Four years after some pundits falsely accused me of trying to “cancel” the beloved actor, has Trump or MAGA actually done the deed?
It was, for me, a bit of a surprise to see news that the alumni group for the U.S. Military Academy has apparently scrapped a parade and public celebration planned to honor Tom Hanks later this month.
In particular, I was curious to see if conservative media outlets like Fox News Channel were going to speak up in defense of Hanks and his status as an American icon. I ask, because when I dared to write a column offering a few helpful suggestions to the actor, Fox News and similarly-minded conservative media outlets insisted I and NPR were unfairly criticizing and trying to “cancel” the beloved actor.
What’s happened recently, is that Hanks was scheduled to be honored with a celebration and parade following his selection as a recipient of the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award — the most highly valued civilian accolade given by West Point. But, according to The Washington Post, the public ceremonies were canceled in an internal email sent to faculty by Mark Bieger, president and CEO of the West Point Association of Graduates.
Since no one has yet provided an official explanation for the cancelation, pundits are assuming it happened because of political retribution: Hanks dared to endorse President Trump’s rival in the 2020 election, Joe Biden, hosting an inauguration special when Biden took office.
Apparently, that freedom that soldiers are fighting to preserve may not extend to the freedom to support a political rival of the Chief Executive without punishment.
This all strikes me as odd and mind-bendingly bizarre because of my own experience with public commentary, Tom Hanks and conservative politics.
Back in 2021, Hanks wrote a column for the New York Times making the case for a more widespread teaching of American history involving Black Americans, especially of events like the Tulsa Race Massacre. And he also advocated for centering Black characters more often in Hollywood productions about American history.
He wrote: “History was mostly written by white people about white people like me, and the entertainment industry, which helps shape what is history and what is forgotten, did the same. That includes projects of mine.”
But that got me thinking. Hanks isn’t just a popular, well-liked actor who can get films made by agreeing to star in them. He’s also an executive producer with a string of projects to his name that he didn’t even appear in as an actor, from the HBO series Band of Brothers and John Adams to the CNN docuseries The 70s. Why, I wondered, doesn’t HE just create more projects himself doing exactly that?
(You know who does that without ever really talking about it? Brad Pitt, whose Plan B Entertainment production company has backed projects centered on non-white characters like 12 Years a Slave, Selma, Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Nickel Boys.)
Because Fox News has never seen a discussion about racial issues it couldn’t inflame with bad faith arguments and misinformation, the channel had a pundit on to say NPR and I were trying to unfairly criticize Hanks — others said I wanted to “cancel” him, even though I repeatedly said in my column how much I loved his work and his public image and how much I wanted him to make MORE films and TV shows.
The comments on Fox News fueled content from influencers and YouTubers reacting to how Fox News framed my comments, not what I actually said. It was a tactic similar to what I noted in writing about the ginned-up controversy over Sydney Sweeney’s jeans ads – they want to convince their conservative audience that liberal pundits are insanely overreaching and want nothing more than to take away things average people love, like pretty actresses and actors with a long history of playing American heroes.
Of course, it’s not logical – ideological fights rarely are. And it’s not remotely based in a fair argument or actual facts. Still, I was a little surprised to note the embarrassing turnaround on Hanks now – just a few years after Fox News was ready to storm the ramparts in defending his honor.
Hanks also drew some criticism from conservatives earlier this year for playing a member of the MAGA faithful in new version of a “Black Jeopardy” sketch presented during Saturday Night Live’s SNL 50 special. At the end of that skit, Hanks – wearing a MAGA hat and playing a guy named Doug – hesitated to shake the hand of the Black man hosting the show, played by Kenan Thompson.
I guess all the conservatives who got upset by that skit didn’t see the first time SNL did that joke back in 2016. It made my list of all time best SNL politics sketches because it highlighted how much some MAGA members and Black people have in common – Doug wins with answers that Black people also appreciate, like, “they out here saying every vote counts when they already decided who gonna win before it even happens” – but when the host tries to shake Doug’s hand, he gets scared.
For me, that was a delightful twist that satirized the fear which often keeps the two groups apart — though the SNL50 version of that punchline was a bit clumsy.
So, if MAGA and conservative media have turned their back on Hanks because he dared make fun of them and President Trump, we’ve reached another sad milestone in the loss of freedoms perpetrated by officials who refuse to recognize others’ rights to express themselves, while insisting their point of view and values be exalted above all.
As the dust clears on this decision about Hanks and we learn exactly why his celebration was nixed, I think it’s worth asking: Who exactly is trying to cancel whom here?