Because his Academy award-winning father, Chet Haze is trending on social media.
Tom Hanks recently wrote an Op-Ed piece in the prestigious New York Times about the systemic racism and the historical omission of Black people’s stories in American Education.
In a piece that qualified him as a history buff, he lamented about never being taught about Black Wall Street, The Red Summer and so many other atrocities perpetrated against and to the African Americans by white people.
Despite having a son who seems to be immersed in Black culture, the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the burning of Black businesses in Tulsa, Oklahoma rocked him.
“I consider myself a lay historian who talks way too much at dinner parties,” Tom Hanks started the piece.
Then he declared, “By my recollection, four years of my education included studying American history. Fifth and eighth grades, two semesters in high school, three quarters at a community college. Since then, I’ve read history for pleasure and watched documentary films as a first option. Many of those works and those textbooks were about white people and white history. The few Black figures — Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — were those who accomplished much in spite of slavery, segregation, and institutional injustices in American society. But for all my study, I never read a page of any school history book about how, in 1921, a mob of white people burned down a place called Black Wall Street, killed as many as 300 of its Black citizens, and displaced thousands of Black Americans who lived in Tulsa, Okla.
This revelation to the man that has played many historical pieces in his life and is lauded as one of America’s greatest actors, was profound and courageous.
As an ally, the COVID survivor is also appreciated.
But Twitter had a ball clowning — pointing at his son who is a walking and talking “I love Black people” billboard.
Not to mention the fact that his rapping son Chet Hanks aka Chet Haze aka Chet Hanx has been accused of cultural appropriation for using a fake Jamaican accent on multiple occasions.
Recently, Chet dropped a video called “White Boy Summer” many felt was insensitive in the wake of high-profile police killings of unarmed African-Americans.
More disturbingly, Chet was accused of hurling racially and sensitive comments at his black girlfriend, Kiana Parker, who is suing him for $1 million, for allegedly beating her up during a fit of rage and calling her a “ghetto black b####.”
But to make matters worse, Parker claimed Tom Hanks new about his son’s abusive ways, and did nothing about it. Chet has denied the allegations.
Rajat Suresh tweeted, “Tom Hanks: Do you know that the Erie Canal is the reason Manhattan became the economic center of America? Chet Haze: A-yo that s#### tight bro (jamaican accent) DA EERIE CANAL– BOoyaKAA! Tom Hanks (smiling): very good
son”
Chet Haze: A-yo that shits tight bro (jamaican accent) DA EERIE CANAL– BOoyaKAA!
Tom Hanks (smiling): very good son https://t.co/tDIaFGEoU1
Some like Ryan Houlihan suggested that Chet wrote the piece.
“Chet Hanks/Hanx/Haze is deep into some iMessage conversations
today”
“Went to read the Tom Hanks essay but fell into a Chet Hanks rabbit hole,” tweeted Mr. Malcom Vee.
“I really wanted to say can he write an op-Ed on why Chet Hanks but this actually deserves a read,” also Abigail Omojola, Esq.
tweeted.
