Princewill Pius
Tom Hanks tends to make headlines by earning industry accolades or doing adorable things like crashing a couple’s wedding photoshoot. Frankly, Time magazine even ran a piece about the “6 Most Tom Hanks Things That Tom Hanks Has Ever Done,” which was filled with charming tidbits about the beloved star. On the other hand, his son, Chet Hanks, sometimes makes waves for downright cringe-worthy reasons.
For instance, in 2015, the younger Hanks defended his right to use the n-word because he’s into hip hop culture. Naturally, that didn’t go over well, and in 2018, he himself admitted “that s**t wasn’t cool,” while blaming his past questionable behavior on drugs and the fact that he wanted to “be down” while also “trolling” for attention.
However, according to Pedestrian, in 2020, the actor-rapper “[made] headlines once again, only this time [it was] because he [was] genuinely convinced that ‘snowboarding,’ ‘Billabong t-shirts,’ and the word ‘gnarly’ are white culture.” Hanks tried to argue on Instagram that if “a Rastafarian with dreadlocks who grew up in Jamaica watching the X Games and Olympics” got into those things, “are white people supposed to get mad at him for appropriating their culture?” He asked, “So my question is how come it doesn’t work both ways?” Perhaps Hanks isn’t the best person to be asking that kind of question — especially considering the others ways he’s been accused of crossing the line around cultural appropriation.
Written by: Nicki
