Inactive

Swimming the relay together connected us. So even if we end up walking different paths, we’ll always be connected to each other. There won’t be an end for us.

It does not seem accidental that “Hamilton” was created during the tenure of the first African-American President. The musical presents the birth of the nation in an unfamiliar but necessary light: not solely as the work of élite white men but as the foundational story of all Americans. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington are all played by African-Americans. Miranda also gives prominent roles to women, including Hamilton’s wife, Eliza Schuyler, and sister-in-law, Angelica Schuyler. Miranda portrays the Founding Fathers not as exalted statesmen but as orphaned sons, reckless revolutionaries, and sometimes petty rivals, living at a moment of extreme volatility, opportunity, and risk. The achievements and the dangers of America’s current moment—under the Presidency of a fatherless son of an immigrant, born in the country’s island margins—are never far from view.

Privilege does not mean that you’re rich, that you’ve had an easy life, that everything’s been handed to you, and you’ve never had struggle or to work hard. All it means is that there are some things in life that you will not experience— or ever have to think about— just because of who you are.