The shallow reading of this movie is that it is a simple race drama, of black victims and white villains, dated at its release and even less relevant to the America of today which, for all of its faults, no longer allows pogroms against its racial minorities.

I obviously think that’s the wrong way to look at it. 

When I watch Rosewood, I see a film preoccupied with one big idea: the social reinforcement and reproduction of racism through communal…

I don’t think I have anything original to say about HAMILTON as musical theater. It’s a real achievement! Fun, exciting, innovative and, at points, genuinely moving. 

I do have a few thoughts on HAMILTON as a historical narrative and as an ideological project, and I’ll use my review to think out loud on both subjects.

The HAMILTON narrative depends on stripping the American founding of much of its context. The only way to present the titular hero as a striving…