8 Thursday, July 2, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com MICHIGAN IN COLOR The overglorified Disney+ Hamilfilm On July 3, Disney+ will be exclusively streaming Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit musi- cal, “Hamilton,” also known as #Hamilfilm. Ever since 2015, “Hamilton” has been highly praised because it features solely BIPOC singers and actors on the Broadway stage telling the tale of the American Revolution. I myself am a huge fan of musicals and Broad- way history, so when “Hamilton” came out, I couldn’t help but sing along to the Schuyler sisters and wished one day I would be able to accrue enough money to squeeze myself into the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Recently I noticed a lot of criticism toward the musical, and recognized how ironic and inappropriate the whole concept was: people of color, whose very existence was threat- ened by the people they were portraying, in a business which also has a history of exclud- ing those who weren’t rich and white. Many before me have recognized the several issues “Hamilton” fans often glaze over. Writer Gene Demby noticed when he attended the show how there were only a handful of POC between him and the actors, and notes how “Hamilton” particularly attracts white audi- ences. Theatre has a history of segregated seating, plays with racist caricatures and minstrel shows. Along with the historical white audience, the exorbitant high ticket prices and constant sold-out status of the shows prevent the working class and BIPOC from attending as well. Even with a primarily white audience and a musical being held in a historically rac- ist production setting, my biggest critique of “Hamilton” is its historical inaccuracies. While I understand the musical is purely entertainment, and it could be bold for me to assume that people would believe in the por- trayal of past white historical figures, when it comes to conversations of racism, slavery and how BIPOC were treated in colonial America, it wouldn’t surprise me if people The American Dream: A personofcolor’simpossible pursuit JENNY CHONG MiC Staff Writer Graphic by Hibah ChughtaiI In the second grade, my teacher asked the class to explain why people immigrated to the United States. My hand shot up with enthusiasm — I wanted to share my fam- ily’s story. “My parents came here because they wanted freedom and a better life,” I answered patriotically. At the time, I believed America was the land where hopes and dreams would come true for everyone — where “all men are cre- ated equal” as the Declaration of Indepen- dence claims. My parents left their small village in Guangdong, China, and immigrat- ed to New York with the same determined mindset. They wanted to prove anything was possible in America, and attest to the validity of the rags to riches fantasy. To their dismay, achieving the American Dream was harder than they’d expected as non-English speak- ers without a college education. Sacrificing this dream for their blue-collar jobs, they passed these aspirations down to my siblings and me, pushing us to pursue higher educa- tion so we would obtain high paying jobs. In becoming successful, they believed we would also live a happy and comfortable life. I find skepticism in that sentiment, however. As long as I am a person of color in America, I will never live comfortably because racism will remain an ailment hanging over me. As long as the color of my skin is the main deter- minant of how society treats me, I will never be able to fulfill the American Dream. Coined by James Truslow Adams in his book “The Epic of America,” the American Dream is a dream in which an individual can be recognized “for what they are, regardless of the (unanticipated) circumstances of birth or position.” This has encouraged lower class Americans and immigrants to work harder and seek higher education in order to live a prosperous life, but it fails to acknowledge how one’s race plays a role in economic suc- cess or societal acceptance. The United States has a history of systemi- cally oppressing communities of color and immigrants in an effort to protect its white Americans from foreign influences. The Immigration Act of 1924 barred all Asians from entering the country and set quotas for countries outside of the Western Hemi- sphere. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, over 127,000 Japanese-Americans were forced to relocate to internment camps because Amer- icans feared they were spies for the Japa- nese government. More recently, the Trump administration ordered three variations of Muslim bans, the latest of which blocks peo- ple from seven countries, five being predomi- nately Muslim, from traveling to the U.S. The ban also denies Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Syria — leaving refugees vulnerable to deportation back to countries in the midst of war, natural disasters and humanitarian crises. Restrict- ing rights for communities of color is no dif- ferent than upholding white supremacy. Black Americans have borne the brunt of centuries of systemic oppression. Despite the abolishment of slavery and segregation laws, American policies manage to covertly discriminate against the Black community across many facets of life, ultimately main- taining many characteristics of the slave institution. The American Dream fails to recognize that not everyone is given an equal opportunity to succeed, and it would be naive to believe otherwise — however the glorifi- cation of the dream itself nurtures the idea that everyone who comes from some sort of struggle has an equitable chance at acquiring said dream, but this is far from true. Read more at michigandaily.com become misinformed. Historian Lyra Mon- teiro notes how Miranda conducts a strat- egy called “Founders Chic,” representing the founders of America as relatable or cool people. This strategy distracts from the fact that the Founding Fathers were enslavers. In regards to Hamilton specifically, who is decorated as a great anti-slavery abolition- ist, it is not mentioned that he once worked on a slave ship. There were actually few white people who were opposed to slavery, especially in the Carribean, and there is no historical accounts or statement to back up that Hamilton was anti-slavery. One of the reasons why Hamilton didn’t own slaves was because he was a poor immigrant, thus it was rather a practical addition rather than a moral protest. Furthermore, the beautiful, intelligent and independent portrayal of the Schuyler family and sisters, while entertaining, dis- tracts from their grand involvement in the business of enslaving. Elizabeth Schyuler was able to sing tunes such as “Helpless” at the ball and attract Hamilton because she had several enslaved people to prepare her. And on the note of the Schuyler sisters, “Hamilton” is also criticized for not passing the Bechdel test — while it seemingly fea- tures strong women, all the dialogue and plot revolve around the men. Another core feature of the musical, which is also extremely problematic, is Miranda’s usage of the bootstraps immigration narra- tive. Hamilton is depicted as a rags to riches story. While it can’t be denied Hamilton may have worked hard for his success, it heavily denotes his other success factors and gas- lights the struggles of other immigrants who may have worked just as hard but had soci- etal oppressors keeping them from the same level of success. Factors such as structural racism, predatory capitalism and policies which prevented citizenship which... Read more at michigandaily.com CHERYN HONG MiC Managing Editor Graphic by Cheryn Hong