‘CancelHamilton’ appears on Twitter just days after musical’s Disney+ debut

Calls are being made for the Broadway musical Hamilton to be permanently shut down and removed from the Disney+ streaming platform following its debut this holiday weekend. 

Some have taken to social media to call for the cancellation of the show overall after a renewed focus on the life of its lead character.

The show portrays Hamilton as a ‘young, scrappy, and hungry’ immigrant and someone who was passionate about the abolition of slavery.

However, in light of recent Black Lives Matter protests, the story has now come under greater scrutiny and details that Hamilton was a slave trader is beginning to sit uncomfortably with some. 

Set during the American Revolution, the musical does not discuss the central role that slavery played during that particular moment in history while also failing to mention that most of the Founding Fathers were slave owners

Some have taken to social media to call for the cancellation of the show overall

Some have taken to social media to call for the cancellation of the show overall

The show portrays Alexander Hamilton as a 'young, scrappy, and hungry' immigrant and someone who was passionate about the abolition of slavery, but he traded slaves although he doesn't appear to have ever directly owned any enslaved people

The show portrays Alexander Hamilton as a ‘young, scrappy, and hungry’ immigrant and someone who was passionate about the abolition of slavery, but he traded slaves although he doesn’t appear to have ever directly owned any enslaved people

Although he traded slaves, Hamilton doesn’t appear to have ever directly owned any enslaved people although he did marry into a prominent New York slaveholding family.

The true story behind the show has seen the hashtag ‘CancelHamilton’ grow on Twitter.   

Ajamu Baraka an international human rights activist, organizer, political analyst wrote: 

‘The play & now movie Hamilton is racist buffoonery & revisionist history meant to make liberal white folks feel good about their collaboration with the colonial project know as the U.S. & its racist imperialist project abroad. Miranda should concentrate on feeing Puerto Rico.’

Author Nick Adams tweeted: ‘Alexander Hamilton bought and traded slaves. Is Broadway going to cancel one of the top-grossing shows of all time?

Former Fox News and NBC Today host Megyn Kelly asked if the show could survive. 

‘Can Hamilton – a show that celebrates America and her founders – survive cancel culture?’ she asked in a tweet.

The renewed interest in the musical Hamilton has seen many asking whether the show can survive the current 'cancel culture' that exists

The renewed interest in the musical Hamilton has seen many asking whether the show can survive the current ‘cancel culture’ that exists 

Other online asked similar questions. 

‘How is Hamilton not canceled? Alexander Hamilton owned and traded slaves. I think we need to cancel Hamilton,’ wrote one Twitter user.

‘Hamilton was a slave trader. Tear down the statues NOW and #CancelHamilton,’ added another.

‘Can’t believe Disney is showing a show about a slave trader in times like this. Also the actors aren’t the same color as the people they are portraying. How dare they. #CancelHamilton’ tweeted another.

Although this last tweet called for the show to be cancelled, it appeared to be tongue-in-cheek and attempting to protest against cancel culture as a whole.

Other have sprung to defend Miranda.  

The hashtag 'CancelHamilton' has started to trend on Twitter with the glorifying of a slave trader sitting uncomfortably for some

The hashtag ‘CancelHamilton’ has started to trend on Twitter with the glorifying of a slave trader sitting uncomfortably for some

‘To those of you using #CancelHamilton, you need to learn to separate fact from fiction. Hamilton is a god damn Broadway musical, not a history lesson. To those of you trying to cancel Lin, give me one reason why. Your reasoning is that he made the founding fathers look like good people. It’s BASIC AMERICAN HISTORY that the founding fathers were not good people. 2 years ago you wouldn’t shut up about the musical. Now you want to cancel it? Yeah, you guys are dumbasses,’ 

Set during the American Revolution, the musical does not discuss the central role that slavery played during that particular moment in history while also failing to mention that most of the Founding Fathers were slave owners.

In an interview with NPR last week, the show’s creator Lin Manuel-Miranda admitted that the show does not deal with the issue of slavery that it perhaps deserves. 

‘Although he voiced anti-slavery beliefs he remained complicit in the system. And other than calling out Jefferson on his hypocrisy with regards to slavery in Act 2, [the show] doesn’t really say much else over the course of Act 2. And I think that’s actually pretty honest. 

‘He didn’t really do much about it. None of them did. None of them did enough. And we say that, too, in the final moments. So that hits differently now because we’re having a conversation, we’re having a real reckoning of “How do you uproot an original sin?”‘

‘In the musical, only Jefferson is shown as a slave holder,’ said historian Annette Gordon-Reed ‘But Madison owned slaves too, and so did George Washington.’

‘He was not an abolitionist,’ Gordon-Reed notes in a 2016 essay for the Harvard Gazette. ‘He bought and sold slaves for his in-laws, and opposing slavery was never at the forefront of his agenda.

‘He was not a champion of the little guy, like the show portrays,’ she said. ‘He was elitist. He was in favor of having a president for life.’

‘In the sense of the Ellis Island immigrant narrative, he was not an immigrant,’ Gordon-Reed said. ‘He was not pro-immigrant, either.

‘He was not an abolitionist,’ she added. ‘He bought and sold slaves for his in-laws, and opposing slavery was never at the forefront of his agenda.’  

Last month, the creator of the took social media to apologize for not speaking up sooner over the Black Lives Matter protests and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Miranda posted an apology on the official Hamilton Twitter account and delivered a contrite message. 

