White Boy Summer Forever

It belongs to us. We, as a group, get to make it ours.

By guest contributor TJ Martinell.

On March 26, in the Year of Our Lord 2021, Tom Hanks’s son Chet posted a video on Instagram in which he uttered words that would echo around the world:

I’ve just got this feeling… that this summer is about to be a white boy summer.

Needless to say, Chet had no idea that the remark would generate such an enormous response. He would later clarify what he meant, and didn’t mean, by the term, later going on to write some White Boy Summer rules and a song to go with it.

Three years later, and we’re now celebrating White Boy Summer 4.0. The memes are plenty and top-notch. Online stores like WBS Apparel have appeared.

However, the cultural phenomenon has surpassed that of its inspirer. It’s developed an aesthetic and style completely at odds with what Chet Hanks had in mind. Nobody talks about him anymore, and few if any men celebrating White Boy Summer quote, or even know, the titular song he wrote.

A lot of things, especially those that originate online, tend to fade out over time. However, while the momentum and enthusiasm are high, I think it’s a good time to stress why White Boy Summer (I’ll refer to it as WBS the rest of the article) has the potential to become a permanent cultural thing that, possibly, could define a positive 2020s counterculture in contrast to the rot we see in mainstream culture.

If anyone wants to organize a WBS concert or festival, count me in one way or another.

Some might find this take to be “cringe” or “extremely online.” Or maybe I’m acting too quixotic. Or a man my age (late thirties) shouldn’t see himself as a “white boy.” (All right, literalists, we can have White Man Summer in conjunction. Happy?)

Hear me out; then judge on the merits of my arguments.

First, WBS is like Halloween. It’s organic. It’s not an official holiday. There’s no central committee deciding what it is and isn’t. People choose to participate because they want to, and their participation is what makes it happen. The rules are like the Roman mos maiorum, an unwritten code that dictated social norms.

Like Halloween, WBS is also decentralized. WBS was a spontaneous concept that resonated with many white men throughout the country. It was developed from the bottom, not a top-down faux celebration like the many fabricated ones we see invented by the Deep State, complete with big corporate sponsorships and rammed down everyone’s throat.

WBS doesn’t need muh corporations or our “wise overlords” to get men to celebrate it. It’s like a nice motorcycle or a beautiful firearm: no real man ever needed to be peer-pressured or guilt-tripped into buying one.

WBS doesn’t need anyone to sell it. It sells itself.

Another reason is that it’s not difficult to celebrate. All you need is the right attire, the right apparel, and the right attitude to celebrate it in whatever way is fun for you.

And how couldn’t you? WBS, if anything, is about having fun. Our enemies hate it, but it puts them in a dicey spot. It’s hard to paint a bunch of white boys having fun in innocuous ways as being a dangerous threat. Attempts to paint them as such would cause even the most durable hamster rationalization wheel to spin off into oblivion.

But one of the things I’ve noticed that I think is most relevant is that WBS has already developed its own distinct culture and fashion. It’s a mixture of bright 1980s and 1990s colors in a way that is both retro and refreshingly different, conveying optimism for the future, high energy, and hope — things plainly missing now.

Others have noted the cultural stagnation that has occurred for the past decade or so. We desperately need something to break through that, and WBS could be the starting point.

Lastly, here’s a not-so-fun fact. White men really don’t have anything anymore that’s ours. All holidays and cultural events have pretty much been sanitized for the sake of universal inclusivity, stripped of their meaning, corporatized, or longhoused.

I’m sure some would point to the Fourth of July or Christmas or Thanksgiving, or even Easter. But those have been contorted to where they really don’t involve much of what they’re supposed to be about.

The Fourth of July is not about eating hot dogs and blowing stuff up. It’s about Americans celebrating when their ancestors declared our independence from England. Thanksgiving is not about eating turkey and arguing with your liberal uncle. It’s about Americans like myself celebrating when our ancestors endured a terrible winter yet persevered and went on to enjoy a wonderful harvest season. Christmas is not about buying presents and eating ham and decorating with red and green. It’s about celebrating the birth of Christ. Easter is not about kids engaging in an egg hunt and taking pictures with the Easter Bunny. It’s about celebrating Christ’s resurrection.

Let’s be honest. In actuality, most people celebrate the former and pay lip service to the latter.

People can argue that WBS can never be a serious thing; but frankly, it’s what we have to work with at a time when our options are limited. It’s an ironic concept that nevertheless conveys a deeply unsettling truth about the state of affairs in America: that white men have nothing to call their own — in their own country, no less. This is why Chet Hanks’s remark riled up so many to where he had to clarify what he meant, but also why it got so many white men to turn it into the thing it is today.

It’s something that belongs to us, that we as a group get to make ours. It’s also why it would be so hard to corrupt or converge as we’ve seen elsewhere. It’s not a formal organization or institution. What gives it its structure is the connection each man celebrating it feels with the others, and, by their shared sentiment, they make it something great.

That’s not something that comes along very often. Getting hung up on the name itself is absurd.

WBS is relatively new. It’s raw and untamed. It’s a place where men can unleash their creativity and energy uncontained by the Longhouse in a way that is productive and beneficial. They could create something that changes the course of our culture moving forward, and for the better.

Which is why I hope that WBS is celebrated this year, and all the years to come.

---