Monday, July 06, 2020

Calls Mount From New Woke to Cancel RuPaul, 'Hamilton'


You'd be hard-pressed to find a gay man who cares less about "RuPaul's Drag Race" or musical theater than me. (After being duped into seeing the single-entendre-fest "Book of Mormon" with the promise that "this one is different," I have no desire to see "Hamilton" for fear of forfeiting another three hours of my life that I will never get back.) But I have to say, the progressive movement is getting dangerously close to collapsing under the weight of its own wokeness lately in its criticism of these two productions, both of which were universally loved and praised until now. In normal times I’d feel that these people are at worst misguided-but-well-meaning attention whores. But as we approach November, my fear is that Joe Biden is always one (perceived) misstep away from having these people sabotage the 2020 presidential election -- if he were to, say, select Elizabeth Warren as his running mate. Liz is actually polling higher with African-Americans than some of the top black contenders, yet I feel like it's the same white people criticizing RuPaul and "Hamilton" who will lead the charge against Biden if he doesn't do what THEY think is best for black people -- never mind that black people are perfectly capable of deciding what they want -- starting with the old white guy at the top of the ticket. I know your heart is in the right place. And maybe some of your complaints are valid. But please take it down a notch until after the election, where we are well-positioned to win but will need huge turnout to offset whatever new voter-suppression tactics the administration unveils next. We truly cannot afford to have you fuck this up for U.S.









2 comments:

DJ said...

"both of which were universally loved and praised until now."

Well, no. People have had these issues with Hamilton from the beginning, but it was so well-loved and untouchable that no one really listened.

JP Aragon said...

These woke people are out of their mind! You are going to attack a Broadway musical written by a Latino playwright-composer featuring Black and Latino actors in roles they would get if the author had been white. And what is their other option play animals in "The Lion King" ? Ken you might not be into musical theater but you must see Jonathan Groff as King George- he steals the show.