‘We spoke out on the day of the Pulse shooting. We spoke out when Vice President Mike Pence came to our show 10 days after the election. That we have not yet firmly spoken the inarguable truth that Black Lives Matter and denounced systematic racism and white supremacy from our official Hamilton channels is a moral failure on our part,’ Miranda said in the 90 second video. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda, 40, issued an apology to fans of Hamilton for the Broadway show's failure to publicly denounce systemic racism sooner

Lin-Manuel Miranda, 40, issued an apology to fans of Hamilton for the Broadway show’s failure to publicly denounce systemic racism sooner

'That we have not yet firmly spoken the inarguable truth that Black Lives Matter and denounced systematic racism and white supremacy from our official Hamilton channels is a moral failure on our part,' Miranda said

‘That we have not yet firmly spoken the inarguable truth that Black Lives Matter and denounced systematic racism and white supremacy from our official Hamilton channels is a moral failure on our part,’ Miranda said

 ‘As the writer of the show, I take responsibility and apologize for my part in this moral failure.’ 

Miranda  apologized for ‘not pushing harder and faster for us to speak these self-evident truths under the Hamilton banner which has come to mean so much to so many of you.’

‘Hamilton doesn’t exist without the black and brown artists who created and revolutionized and changed the world through the culture, music and language of hip-hop. Literally, the idea of the show doesn’t exist without the brilliant black and brown artists in our cast, crew and production team who breathe life into this story every time it’s performed,’ he went on to explain.

‘It’s up to us and words and deeds to stand up for our fellow citizens. It’s up to us to do the work to be better allies and have each other’s backs,’ Miranda said as he thanked company members and fans for ‘holding us accountable.’  

A producer with the show, Jeffrey Seller also echoed similar thoughts in a second video

A producer with the show, Jeffrey Seller also echoed similar thoughts in a second video

'It's up to us and words and deeds to stand up for our fellow citizens. It's up to us to do the work to be better allies and have each other's backs,' he said. Miranda is pictured in 2016

‘It’s up to us and words and deeds to stand up for our fellow citizens. It’s up to us to do the work to be better allies and have each other’s backs,’ he said. Miranda is pictured in 2016

'Hamilton doesn't exist without the black and brown artists who created and revolutionized and changed the world through the culture, music and language of hip-hop,' he continued

‘Hamilton doesn’t exist without the black and brown artists who created and revolutionized and changed the world through the culture, music and language of hip-hop,’ he continued 

A producer with the show, Jeffrey Seller also echoed similar thoughts in a second video. 

‘I’m not a politician. I’m not an activist. I’m not an expert. I’m a theater producer. But what I realize today is most importantly I’m an American citizen and silence equals complicity and I apologize for my silence thus far,’ Seller began. 

‘African Americans have always and will always be integral to our success as a nation, as a culture and as a people. … I must make it my effort to work with all of the organizations who are doing so much to support the welfare, livelihood, safety and liberty of African Americans.’ 

The Hamilton Twitter account followed up the videos by posting links to Black Lives Matter and the NAACP of Minneapolis, along with the Minneapolis Freedom Fund, which people can donate to to help bail out protestors in the Twin Cities. 

The Hamilton Twitter account followed up the videos by posting links to Black Lives Matter and the NAACP of Minneapolis, along with the Minneapolis Freedom Fund, which people can donate to protesters in the Twin Cities; pictured in January 2019

The Hamilton Twitter account followed up the videos by posting links to Black Lives Matter and the NAACP of Minneapolis, along with the Minneapolis Freedom Fund, which people can donate to protesters in the Twin Cities; pictured in January 2019

Miranda and Seller’s statements came days after the death of George Floyd. 

He was killed when a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes, including two minutes beyond when he stopped breathing and became unresponsive.

So far, the four officers involved in the arrest have all been fired from the Minneapolis Police Department, and Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. 

Creator, Miranda, said his excitement had been piqued by witnessing the musical’s influence on nationwide anti-racism protests that followed Floyd’s death in police custody last month.

‘I know that when I see a sign at a protest out in the street that says ‘History Has Its Eyes On You,’ or ‘Tomorrow There’ll Be More Of Us,’ I know that the language of the show is connecting in a way that makes me incredibly proud,’ Miranda said, referring to popular lyrics from the show.

‘I can’t even wrap my mind around that,’ he told an online press conference.   

When Hamilton premiered in 2015, it was groundbreaking in its blend of hip-hop musical numbers, color-blind casting and political revolution.  

With theaters closed due to the pandemic and the initial cast having long ago moved on to other endeavors, the movie offers a rare chance to see the original run of a show that won 11 Tonys and has grossed $1 billion worldwide. 

The musical tells the story of Alexander Hamilton and fellow founding fathers with rap and hip-hop numbers mixed in with traditional show tunes.

Since its first Broadway run, the musical has been performed across the country and abroad, casted with mostly non-white actors.

That diversity, and its message of risking everything for a noble cause, means its timing could not be more apt, said original cast member Renee Elise Goldsberry, who played Angelica Schuyler.

‘We get to remember what those young people felt like, at that time when ‘laying down your life to set us free’ meant something,’ said Goldsberry, referencing one of the musical’s lines.

‘The diversity of this country can be claimed by all of the people that created it — that’s one of the many things this show celebrates and I think it’s so needed right now,’ she added.

Its release comes at a time when historic statues and monuments are being removed across the country, as Americans grapple with the legacy of racism.

Fellow cast member Okieriete Onaodowan said he was excited ‘to see how this affects young black people today.’  

‘Young kids who are out there, who are upset and angry… can watch this and realize that they can put their energies through writing, through challenging the people who are telling you things that you don’t like to hear, like Hamilton did,’ said Onaodowan, who played Hercules Mulligan and James Madison.

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