Say, kids, have you heard of this fun Broadway musical called Hamilton? It retells the story of the Revolution and the Founding in a delightful, contemporary idiom enriched by hip-hop and R&B. And all of the major American characters are played by minorities! It’s such a vibrant example of [gigantic Monty Python foot comes down from the heavens and squashes me flat].
I’ll start again: Since it debuted on Broadway in 2015, Hamilton has already become a relic of a different age. It would take considerably more courage to launch it today: black and brown Americans singing, dancing, and rapping in praise of white Americans, several of them slaveholders? Really? While hardly casting a glance at the evils of slavery, white supremacy, and patriarchy? And presenting the Revolution without shame as a spectacular advancement in human rights instead of a noxious compromise with, or even an enshrinement of, systemic racism?
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