On: Hamilton
Let me set the stage: you’re 13 years old, sitting in your 8th grade history class. You’re kind of bored, but you’re 13 and its a nice day outside so that’s understandable. Suddenly, your teacher pulls a YouTube video up on the classroom TV, and proceeds to press play. It’s this video:
When I was 13, this exact situation happened, starting me on a journey that I at the time was quite unaware of. At the time, all I knew was that something about that energetic man on stage, rapping about a founding father I frankly had no idea about, was incredibly and undeniably compelling. Something about his tone, his skill, his passion for a subject I didn’t understand made me want to understand. I think I watched that video every day for a solid week after that day in class. But then I forgot about it, like 13 year olds do.
One year later, Hamilton premiered at the Public Theatre in New York, and a few months after this occurred, its existence somehow made its way into my consciousness. Honestly, I don’t remember how it happened. Knowing that I was 14 at the time, in all likelihood I found out through Tumblr. But, I digress. Somehow, this unlikely musical about a founding father featuring rap music made its way to me, and I was intrigued, so I found the music online and listened to it, incredibly surprised to find out that the opening song of the musical is the same one that I heard in my 8th grade history class the year prior.
Hamilton was the start of a long and continuing love of musicals. It was the first one I really connected to, enjoyed, and properly listened to. It wasn’t like anything I had heard before. It wasn’t like anything I’d seen before. Before I knew it I had memorized pretty much every song in the musical, had indoctrinated my whole extended family into appreciating it, and had the immense privilege of being able to see it with my family in San Francisco with the touring company. Hamilton led me to find other musicals like Spring Awakening and Falsettos, the latter of the two now holding a firm place as my favorite musical.
But in all honesty, for all that I loved Hamilton, I didn’t really think about it a lot. That is to say, I thought about the lyrics, the poetry, the representation, the uniqueness, the fact that Lin-Manuel Miranda managed to get away with rhyming “son” with “sun.” But I didn’t think about it historically. Of course, I felt as though I had learned something from the musical, but I didn’t really spend time thinking about all of its historical implications. In retrospect it’s ignorant and an uneducated way to live my life, but I can’t deny that it happened. I listened to Hamilton, loved it, moved on from it, and to an extent forgot about it. Only later, years later, at the age of 18, did I look back on the musical and realize its flaws.
Hamilton: An American Musical is not an accurate representation of who the framers were as people. This might be obvious, but it’s easy to get caught up in the magic of song and dance and forget about context. Without context it’s pretty easy to watch or listen to Hamilton and walk away thinking the man was an abolitionist or morally superior person to his peers. Without context, which the musical chooses to forego, one would not know that Alexander Hamilton had slaves, that he was a perpetuator of the same racial violence as his fellow framer peers. Does the musical not mention slavery at all? No, of course not. But it does gloss over it enough for it to be an issue of historical inaccuracy.
In choosing to selectively portray portions of Hamilton’s upbringing and history, the musical, perhaps unwittingly, adds to the narrative of the glorification of the framers. It lets us not see the good and the bad that they did, but mostly the good, making us believe they were morally superior people who only wanted the best for all people, despite this not being true, as seen by their lack of regard for people of color (specifically Black and Indigenous people) and women.
A strange and perhaps awkward issue with Hamilton is the way it was perceived then swept away by its fans online—its fandom. Commonly regarded as one of the most toxic fandoms to have ever existed in recent history, a lot of Hamilton fans online did some very strange things. I won’t explain everything (mostly because there’s too much to explain and I don’t even know everything), but in my opinion this toxicity was created, not necessarily at the fault of the musical itself, but instead is the product of an internet culture that is used to flocking around pure fiction, so this musical being historical fiction blurred the lines of morality and reality. Combined with the aforementioned glorification of the framers as well as an overall lacking American education system, it was a recipe for disaster.
A huge critique of Hamilton is that it humanizes the framers. While I do believe this to be true, and agree that the glossing over of uncomfortable parts of their history is problematic, I don’t think humanization is an inherently bad thing. To understand the worst of humanity you need to understand that the people you morally disagree with are human. To write them off as monsters or to use dehumanizing language simply separates your subconscious from the knowledge that you are of the same species as the person you disagree with - it marks them as “other,” making it easy to separate yourself from the issue. Frankly it’s a lot scarier to think about how the most morally reprehensible people to have walked this earth are human just like you and me, and we shouldn’t shy away from something like that. People are multifaceted, and your opinions should be as well. Someone being a good father doesn’t change or speak over the fact that they perpetuated slavery, it just adds a layer to the mess of their consciousness and our understanding of them.
After I came to these realizations, I was still left with something strange inside of me, and despite knowing logically the many problematic aspects of Hamilton, I couldn’t bring myself to hate the musical, partially because of my emotional attachment to it but also because of its impact on the world.
The musical did so much to raise awareness in the vast majority of broadway fans and creators of the issue of racial representation on stage and behind the curtain. Yes, there have been other musicals which feature wonderfully diverse casts, but the conscious choice to cast people of color as the founders of this country, a fact that the founders themselves would despise, is an act of defiance and vocalization of an issue that is important to keep in mind.
At the end of the day, this is a musical made by a child of immigrants who found identity in a place he would least expect it. He created a story about ambition and cruelty and hubris, but also ingenuity and confidence and history. Yes, it glosses over parts of this history; yes, it unintentionally created one of the most toxic online fanbases I have ever seen; yes, it does play a part in the unequivocal glorification of the American revolution and American experiment that is prevalent in this country. This can and should be acknowledged. But what should also be acknowledged is the musical’s role in lifting up actors of color on the broadway stage, its actual musical and storytelling ingenuity, and the lasting impact it’s had on so many kids of color who looked up on that stage or listened to these lyrics and saw or heard someone like them.
We’re allowed to be critical of the work we consume, in fact we should be. But we should also be aware that we can call a work out for its flaws or inaccuracies while also enjoying it. The idea that Hamilton paints American history in an overly-positive light that glosses over the undeniable atrocities that have historically and systematically been committed against Black Americans and the idea that Hamilton spurred a newfound public interest in both musicals and history as well as created a space for historically marginalized people on stage while utilizing the mediums of hip hop/rap/R&B (mediums typically frowned upon and scoffed at by mainstream broadway) are thoughts that can and should exist simultaneously in your head.
Hamilton is not perfect, and it would be inaccurate and ignorant to say it is. But despite its flaws, it has had an undeniably positive impact on thousands of people, and we should be able to talk about its flaws while knowing its strengths. We aren’t perfect and neither is any of the art we consume, and it only betters the art community as a whole to have productive discourse while also being appreciative. ⬥