Lin-Manuel Miranda Responded To Charges Of Colorism In The Casting Of “In The Heights”

In The Heights, the new movie musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) and directed by Jon Chu (Crazy Rich Asians), did a bad job of representing the racial diversity of the Washington Heights, New York neighborhood in which it is set. On that fact there seems to be no argument. And it’s not just something the nebulous “internet” is saying either. Charges of colorism and a lack of dark-skinned Afro-Latinx representation grew to a crescendo over the weekend after Jon and cast members Melissa Barrera (who is Mexican) and Leslie Grace (above, who is Afro-Latina) were asked about it an interview with Felice Léon of The Root. It did not go well. So now Lin’s released a statement himself acknowledging that “in trying to paint a mosaic of this community, we fell short.” Somewhere Gina Rodriquez is thanking her lucky stars she can’t sing and gets a free pass on this mess.

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