer' and the seasonal meme 'Christian girl autumn'.

"I just got this feeling man that this summer … it’s about to be a white boy summer," Chet wrote at the time. "Take it how you want, I’m not talking about Trump, Nascar-type white. I’m talking about me, [rappers] Jon B. Jack Harlow-type white boys, you know what I mean."

However, the seemingly innocent joke has since backfired with a report claiming the phrase has been adopted by white supremacists.

"Over the past couple months, white supremacists and neo-Nazis have been calling for the destruction of Pride flags, killing “[N-word] and communists,’ and the creation of militias all under the slogan 'White Boy Summer,'" the report in Global Project Against Hate and Extremism read.

It suggested that several extremist groups are using the slogan to "spread propaganda, recruit new members, and facilitate targeted hate campaigns including acts of vandalism and hate incidents."

Chet has since hit back with a statement shared to Instagram, writing: "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. I hope that we all can spread love to each other and treat each other with kindness and dignity."

Chet Hanks/Instagram

Hanks created 'White Boy Summer' in 2021 in an attempt to boost the summer mood amid the Covid-pandemic which came complete with some very specific rules.

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.