Hamilton, if you're blissfully unaware, is the Hot New Musical on Broadway right now, drawing Barack Obama and Beyoncé and essentially every other famous person. It's also making its way into New York City high school classrooms, because it's a musical about American history, and what better way to learn about history than musicals? Entertainment and history, finally in perfect harmony.
This education, evidently, extended past New York City public schools when the Hamilton cast performed a song at the Grammys Monday night. (If headlines are to believed, the performance was a success: "Watch the 'Hamilton' Cast Blow the Roof Off the Grammys," the Daily Beast declared. "Hamilton saved the Grammys," offered Salon.)
But to teens, it sure seemed like the show helped those who were a little fuzzy on the history of Alexander Hamilton. Namely: Was he white or what?
Our first piece of evidence: this tweet from Google:
Some teens were a bit more informed than to simply Google, "Who is Alexander Hamilton?," but got thrown off a bit by Lin-Manuel Miranda, a man of Puerto Rican descent, playing the part of Alexander Hamilton, surrounded partially by a black cast.
https://twitter.com/John_khill/status/699421108802560000
https://twitter.com/Pep1126/status/699423401962663937
https://twitter.com/Navii_xo/status/699420992641363968
For the record: Yes, Alexander Hamilton was white. Good work, teens.
Michael Rosen is a reporter for Fusion based out of Oakland.