“Hamilton” was trending on social media this weekend as the film-version made its debut on Disney Plus. There was also an undercurrent of leftists saying that “Hamilton” is “problematic.”
“Are y’all ready to talk about how problematic Hamilton is? Lin Manuel Miranda created a piece of work that used hip hop (a genre created by black people) to tell the story of colonizers and slave owners,” one Twitter user wrote.
“As much as I love the show, it and it’s writer are deeply problematic,” another wrote. “I’ve intentionally or unintentionally ignored these things for years, but I’m trying to fix this now so I can fully contextualize and understand Hamilton and it’s effect as a whole.”
“Hamilton is deeply problematic in concept and so is Lin Manuel Miranda to some degree,” another person tweeted.
“I mean I think the fact that a musical like Hamilton (which is deeply problematic and nationalist) has to exist in order for non-white actors to have a space on Broadway is just very indicative of how non-white stories will never be able to thrive on this elitist medium,” another person said.
“Reminder for all y’all Hamilton watching mofos: Hamilton was a racist slaveowner, and casting POC as white bigots isn’t the reclamation you think it is,” read a tweet that had nearly 60,000 likes. “It’s a romanticized telling of a white man’s plights, so none of y’all better be stanning the founding fathers AGAIN.”
Ajamu Baracka, a self-described “international human rights activist,” blasted Miranda.
“Lin-Manuel Miranda is a Puerto Rican Uncle Tom who instead of fighting for independence makes feel-good revisionism for white liberals. He is pathetic,” Baracka said.
In May, Miranda and “Hamilton” creator Jeffrey Seller were forced to apologize because people criticized them for not supporting Black Lives Matter sufficiently and not speaking enough about police brutality and the George Floyd protests.
“We spoke out on the day of the Pulse shooting. We spoke out when Vice President Mike Pence came to our show 10 days after the election. That we have not yet firmly spoken the inarguable truth that Black Lives Matter and denounced systematic racism and white supremacy from our official ‘Hamilton’ channels is a moral failure on our part,” Miranda said in a video. “As the writer of the show, I take responsibility and apologize for my part in this moral failure.”
“‘Hamilton’ doesn’t exist without the black and brown artists who created and revolutionized and changed the world through the culture, music and language of hip-hop,” he added. “Literally, the idea of the show doesn’t exist without the brilliant black and brown artists in our cast, crew and production team who breathe life into this story every time it’s performed.”
“It’s up to us and words and deeds to stand up for our fellow citizens,” he concluded. “It’s up to us to do the work to be better allies and have each other’s backs.”
Seller apologized by saying, “I’m not a politician. I’m not an activist. I’m not an expert. I’m a theater producer. But what I realize today is most importantly I’m an American citizen, and silence equals complicity and I apologize for my silence thus far.”
The cancel culture mob comes for everyone.
