Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton includes a moment where the title character and Lafayette meet at center stage and realize that victory in the revolution is not far. Slapping each other five, they declare that “immigrants, we get the job done”.
This is a reference to the fact that both men were born outside what would soon become the US. Without their efforts, there might not have been a US. At the same time, the line comments on today’s US; a place made and held together by immigrants, but where being an immigrant has become, for many, something bad.
Later in the same song, the revolution is won at the Battle of Yorktown. Black soldiers and white soldiers together wonder if the victory means freedom. The character of George Washington, poignantly played by an African American actor named Christopher Jackson, declares from the background: “not yet”. These words can mean several things at this point, but there is also an obvious allusion to the fact that the revolution’s end did not mean freedom for many of the people in the new country.
Miranda has produced a music video using an international cast of hip hop stars. The lyrics build upon the aforementioned parts of his musical to both paint the image of immigrant and refugee life as well as to make the argument for their essentialness. This is an important statement at any time, but particularly in today's US. This Rolling Stone article outlines more details of the song and the projects Miranda is developing in conjunction.
This is a reference to the fact that both men were born outside what would soon become the US. Without their efforts, there might not have been a US. At the same time, the line comments on today’s US; a place made and held together by immigrants, but where being an immigrant has become, for many, something bad.
Later in the same song, the revolution is won at the Battle of Yorktown. Black soldiers and white soldiers together wonder if the victory means freedom. The character of George Washington, poignantly played by an African American actor named Christopher Jackson, declares from the background: “not yet”. These words can mean several things at this point, but there is also an obvious allusion to the fact that the revolution’s end did not mean freedom for many of the people in the new country.
Miranda has produced a music video using an international cast of hip hop stars. The lyrics build upon the aforementioned parts of his musical to both paint the image of immigrant and refugee life as well as to make the argument for their essentialness. This is an important statement at any time, but particularly in today's US. This Rolling Stone article outlines more details of the song and the projects Miranda is developing in conjunction.
