Chet Hanks, the son of Oscar winner Tom Hanks, defended the use of the n-word in his music on Tuesday.
“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,” Chet, who raps under the name Chet Haze, said in an Instagram video. “It’s about the culture you identify with. And can’t no one tell me what I can’t say.”
“If I say the word n–ga I say it amongst people I love and who love me,” Chet wrote in the caption for the video. “And I don’t accept society getting to decide what ANYBODY [sic] can or can’t say. That’s something we call FREE SPEECH [sic].”
“The way I see it, it’s a word that unifies the culture of HIP-HOP [sic] across ALL RACES [sic], which is actually kind of a beautiful thing,” he continued. “It’s a word that can be used out of camaraderie and love, not just exclusively for black people.”
