Here’s Why People Are Saying 'Hamilton' Is 'Canceled'

From Men's Health

• After Hamilton debuted on Disney+ for a larger audience than ever before—and amid ongoing Black Lives Matter protests nationwide—some viewers are criticizing the show for glorifying America's slave-owning founding fathers, among other concerns.

• Viewers are expressing their concerns using the hashtag #CancelHamilton.

• Lin-Manuel Miranda briefly made his Twitter account private, but returned to the platform to state the criticisms are "valid."

After debuting at New York City's The Public Theater in January 2015, Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical Hamilton became a cultural phenomenon, going on to win 11 Tony awards and pack Broadway theaters night after night. Last summer, after half a decade and a whole lot of hype, the musical was made available for anyone to stream at home; all you need is a Disney+ subscription and 2 hours and 40 minutes to spare.

With that streaming premiere, the musical then qualified for more accolades with the Golden Globes. It was nominated both for Best Picture in the Musical/Comedy category and Best Actor (Miranda) for the same category.

But despite the critical love, many viewers of the musical voiced criticism during its Disney+ premiere. Beginning early summer, viewers began using the hashtag #CancelHamilton. Coinciding with ongoing Black Lives Matter protests following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Hamilton movie had given new fuel to long-held concerns: namely, that the show glorifies America's slave-owning founding fathers—including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson—and doesn't give a voice to any people who were enslaved.

Some detractors point to the fact that Hamilton glorifies George Washington, who owned 123 of the 317 slaves at Mount Vernon during the time when the show is set. (He would eventually leave instructions in his will for the slaves owned by his estate to be freed after the death of his wife, Martha Washington.) And according to the Washington Post, others note that while the show's hero, Alexander Hamilton, was an abolitionist who didn't own slaves, the fact that he worked closely with slave-owning founding fathers makes him a cog in a racist system.

Other critical viewers have pointed to audio clips of Miranda saying the n-word, once when reading from a Hamilton audiobook footnote, and once when reading an excerpt from the writer Junot Díaz.

Widespread calls to #CancelHamilton began on July 3—the first day the musical was available to stream—when Miranda live-tweeted a Hamilton movie watch party. Criticisms began to roll in, and when the watch party was over, Miranda temporarily made his Twitter account private.

Lin-Manuel Miranda responds to the criticism

As calls to #CancelHamilton continued to gain traction on social media, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda said the criticisms of his award-winning Broadway musical are "valid."

Miranda unlocked his Twitter account on July 6, quoting a thread from writer Tracey Clayton, who herself was responding to the criticisms of Hamilton.

"i totally get the frustration about it being a play about slaveholders that is not about slavery. ive felt that in lots of things i watch, but i flex the same muscle i use when i listen to hip hop as a black woman. we enjoy problematic things all the time," Clayton wrote. "after reading the critiques i would have appreciated more context about hamilton & slavery. but to lump it in with statues of columbus and robert e lee denies this conversation the nuance it deserves & we’re capable of giving it that."

Miranda quoted the first of Clayton's tweets (her thoughts were posted in a six-tweet thread), thanking her for her perspective and acknowledging the flaws in his work.

"Appreciate you so much, @brokeymcpoverty. All the criticisms are valid," Miranda wrote. "The sheer tonnage of complexities & failings of these people I couldn’t get. Or wrestled with but cut. I took 6 years and fit as much as I could in a 2.5 hour musical. Did my best. It’s all fair game."

The recent criticisms of Hamilton were echoed by the late literary giant Toni Morrison. Morrison, who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, a Nobel Prize, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom for her writings, actually helped fund a play called The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda before her death in 2019. In this show, which is done in the style of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Story, Miranda (a character in the show) is visited by historical figures missing from the show.

When They See Us and Selma director Ava DuVernay, a fan of Miranda's, noted that Hamilton isn't necessarily intended to be a history lesson. DuVernay responded to one Twitter user asking why she was "celebrating a slave trader" by noting that she knew, and read about the realities of the past in history books—and a musical wasn't that.

"Huh? Hamilton traded enslaved Africans. Jefferson did. Washington did. Madison did. A Broadway musical ain’t a history book," she wrote. "I actually read those. So I understand the difference between a brilliantly rendered play and actual American history. Celebrating a slave trader?"

Hamilton earned Tony awards and career bumps for the many of its non-white cast members, including Daveed Diggs, Christopher Jackson, Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo, and Renée Elise Goldsberry.

At the end of May, in the aftermath of Floyd's death at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Miranda appeared in a video posted to the Hamilton social media accounts and apologized for not speaking out for himself and on behalf of the show against white supremacy earlier.

"As the writer of this show, I take responsibility and apologize for my part in this moral failure," he said. "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, 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."

What's happening now with Hamilton?

Hamilton will likely carry its baggage through all future recognition. As Miranda intimated, the conversation is certainly one worth having and one sure to continue. While the musical may not be a history lesson, it does use historical personages—those whose complications are perhaps not as fully explored as some viewers see necessary. Whether or not the musical glorifies those historical persons, it does center its narrative on them. Still, the musical’s attitude is one of multiplicity and it celebrates difference as a necessary stage for national unity. While not every voice is accounted for, the performance does seek plurality—it’s an America trying to be what America has not yet been.

Stream 'Hamilton' Now on Disney+

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