On Race in Hamilton

What – you’re surprised?  Come on.  You know it’s all about the Hamiltons.

I mentioned in my review of Hamilton how much I love that most of the white historical figures are played by people of color.  As I said there, it’s a way of reclaiming the story of America’s founding for all Americans, not just the white ones.  Daveed Diggs, who plays the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, has said that he had trouble connecting to the United States’ origin story until he saw it brought to life by “brown bodies” onstage and became a part of it. 

I totally get that.  The media has made strides in diversity, but it still has so far to go.  It’s no secret that white is still the default in movies, on TV, and on Broadway.  White British actors Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland have both been elected to fit the role of the all-American Spider-Man, while the prospect of Black American actor Donald Glover even auditioning for the role can send the Internet into turmoil.  In this climate, it’s downright ballsy to cast people of color as the Founding Fathers.  It’s provocative and highly uplifting.

But you know what?  At the same time that it’s a huge deal, it’s also no big deal.  I can only speak for myself (as a white woman,) and I can’t imagine how powerful it is for POCs to see a Latino Alexander Hamilton or a Black George Washington.  But this is what I mean:  as much as I love it for how important it is, the wonderful characters it provides for people of color, and the conversations that it starts about race, I also love that the racebending isn’t at all “distracting.”  I mean, I didn’t sit in the theatre thinking, “Look!  It’s Black Aaron Burr!”  It was just Burr.  Hamilton.  Jefferson.  Washington.  Madison.  And all the others.  Contrary to what people on the Internet who have incredibly strong feelings about the intrinsic whiteness of Spider-Man would have you believe, this isn’t something that has to be outrageous.  It’s not “PC overload” or “reverse racism.”  It’s not “all you can think about” when you see these characters.  It just is.

Christopher Jackson is a phenomenal George Washington.  A truly gorgeous performance of a beautifully-written character, and he’s played by a man of color and that’s fine.  The world didn’t end.  Pigs didn’t fly, hell didn’t freeze over, and no one rolled over in their grave.  That’s what I mean by no big deal.  And that goes for everyone in the cast.  The racebending is significant and transformative in large part because it’s integrated so naturally into the show.  And I love that.

However, I also like that the show explicitly addresses race and racial issues as well.  There can be a tendency to relegate historical discussions of race to the Civil War or the Civil Rights Movement, but it runs so much deeper.  As a devoted abolitionist, Laurens is a constant reminder of the state of early U.S. affairs; even after the British are defeated at Yorktown, he says “White and black soldiers wonder alike if this really means freedom,” and slave-owning Washington simply replies, “Not.  Yet.”  I wasn’t previously familiar with Laurens, but I’ve enjoyed learning about him.  The North-South divide plays a critical role in Act II, with Hamilton’s rebuttal to Jefferson’s assertion that Virginia, which has no war debts, shouldn’t be taxed to help pay off New York’s.  Hamilton points out that “your debts are paid because you don’t pay for labor” and later scoffs, “Yeah, keep ranting. / We know who’s really doing the planting.”  (And while, like I said, it wasn’t at all distracting, it also didn’t escape my notice that every major Southern slave-owner – Washington, Jefferson, and Madison – is played by a Black man.  Very interesting.)