Sunday, November 20, 2016

What Is Diversity and Is It Right Now Welcome in the United States?

Alexander Hamilton is not a favorite founding father of mine, but he has one of the most amazing stories of any.  His story so intrigues that, as fact, it could work as a novel.  If you want to understand the founding of the United States, you've got to know Hamilton.

The hit Broadway musical, Hamilton, uses Alexander Hamilton as a vessel for a progressive message, delivering an audacious rendition of revisionist history.  The actual Alexander Hamilton is spun into a metaphor for left wing political propaganda.  If I were Mike Pence, our Vice-President elect, the ten foot pole would be a few miles short of how close I would have come to attending.  He should never have touched it.  Who does he think he is?  Was he there for entertainment, relaxation, or outreach, actually to show how diverse he was?

As many of you reading already know, Pence did attend Hamilton, was booed by many in the crowd when he entered the venue, and at the curtain call, a major cast member, Brandon Dixon, read a note from the cast intended to lecture Pence:
Vice President-elect Pence, we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us at Hamilton: An American Musical, we really do. 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, sir. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf all of us. All of us.
I draw your attention to the five words, "we are the diverse America."  What is "the diverse America"?  What did Dixon mean by that?  Some might think it obvious.  How is the cast of Hamilton diverse?  On March 22, 2016, Hamilton announced on Playbill, "Seeking NON-WHITE men and women, ages 20s to 30s, for Broadway and upcoming Tours!"  Hamilton isn't diverse either politically or racially.  Hamilton isn't diverse.  Hamilton is the antithesis of diverse.  It is as alike, similar, or the same as could be.  They call such sameness diversity.   Would they have given a similar message to a President-elect Obama?  Of course not.

Some people call what Dixon did, "free speech."  It's not free speech.  Free speech is asking to deliver the message.  The audience, Pence, agrees.  Dixon speaks.  Pence answers.  Pence couldn't answer.  He could never have hoped to answer.  He would have been booed down, violence would have followed, and the media the next day would say that Trump incited violence again.  What Dixon did was lecture Pence, like a Soviet KGB would a victim.  Pence had to "listen."  Later, he had to say he enjoyed it, which he did.  What Pence did was politics.  Trump exercised his "free speech," actual free speech by calling out the Hamilton cast for bad behavior, which it was.  It will contribute only to lose more elections.  People are sick of it.

Hamilton does not allow diversity.  For someone like Mike Pence to join the cast, he would need to keep his own political views to himself.  To start, Hamilton seeks non-white men and women.  I don't care about that, but the lack of diversity at almost every major media outlet is why you can count on almost all of them to take the very same point of view.  They aren't diverse at all.  If there were a very good word to describe their lack of diversity, I would give it, but for now, sameness.  They are all the same. If you are not the same, you are not allowed there.

The places most declaring diversity are the the least diverse.  The media.  Not diverse.  Schools and universities.  Not diverse.  Hollywood.  Not diverse.  When they say diverse, what do they then mean?  You can't express a different point of view without being punished.  That's for sure.  So what is diversity?  They aren't diverse.  They are left winged progressives, who disallow diversity.

In the media, schools and universities, and in Hollywood, you cannot be pro-life, you cannot support traditional marriage, you cannot espouse traditional roles for men and women, and you cannot promote Christianity without punishment.  Conservative economic philosophy is also unwelcome. An "inalienable right" of Dixon of Hamilton would be the right to free healthcare, the right to transgender bathrooms.  Those are what he means by rights, neither of which are inalienable.   Someone who declared a differing point of view could not co-exist at Hamilton.

I watched at RCP the clip of Saturday Night Live's (SNL) satire of the Trump presidential transition. In this bit of political propaganda under the guise of comedy, Trump supporters were lampooned as ignoramuses, the stupidest people on earth, being duped by Trump.  Trump himself is a totally stupid, con artist in the business of fooling the American people.  He has the svengali like ability to con people, yet at the same time being an incompetent fool.  Kellyann Conway (and Trump) is a joke, who is in way over her head.  SNL mocks her in a way that they themselves would call sexist if Trump were doing it, ridiculing for the way she looked.  This is really who these people are. Total hypocrites.  Democrats would likely say that SNL serves as therapy after a devastating loss.  It doesn't quite work though because these stupid people are the ones who defeated them and will now be in charge of every branch of government.

Diversity exists in this country, because it is enshrined in the United States Constitution.  The people who claim the mantle of diversity themselves are not diverse.  They don't want diversity.  They want complete homogenization, where everyone is required not only to take but also support their point of view, almost every right taken away from those who oppose them.  This is a major reason they lost the election.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. Why go to anything on Broadway?

2. Burr also fascinates. On these two, Read Vidal, Safire for fiction. Thomas Fleming for non-fiction.

3. Interesting that free speech means people now must stop and hear a street preacher out. (Kent, Remember famous Street preacher David "Rocky" Nelson at the 1987 MBBC commencement interrupting Bob Jones III repeatedly by yelling, "preach it, brother"? Ah, memories! Remember the joke about Dr. C playing shuffleboard. Not very appropriate, even 30 years later.)

Nice to run into your site after all these years.

Brian Giles

Kent Brandenburg said...

Brian,

Hi again.

Thanks for stopping by.


My point in the context is "does everyone have free speech?" How free was Pence to answer back? Legally yes. But not really free. He had to stand there and take it. At least with Bob Jones and a street preacher, no one would have fussed if BJ had said, Pipe down, or someone else spoke right back at the street preacher.

Was Dixon protected by the first amendment? Of course. But not everyone was really free. I could go on, but you, I would think, get my point at this juncture.