Telling people I'm a history major means that I'm typically met with the usual "but history is so boring" comment. History is hard, everyone is dead, why does it matter? Our history, whether it be personal or learned in school, is important. It's where we come from; it's who we are. In a world eager to stop acknowledging it's past it's important we pay attention and learn from our mistakes in order to stop history from repeating it's self. History can actually be really fun and interesting. Cue Hamilton.
Unless you've been hiding under a rock the past few years, you've probably heard of the play written and directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda (who also plays Alexander Hamilton). Hamilton depicts the life and career of founding father Alexander Hamilton. Now, before you can even start to yawn or prop up your text book to secretly take a nap, it's got rap battles. You can get the soundtrack for free on "Spotify" and listen as the founding fathers rap battle during cabinet debates and duels.
What blows my mind is people who just look at the surface and say "Look at how great it is that the cast is made up of minorities." If all you can focus on and take away from this masterpiece is skin color then you are on the wrong side of history. How insulting and backwards is that? To strip away the talent and to not even recognize what this incredible play teaches us about history is a crime. We all want "equality" and the only way we can achieve that is to stop recognizing the skin color of people. If the cast was white, we wouldn't praise them for their skin color. The actors and actresses in the play aren't good because of their skin color, they are just talented people.
In many ways Hamilton is revolutionary. It changes the way we think about history. Using creative and catchy lyrics Miranda brings the founding fathers to life. They become real people with real personalities and problems, not just stuffy portraits or names in a book. Hamilton shows us that they were just like us. The names and faces change but the people stay the same. Miranda makes them real. He points out their flaws, after all we are all only human. After listening to the soundtrack (countless times) I can honestly say that we all know an "Alexander Hamilton" or an "Aaron Burr". Hamilton is easy to relate too and is actually very educational and accurate.
Hamilton also teaches us something about ourselves. Alexander Hamilton was a poor bastard child with no family name or money to propel himself in the world, but he was smart. He worked hard and he believed in something and stuck to it even when it wasn't the popular idea; He spoke his mind and wasn't afraid of the consequence. Did he make mistakes? Of course. Did he always succeed? No, but it never stopped him or slowed him down. He came from a less than ideal situation, especially in that time period, and still made his mark on history. What we need to take from this is to ask ourselves "what can we do with our own situation?" "What mark will we leave in history?"
I can't shower Lin-Manuel in enough praise for the gift he has given us. Just the sheer creativity it took to sit down and dissect the lives of people who have been dead for hundreds of years and turn their conversations and struggles into catchy and easy to understand raps and songs is mind blowing. The sheer talent of the cast is also just phenomenal. Hamilton is all in all a true work of art. If you haven't yet, I would listen to the soundtrack and see for yourself how Hamilton is changing the game. It's not just about skin color, it is so much more than that.
