White Boy Summer, the hasty and ignorant branding scheme by Tom Hanks’ patois-impersonating son Chet, has finally come home to roost. As hard as it is to believe, a T-shirt that says “White Boy Summer” in old English font is very popular with Neo-Nazis, who aren’t just interested in a White Boy Summer but a Fall, Winter, and Spring too. After the growing prominence of White Boy Summer, or WBS, in both national and international white supremacy movements, The New York Times weighed in on the matter, which means Chet probably got a series of irate phone calls and text messages from “Pops.”
Following the report by the Times, Chet denounced the adoption of his movement, again, called “White Boy Summer,” which at least hints at the idea of having “White Pride” and could very easily be misinterpreted as a racist dog whistle. Pinned to the top of his Instagram profile is a note from the young Mr. Hanks, denouncing how these groups “twisted” what was supposed to be a fun, playful, “celebration of fly white boys who love beautiful queens of any 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,” wrote the White Boy Summer founder. “I hope that we all can spread love to each other and treat each other with kindness and dignity.”
This is presumably the type of statement Tom Hanks asks his son to make after The New York Times publishes an article entitled “How Tom Hanks’s Son Spawned A Hateful Meme Online.” America’s dad probably doesn’t want to be associated with Turning Point USA, whose members were seen waving “White Boy Summer” flags at a recent event. Unfortunately for the two-time Oscar-winning star of Forrest Gump and The Polar Express, his son now has a page on the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism website that shows members of The Proud Boys messaging the phrase “White Boy Summer” about the murder of George Floyd. The report also shows neo-Nazis around the world, including Canada, the U.K., and Germany’s own far-right political party Die Heimat, adopting the phrase.
Hanks founded the “White Boy Summer” movement several years ago, tapping in to share a “feeling” that summer 2021 was going to be a White Boy Summer. This has nothing to do with “Trump, NASCAR-type white,” Hanks explains, but rather a way to honor very chill white boys Jon B., Jack Harlow, and himself. Nevertheless, Hanks did tell his followers to “take it as you want,” which meant “racism” to the racist contingent of the White Boy Summer participants.
As is the case with much of what the young Hanks touches, WBS became a meme, which he leveraged into a merch line and a music video for the song “White Boy Summer” to promote said merch and the less discussed “Black Queen Summer” apparel. The video ends with Hanks showing off the back of his WBS shirt, which reads “Stop Hate.” We’re experts on neither extremism nor nepo babies, but we don’t think it worked.
