As you may know, Chester “Chet Haze” Hanks, the worst thing Tom Hanks has ever made, including Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, raised a few eyebrows yesterday when he started throwing the n-word around on social media all willy-nilly, because people just don’t understand the difference between offensive stereotypes and a guy who’s just trying to chase his dream.
But Haze isn’t backing down from the internet’s bullying, and has since released a new Instagram video explaining why it’s totally okay for him to use the n-word. Additionally, Mr. Haze has some wise and sage words to teach the world about hip-hop culture and the state of racism in today’s society… and he should know. He graduated from a very prestigious Los Angeles private school.
https://instagram.com/p/3arC-Vllwg/
Just in case the video gets taken down for some reason (and I doubt it would because he seems pretty sure of himself here), here’s the caption in full:
If I say the word n**** I say it amongst people I love and who love me. If I say “f*ck yall hatin ass n****z” it’s because that’s really how I felt at the time. And I don’t accept society getting to decide what ANYBODY can or can’t say. That’s something we call FREE SPEECH. Now I understand the older generation who grew up in the Jim Crowe era might have strong feelings against this. And that’s understandable… But what I’m saying is this is 2015… And even tho we are still far from where we need to be and black people are still being literally KILLED by a RACIST and f*cked up system… We have also reached a point where the word can no longer have a negative connotation if we so choose. And who is to say only black people can use it? The way I see it, it’s a word that unifies the culture of HIP-HOP across ALL RACES, which is actually kind of a beautiful thing. It’s a word that can be used out of camaraderie and love, not just exclusively for black people. What’s the point in putting all these built up “rules” about it. It’s time to let go. You can hate me or love me for it, but can’t nobody tell me what I can or can’t say. It’s got nothing to do with trying to be a thug. It’s about the culture of the music. And that’s all I have to say about that (no pun intended) lol. It’s all love. Some people will get it, some people won’t. Either way, Ima keep living my life however the f*ck I want. ALL LOVE.
I don’t think “people who grew up the the Jim Crow area” are the ones taking umbrage with Haze. Those people would probably be asking themselves, “Who is Chet Haze?” and, “How do I close these tabs on my browser?” But that’s beside the point because… did Haze really just call the n-word a “beautiful thing,” as some kind of magical word that breaks down walls between races with the ability to make everyone love one another? Yes?
Well, at least we’ll always have Colin.
