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It’s not been a good week for Chet Hanks, the rapper, actor and son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson.
Earlier this week,
he
was accused of racism after he launched a collection of merchandise called White Boy Summer. Then on Tuesday,
TMZ released a video showing the aftermath of an altercation between Hanks and his ex-girlfriend Kiana Parker from January, which left Hanks with a bloodied face.
What is White Boy Summer?
The controversy over his line of merchandise began after Hanks posted a video on his Instagram, saying he’s “just got a feeling this summer is about to be a white boy summer”.
Despite Hanks’ protestations that the white boys in question were white hip-hop artists like himself, the phrase certainly seems like it might appeal to the Charlottesville and Capitol Siege crowd, and the clothing isn’t helping. Internet observers were quick to opine that, while not quite a Camp Auschwitz hoodie, the text on the clothing, in Gothic font, appeared to be a bit… well, Nazi-ish if not just flat-out racist. The Guardian noted that it resembled Fraktur, a style of script used on Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and early Nazi letterhead. But what if a font is just a font?