Rapper Doesn't Budge When Interviewer Asks Him to Apologize for 'Cultural Appropriation': 'Social Justice Warriors Can Kick Rocks'
Chet Hanks, who dabbles as a rapper when not making headlines as the son of actor Tom Hanks, is refusing to offer an apology for speaking with a Caribbean accent.
Hanks trotted out the accent at the Golden Globes in January 2020, according to CNN.
Although the accent landed him a gig on the show “Atlanta” as a white man raised by a Caribbean woman, there was also some outrage that a Caucasian would imitate a Caribbean accent. For example, he was accused by one social media user of “verbal blackface,” BuzzFeed reported.
The affectation became the subject of a recent interview with Hanks hosted by internet personality Ziwe Fumudoh.
i asked chet hanks if he wanted to apologize to any marginalized communities pic.twitter.com/EEzD9VrtNs
— ziwe (@ziwe) May 6, 2022
“Are there any marginalized communities you want to apologize to?” asked Fumodoh, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Nigeria. “I don’t know, maybe the Patois community?”
Hanks appeared to consider the option.
“No,” he concluded. “I don’t feel like I’ve truly done anything offensive.”
“You don’t see it as cultural appropriation? You see it as a celebration of culture,” Fumodoh asked. “And then it’s like social justice warriors can, like, go kick rocks?”
“Yeah,” Hanks said with a shrug. “I 100 percent agree. Social justice warriors can kick rocks.”
Many on Twitter agreed with that sentiment.
I have no idea who Chet Hanks is, but more people need to be Chet Hanks. https://t.co/pxPnrOy3jg
— Rising serpent ?? (@rising_serpent) May 6, 2022
would love to see a poll of Jamaicans living on the island vs. American progressives re: Chet Hanks. My guess is that the latter are way more offended than the former. https://t.co/d94IZx1I3Y
— Coleman Hughes (@coldxman) May 6, 2022
Chet Hanks just accomplished more than 95% of elected Republicans. https://t.co/9saXk2MLTY
— Jake Bequette (@JakeBequette91) May 6, 2022
Don’t even know the back story. Don’t care. Chet Hanks (yeah, Tom’s son) answers how you *should* answer when SJWs demand a mea culpa for breaking the new rules they made up. https://t.co/pxDQMP86Vp
— Kevin D. Jones (@Kevin_D_Jones) May 6, 2022
Hanks has said that he acquired the accent while dating a Jamaican woman around the time of the 2020 Golden Globes.
“One day she was on the phone with her family in Jamaica and she was really in the middle of a heated conversation,” he said in a 2021 interview on YouTube’s “Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan.”
Hanks said he had no idea what she was saying, but liked the sound and copied it.
“Jamaican people showed me the most love, hands down, then you got all these social justice warriors in America saying I’m a f***ing villain,” he said in the interview.
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