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    • SEnkey3 years ago

      The most progressive thing about Hamilton is its implied argument that anti-racist protest is patriotic revolution. As one of my favorite commentaries on the show puts it:

      Why do we consider the founding fathers revolutionaries and not the Black Panthers or the Brown Berets or any number of other anti-racist revolutionary organizations? Whose rebellion is valued? Who is allowed to be heroic through defiance? By making the founding fathers people of colour, Hamilton puts people of colour into the American narrative, while simultaneously applying that narrative to the present.

      I think one difference between the groups mentioned is what they built to last beyond them. Hamilton highlights this by contrasting the titular character with his executioner, the one left a legacy because he built (a financial system, the constitution, the Federalist papers, Bank of New York, Coast Guard...we could go on). Burr built nothing.

      As important as the groups mentioned - or the points they were trying to make - may be, what did they build? History doesn't remember iconoclasts. A lesson we should all remember now more than ever. That doesn't mean we shouldn't remove some statures and works of art, but it is far more important that we replace it with something. That we build and create. I don't know the names of anyone who tore down a statue last week. Manuel will be remembered for what he created, even if that thing is debated.