It’s really easy not to be noticed while you’re being crammed into a school trash can, but when you mention the practice as a Broadway megastar, it’s the sort of thing people make a fuss about. No, Angela Lansbury has not been shoved into a garbage bin this weekend. We’re talking about Lin-Manuel Miranda recalling being bullied by Immortal Technique while chatting on WTF with Marc Maron.
The Hamilton mastermind may have noted that he and his former classmate have patched things up, but that hasn’t stopped fans for both parties from bumping heads a bit. Things even reached the saucy petition stage with a change.org petition calling for Manuel to be retrashed by the rapper. Immortal Technique has called for that petition to be stopped and he submitted a letter to Complex to comment on the matter and clarify what he considers to be a twisted narrative.
The other day, in response to a slew of articles that came out about my young life, Lin-Manuel Miranda and many others were gracious enough to point out the changes I have made and the humanitarian actions I have been a part of since high school. After listening to the podcast that all of this originated from, we both found the clickbait headlines misleading. It was a story about personal growth and redemption, and people twisted it into us being long-time adversaries.
We have always been very proud of each others’ success, and we even joked about these articles with each other on Twitter over the weekend. To this day, I’m appreciative to say that we are friends, we are both staunch supporters of immigrant rights, and we will continue the fight against bigotry in our respective ways. I guess I could’ve taken the humorous route and said something like, “And you thought it was hard for YOU to get tickets to ‘Hamilton.’” I just thought, that without a larger context, something could be lost in all this friendly exchange. I wouldn’t want my supporters to get the impression that anyone was trying to normalize childish bullying, especially coming from someone who now fights for others.
People have told me that back in high school they saw me as both a reckless antagonist and a well-meaning vigilante. I protected the people close to me from kids in school and fought hard against outside groups looking to herb kids. But I also had very little patience with many of the kids who went there, and I even took my anger out on those who were trying to help me. I rarely stopped to think about what that person was going through. I thought by showing strength and power, people would fear me and therefore respect me. As a result, I’m sorry to say that I hurt some of the people I should have been protecting. I ended up exacerbating a lot of my problems. And I guess, at 17, it was hard for me to see that the person I was really fighting was myself.
Both parties seem to be a-okay with how things are now so let’s move on, shall we? Otherwise we’re going to get a Lin-Manuel Miranda + Immortal Technique sketch at the American Music Awards (or somewhere similar) that will feel super uncomfortable.
(Via Complex)
