Why Do We Pretend That Hamilton Is Woke?
You couldn’t do anything in 2015 without hearing about Hamilton. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s massive Broadway hit Hamilton, which details America’s first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton’s role in shaping the United States, took the entire world by storm. Its addition to Disney+ had me listening to the soundtrack again, and remembering what a cultural icon it really was and continues to be. The musical’s wild success was largely attributed to its seamless blend of hip-hop, rap, and traditional show tunes, as well as its race-bent casting that cast people of color in the roles of the white founding fathers. Hamilton attempted to portray Revolutionary War era America as it is today — a melting pot of different cultures. People love to champion Hamilton as an example of inclusive media, and praise it for portraying immigrants and people of color as powerful, impactful characters. It takes a closer examination to reveal how insincere its diversity messages are. It seems strange to view black actors taking the role of slave owning historical figures as a good representation of diversity. Hamilton being a symbol of immigrant strength also makes little sense, when in actuality he hated immigrants and actively worked to diminish their power.
Race-Bent Casting
Miranda and other cast members have spoken in interviews about how the race-bent casting of Hamilton allows people of color to see themselves represented in a way they have never been before, which sends a powerful message of empowerment and reclamation. Similarly, the soundtrack’s rap and hip-hop, which have roots in black music and art, are not something usually heard on Broadway stages. The music of the show only further emphasizes the retelling of American history through a nontraditional storyteller. This all attempts to bend power structures and start a dialogue about race in media and history. The larger message is that today’s America is an America for everyone, not just an America for people who looked like the white founding fathers.
While this is a noble goal, it misses the mark by a long shot. First, it is simply not true to say America in the late 1700s did not look like America does right now. To do so completely ignores all of the black and Indigenous people in colonial America. If the issue Miranda was attempting to mitigate was a lack of diversity when it came to stories about the founding fathers, as he often mentions in interviews, he could have just as easily written a story about the non-white people who lived at the time of the Revolutionary War. Tell the story of Crispus Attucks, the black man who was the first to die for the rebellion, or Phyllis Wheatly, the first black woman to write a book of poetry in the United States. Why tell a story that we’ve heard time and time again instead?
It’s additionally problematic to view this race-bending as representation in place of substantively addressing race issues in colonial America. Slavery is given acknowledgement in a few lines, but the fact that black people play the role of the slave master is never addressed. Characters such as George Washington, Jefferson, and even Hamilton himself being portrayed in a positive manner despite being slave owners seems to diminish the severity of their slave-owning. This is especially significant in a musical about diversity. More interestingly, the race-bent casting is missing for one character, King George. King George is the main villain in the musical as he leads the British empire and fights against the founding fathers, and is played by a white actor. He is also the only main character that is consistently played by a white actor. Audiences are supposed to root for the founding fathers, the good guys, all people of color, instead of the white British. On face, this is a fine dichotomy to create. It attempts to subvert power structures and question audience’s personal biases. However, this inadvertently suggests that the crime of slave owning is less egregious than running colonies, as the audience is supposed to hate the British and not the founding fathers. In the context of musical’s supposed diversity message, it seems disingenuous to forgive slavery but not colonization, when both had horrendous impacts on people.
Hamilton as an Immigrant
Another inaccuracy in Hamilton is significantly more hidden — Hamilton’s symbol as an immigrant. One of the major themes of the musical is individual empowerment. Anyone, no matter where they came from, can work hard and do whatever they set their mind to. This is most clearly seen in Hamilton’s rags to riches character arc. The musical often emphasizes that he achieved his success despite his immigrant status. For example, a motif in the show is introduction of scenes by Aaron Burr, Hamilton’s political opponent, with the question “How does [Hamilton do it, despite being x]?” He describes Hamilton in different ways, and questions how he’s managed his achievements. In the first act, Burr positively mentions that Hamilton is an immigrant, as Burr is impressed with his ambition. As the musical goes on, and as Burr gets angrier at Hamilton’s success, Burr’s “how does” motifs begin to bitterly mention Hamilton’s immigrant status in an attempt to discredit Hamilton.
For example, Burr narrates the song “In the Room Where it Happens” about the behind closed doors Compromise of 1790 negotiated between Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Hamilton. The three men are introduced as “two Virginians and an immigrant,” and Burr, furious about the outcome of the compromise, questions how an immigrant was able to negotiate it. In a similar attempt to demean Hamilton, when Jefferson, Madison, and Burr conspire against Hamilton in “Washington on Your Side,” they angrily refer to him as “this immigrant” rather than his name.
