Where has Chet Haze been? The son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, brother of Colin Hanks, and rapper extraordinaire has spent a decent chunk of this year making headlines for being racist, doubling down on being racist, destroying a bunch of stuff, and generally frustrating his family. While on one, extremely important level, this is the lashing out of a deeply privileged child who has never had to fully engage with the rest of the world who repeatedly puts himself in the public eye and has rightfully earned our scorn, on another level it's also, well, the lashing out of a child who has never had to fully engage with the rest of the world. At some point, it's hard to say if he knows fully what he's doing and why.That's why the hopefully false news that Hanks has "disappeared" should be more disconcerting than amusing as it makes its way through public consciousness. As odious as he seems on instagram, he is a person -- the same way you are a person and I am a person and your boss and significant other are people and Chet's parents are people. There are other problems in the world that are bigger than a rich white celebrity kid's possible issues with addiction, but it should still be sad when someone doesn't fit into the world we've been born into.
Chet Watch will continue as long as Chet Haze continues to engage in ridiculous, offensive shenanigans that force you to imagine stern talkings-to over dinner in the Hanks-Wilson household. But at the point where there might be something legitimately wrong with him, it might be time to avert our eyes and let this one go. Hope you're okay, dude.