Expression used by Tom Hanks’ son becomes slogan of white supremacists

An expression that gives its title to a song by the son of actor Tom Hanks, 67, is being used as a hate slogan on social media.

Chet Hanks, 33, released the song “White Boy Summer” in 2021. Since then, the expression has been adopted by white supremacists who preach racism and violence. According to a report by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, messages and posts with the phrase are spreading across social media, such as on the messaging app Telegram, and even at political events.

Hate groups preach supposed white heterosexual superiority and aim to recruit new followers, encourage violence, and organize protests against immigrants, black people, women, and the LGBTQ+ community.

At a recent rally attended by former President and re-election candidate Donald Trump in Michigan, an American far-right activist waved a banner that read “white boy summer.”

Although the song contains sexist expressions, at the time of its release Chat went public to say that it does not talk about “Trump or Nascar [categoria do automobilismo com histórico entre o público americano branco]”, but about him, “Jon B [cantor de R&B] and Jack Harlow [rapper]”, but that the public should interpret “as they wished”.

“It’s about how quickly and devastatingly something like this can go viral and the impact that it has. Extremists are hurting people all over the world in the name of this movement,” Wendy Via, one of the project’s founders, told the New York Times.

Before him, a similar expression was used by Nicki Minaj and singer Ty Dolla $ign in the song “Hot Girl Summer”.

According to the report, the term is already used among extremists in countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The American newspaper claims that it reached out to Chet, but that he did not respond.