I now know I'm not into Lin Manuel-Miranda.

The narratives Manuel-Miranda tells seem to erase Blackness, the African presence, and histories of African descendants a little too much for me. And he does all of that as some--not all-- of the same people whose histories and presence he's erased celebrate his version of mutli-culturalism, inclusion, and representation that exists without THEM or their voices.

At one point in my life, I didn't know a lot about how Latinos might relate to, resist, or formulate Blackness and Africaness--whatever one wants to call it. It's not as if I'm an expert now, but I know more than I once did.

It's deep to me that someone like me who, at one point, didn't know a lot about Afro-Latinos or Dominicans would think ItH is somehow...a fair representation. I can see myself, in the past, loving ItH for all of the reasons that people praise the movie. That makes me sad and angry because I'm a Black woman, and love learning about and encountering people who are African and African descendants wherever they are in the world.

At some point in time in my life, ItH would have invited me to traffic in the imaginary of uninformed stereotypes and ignorance about who is and who isn't Latino or Dominican. Doing so would mean I'd be unaware of how my own internalized racism and self-hatred helped me connect the dots so that I could enter the world of the ItH imaginary.

I think the color line in Manuel-Miranda's work endorses a mixed, we-are-one, tapestry of creams and shades of browns...that most definitely isn't Black. Manuel-Miranda is always really quick to tell us that *he's Latino* and "he wants to see himself" and people like him in his stories. The way that shakes out seems to wind up celebrating Whiteness and proximity to Whiteness.

These issues keep coming up in his work and people keep bringing it to his attention. And so, his ​apology rings hollow and insincere.

I really wanted to like this film, believe it or not.

It's disappointing that, for some, discussing blatant colorism and erasure is framed as harming a minority group's moment in the spotlight for representation. That's a mind game.