Hypocrisy, history and Hamilton
Behind the myth is the reality of a flawed man
The election of Donald Trump has exposed a lot of hypocrisy. White college-educated women, some of whom have made Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas the emblem of misogyny, the butt of jokes and ridicule for the rest of his life, voted for a man whose misogyny far exceeds that which has dogged Thomas since his 1991 confirmation hearing. Judge Thomas’ alleged sexual harassment has been the subject of film, television series, books and even part of an exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan, N.Y.
Often these projects were husbanded by television producers and publishers whose attitudes toward women are suspect. They are not feminists. Some are probably conservative.
Other conservatives, who called Trump a con man, dangerous and a fraud, are making a pilgrimage to New Jersey and to the Trump Tower. Evangelicals voted for a man whom Ted Cruz called a “philanderer.”
I heard two progressives praise Trump’s “economic populism.” Unlike them, Latino immigrant families won’t be trekking to New Jersey or the Trump Tower to make nice, because the president-elect has appointed Cabinet members who have pledged to deport them. Under Trump, blacks might be stopped and frisked on the way to the Trump Tower.
But the height of liberal hypocrisy occurred when Brandon Victor Dixon, a cast member of the musical “Hamilton,” lectured Vice Presidentelect Mike Pence about his political and social policies, which, in my opinion, are backward and even a little bizarre. This thing about merchants refusing to sell wedding cakes to gays reminds one of the Southern merchants who lost millions as a result of their refusal to do business with black consumers, another example of why bigotry is like a fool against itself. But putting that aside, Dixon said that he hoped that the show would inspire Pence to “uphold American values.”
This cast member is an accomplice to a show that misrepresents Alexander Hamilton as, in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s words, an “abolitionist and progressive.” No, Mr. Miranda, not only did Hamilton negotiate the sale of slaves but left an invoice. This slave trader accused the British of “stealing Negroes from their owners,” which indicates that Hamilton believed that blacks were property to be owned.
Even Ron Chernow, author of the book “Hamilton,” upon which Miranda based his script, says that Hamilton may have owned slaves. So what kind of American value is Dixon talking about? Kidnapping? Receiving stolen goods?
Though Hillary Clinton didn’t win the presidency because of the Electoral College, another American value based upon the slave trade, and the misogynistic attitudes of both men and women, glass ceilings are being shattered elsewhere. No longer is the field of history monopolized by men who are the groupies of the founding fathers. American Book Awards winners Professors Lyra Monteiro and Nancy Isenberg have written about the fallacy of representing Hamilton as something he was not. Professor Michelle DuRoss challenges historians who have portrayed Hamilton as an abolitionist.
Writers who have the courage to stand up to propaganda, whether it be presented in a wannabe autocrat’s tweets or from the stage, are the true American value. No, the cast of Hamilton shouldn’t apologize. They should read.