SPOILER ALERT: This episode contains spoilers for Hamilton: An American Musical.
So this past July 4th weekend, 'Hamilton,' the Broadway musical about Alexander Hamilton that everyone is so crazy about, hit Disney+. It re-sparked some controversy around whether or not the writer of the play, Lin Manuel-Miranda, should have included more mention of slaves in a time when many of the main characters in the play were notorious slaveowners, such as Thomas Jefferson. We talk about the standards we hold academics and media producers to, as well as work in some conversation on how the new post-George Floyd world we live in affects how we view patriotism, how and whether we celebrate July 4th, and whether literally anything that we celebrate today didn't have roots in imperialism or other social evil.
Links:
Series of Tweets between Lin Manuel-Miranda and Tracy Clayton about the treatment of slavery in Hamilton: https://www.stereogum.com/2090705/lin-manuel-miranda-responds-to-the-hamilton-slavery-debate/news/
Map of countries based on how diverse they are: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/05/16/a-revealing-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-ethnically-diverse-countries/
