"Hamilton" and Fiction

Do As I Say and Not As I Do

    On Friday, November 18th, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, while in attendance at the musical “Hamilton”, was singled out by actor Brandon Victor Dixon at the show's conclusion. Dixon read a statement prepared by Lin Manuel Miranda (the show's creator), Thomas Kail (director), and Jeffrey Seller (lead producer) with input from cast members. After thanking Mr. Pence for attending, Mr. Dixon read:

    “We, sir — we — are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights,” he said. “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”

    Such altruism would be commendable were the words any less hollow, or at least less hypocritical. It appears that the children and parents to be protected do not include women in general and white married suburban housewives specifically. Further, one can only wonder what American values are to be upheld in light of Mr. Dixon's social media comment history.

    What, exactly, is Mr. Dixon saying here? On St. Patrick's Day weekend “white chicks” are like presents to be opened by “black dudes”? Where is the backlash against racism and misogyny, or is this in Mr. Dixon's case, an American ideal to be protected.

    Note that a jump off is defined by Urban Dictionary as a casual sexual partner or girlfriend, a woman of dubious sexual practices. So, apparently, the children and parents to be protected do not include “white married suburban housewife & mother(s)” who Mr. Dixon would try and turn into his personal harlots. Other than a deep racist belief accompanied by little respect for women, I cannot think of why a person would say this.

    I think, finally, by using the word “ho”, there is little room for doubt how Mr. Dixon feels about women.

    I suspect Mr. Dixon will not be held accountable for what he has said because the truth would be detrimental to the agenda his Friday night message promoted Better to sweep incidents like this under the rug.  Better to pretend this did not happen than to expose the flaws because, really, as long as someone is on your side, their flaws cannot be as bad as someone's on the other side.