Chet Hanks, the son of Oscar winner Tom Hanks, is doubling down on controversial comments he made in which he defended his use of the n-word in his music.
“All I’m saying is white people use that term. It’s like an unspoken thing among their black friends or whatever,” Chet, who raps under the name Chet Haze, told TMZ.
“You know, I wouldn’t go up to any black person and say it if I didn’t know them like that,” he continued. “But I do have black friends that use it with me and I use it with them.”
When asked if his parents approve of his vocabulary choices, Chet said, “They don’t really tell me what to do anymore because I’m grown. They just be making sure that I’m happy and safe and that’s all.”
Chet also said his parents have advised him to stay off of social media, even before this most recent controversy. “But they’re the old generation,” he said. “They don’t get it. This is the new generation. We do things differently now.”
Chet sparked an internet firestorm when he defended his use of the word in his rap in a video posted to Instagram.
“Look, I know the majority of y’all are not gonna get this, because the history is still so fresh in our country. But hip-hop isn’t about race,” he said in the video. “It’s about the culture you identify with. And can’t no one tell me what I can’t say.”
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Harpo Films/ Plan B Entertainment
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Malcolm X (1992) - Spike Lee and Denzel Washington teamed up for the true story of the inflammatory Nation of Islam leader.
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Boyz n the Hood (1991) - John Singleton's hard-hitting look at life in South Central Los Angeles saw Cuba Gooding Jr. trying to avoid the pitfalls of life in the ghetto.
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Dances with Wolves (1990) - Kevin Costner won multiple Oscars for this tale of a Civil War soldier who comes to identify with an oppressed native tribe in the American West.
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Do the Right Thing (1989) - Spike Lee's searing portrait of a day in the life of a mostly black Brooklyn neighborhood during an intense heat wave.
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Mississippi Burning (1988) - The true story of the disappearance of three civil rights protesters in 1960's Mississippi and the FBI agents who investigated.
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The Color Purple (1985) - Whoopi Goldberg was nominated for Best Actress in this story of a black woman at the turn of the century fighting for her place in society.
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Blazing Saddles (1974) - Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor collaborated on this hysterical look at a black sheriff taking charge of a frontier town.
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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) - Sidney Poitier stars in this groundbreaking film about a white woman who brings her black fiancee home to meet her parents.
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In the Heat of the Night (1967) - Sidney Poitier again challenged conventions when he portrayed a black detective investigating a murder in a rural Southern town.
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To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - Gregory Peck cemented his place in film history as Atticus Finch, a white lawyer defending a black man accused of rape, in the adaptation of Harper Lee's masterpiece.
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Birth of a Nation (1915) - Considered the first true narrative film, it attracted widespread criticism for its portrayal of African Americans and its glorification of the KKK.
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The film industry has never shied away from the controversial topic
Selma (2014) - David Oyelowo plays civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in a biopic that explores the civil rights leader's role in the 1965 Selma protests.