Look, Hamilton is undeniably a fantastic musical — a modern classic, if you will. However, Hamilton fever has infected a great portion of our society, from your midwestern aunt to the entire staff of BuzzFeed.
Despite Hamilton’s widespread success, it does have some issues: Although the musical stars people of color, it manages to erase them from the narrative of the Revolutionary War, conveying a very whitewashed history of the United States. And now it might delay a woman finally being on U.S. currency.
Time reports, “Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had been dropping public hints that he was looking to keep Alexander Hamilton in the center portrait on the front of the bill, and finding another place to put a woman.”
Sofia — the 9-year-old girl who instigated the push to put a woman on currency when she wrote a letter to the president — told Time, “I think that putting a woman on the back of the bill would make women seem less important. You don’t pay a lot of attention to the back of the bill.”
Barbara Ortiz Howard, the woman who founded Women on 20s — an organization that attempted to get a woman to replace notably awful president Andrew Jackson on the $20 — said that keeping Hamilton front and center would undermine the whole idea of putting woman on currency.
Howard told Time, “Our first representation in over 100 years and this is going to be our representation? It’s akin to being on the back of the bus.”
Thanks, Obama Miranda.
