Chet Hanks, son of award-winning actor Tom Hank, went viral Sunday after a video circulated of him speaking Jamaican patois on the red carpet of the Golden Globe Awards, where his famous father received the Cecil D. DeMille Award. The clip was quickly met with much ridicule, accusing Chet of cultural appropriation.
The 29-year-old actor, who is also one half of the musical duo FTRZ, shared a video of himself celebrating his dad’s win while speaking with a thick Caribbean accent.
While his mother, Rita Wilson, commented that it was “maybe the best laugh of the night,” many were quick to mention that Chet was appropriating Jamaican people and culture by mimicking the dialect native to the island.
However, Chet promptly responded to the backlash on Instagram, sharing a screenshot of a headline about the video, as well as another video on Monday, showing himself again speaking patios while leaving a juice bar.
“Average citizens: damn this is scary I can’t believe we’re on the verge of WW3 let me check the news smh,” he wrote in the caption under the screenshot, insinuating that the clip was being blown out of proportion.
Chet has also been called out in the past for his frequent use of the N-word while he was using drugs heavily in 2015. During an episode of Van Lathan’s “The Red Pill” podcast in 2018, he confessed that he was foolishly believed that sparking outrage by using the N-word could help to further his career.
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RESPECT TO MI #ISLAND MASSIVE ?????????????????????????????????? RRRRRRRHHHHHHHHH