Instead of accepting the label immigrant as a slur, Hamilton champions his immigrant status. Hamilton sings in his death scene in “The World Was Wide Enough” how he hopes that America continues to be “a place where even orphan immigrants can leave their fingerprints and rise up.” One of the most iconic lines in the entire musical is “Immigrants: we get the job done” in the song “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down),” sung by Hamilton and Marquis de Lafayette in celebration after the British surrender. The line’s significance resulted in a song titled “Immigrants: We Get the Job Done” in the spin-off album The Hamilton Mixtape. The creation of the song emphasizes that Hamilton as a brand also views itself strongly as a musical about an immigrant’s success, not just Hamilton’s success.
However, despite the fact that Hamilton would make you seem to believe that Hamilton himself identified strongly with his immigrant identity, he actually was extremely anti-immigrant. This is evident both in his personal life and the policy he influenced. Hamilton attacked political opponents, such as William Findley and Albert Gallatin, because they were untrustworthy immigrants, despite the fact that he was also an immigrant. He fervently wrote against the Naturalization Act that aimed to make it easier for immigrants to achieve citizenship. Though he was unsuccessful in this blocking passage of Naturalization Act, he had a monumental hand in the Alien and Sedition Acts, which had the ability to deport non-citizens who were from a country at which the United States was at war with. John Adams, the president at the time, specifically stated that he felt pressure from a Hamilton-influenced congress and Hamilton himself to get the bills signed. Despite the fact he hated immigrants, he’s symbolized as a champion for immigrants in the musical, a sentiment with which he probably would not identify with.
In order to create a musical that celebrates diversity, it is contradictory to depict the shining star as intolerant of different people. To get around this, Miranda just omits what doesn’t fit with his narrative. However, the lack of important information is just as problematic as actively spreading misinformation. Without a specific point of contention, it is difficult for misinformation to be challenged. Omission skips this challenging, effectively sweeping Hamilton’s true history under the rug. People usually know not to take historical fiction at face value, but are more willing to believe Hamilton because of its portrayal as accurate in media and adherence to Ron Chernow’s detailed biography Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, as a result, becomes a hero for something he did not care about.
Throwing Away Your Shot
While Miranda’s goals to champion diversity and immigrant empowerment are laudable, he ultimately cannot achieve them so long as they are overshadowed by the overarching xenophobia of Hamilton and the slavery of the founding fathers. The moral questions Miranda hoped to explore are in fact subverted by the historical facts of the play. This is not to say that historical fiction must always remain 100% accurate to its source material. Hamilton has other small inaccuracies, such as claiming there are only three Schuyler siblings despite there being twelve, and also stating there are ten rules for dueling when there were 25. Inaccuracies can exist, so long as upon knowledge of them the entire meaning of the piece does not change. Otherwise, you’re cheating your audience with sanitized half-truths for the sake of selling more tickets.
Just some food for thought, as you sign up for a Disney+ subscription for the sole reason of watching Hamilton.
References:
Binelli, Mark. “Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Rolling Stone Interview.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 10 June 2016, www.rollingstone.com/music/features/hamilton-creator-lin-manuel-miranda-the-rolling-stone-interview-20160601. Accessed 1 Nov. 2017.
Carra, Mallory. “How Historically Accurate Is ‘Hamilton’? A Breakdown Of The Musical’s Events & What Really Happened So Long Ago.” Bustle, Bustle, 15 June 2016, www.bustle.com/articles/165821-how-historically-accurate-is-hamilton-a-breakdown-of-the-musicals-events-what-really-happened-so. Accessed 1 Nov. 2017.
Coleman, Colette. “7 Black Heroes of the American Revolution.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 12 Feb. 2020, www.history.com/news/black-heroes-american-revolution.
Magness, Phillip W. “Alexander Hamilton as Immigrant: Musical Mythology Meets Federalist Reality.” The Independent Review, vol. 21, no. 4, 2017, pp. 497–508, http://libproxy.usc.edu/loginurl=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1938826149?accountid=14749. Accessed 1 Nov. 2017.
Miranda McCarter, Jeremy, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Hamilton, the Revolution: Being the Complete Libretto of the Broadway Musical, with a True Account of Its Creation, and Concise Remarks on Hip-Hop, the Power of Stories, and the New. London: Little, Brown, 2016.
Monteiro, Lyra D. “Review Essay: Race-Conscious Casting and the Erasure of the Black Past in Lin-Manuel Mirandas Hamilton.” The Public Historian, vol. 38, no. 1, 2016, pp. 89–98, tph.ucpress.edu/content/38/1/89. Accessed 1 Nov. 2017.
Nathans, Heather S. “Crooked Histories: Re-Presenting Race, Slavery, and Alexander Hamilton Onstage.” Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 37, no. 2, 2017, pp. 271–278, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/659846. Accessed 1 Nov. 2017.
