Miku Binder Thomas Jefferson

ask-crammaster-ham was an Hamilton askblog that was active for a brief period in September 2017. The Tumblr blog created the infamous, widely-circulated character sheet known as "Miku Binder Thomas Jefferson", "weeaboo drug dealer Thomas Jefferson," or variations of other details such as the former drug dealer, former cocaine-addict, black, bisexual, transgender, furry Thomas Jefferson wearing a Hatsune Miku binder and "I met God. She's Black" shirt.
The premise of the blog was a Modern College Alternative Universe of the characters from the musical. "Crammaster Ham," refers to Alexander Hamilton, who in this AU is an overworked college student who is a master of cramming/last-minute studying. The blog was run by Umbrony (umbronydraws on Tumblr), a popular fanartist in Hamilton fandom who had also created animatics. Asks to the blog received responses in the form of art. 
Blog Description: "always tired, livin' that coffee life. features minor and major recurring characters, but mainly centered around the day-to-day to life of a. ham in a modern setting, a law major from King's College."
The character designs on the blog were based on the original Broadway cast members of Hamilton, as was custom in the fandom, and their characterization was significantly different from both the musical and real history, involving changes to the personalities, ethnicities, nationalities, sexual orientations, gender identities, and more. The account quickly gained attention and criticism for its depictions of characters from a musical which was based on historical events. The backlash was so strong that the blog was active for less than a month in September 2017.
In particular, the blog's character sheets, which served as overviews introducing the AU versions of the characters, became widely circulated on the internet and mocked. The Hamilton musical had cast people of color to play historical figures who were white, and it was common practice within Hamilton fandom, like any fandom, to have different headcanons about characters' identities, and to diverge further in AUs. However, the backlash to ask-crammaster-ham came at a time of widespread controversy over the distinction, and lack thereof, between the canon of the musical and real world history/RPF.
==ask-crammaster-ham Gallery==
Image:Ask-crammaster-ham.png|The first character sheet, for Alexander Hamilton.
Image:John Laurens Character Sheet.jpg|Second character sheet, for John Laurens.
Image:Jefferson Character Sheet.jpeg|The "weeaboo drug dealer Thomas Jefferson" character sheet.
Image:Philip Hamilton Character Sheet.jpg|Fourth character sheet, for Philip Hamilton.
==ask-crammaster-ham Blog History==
Umbrony posted art of her Modern College AU on her main account before creating the separate ask blog for the concept#maria-reynold (archived) on ask-crammaster-ham; see second post by umbrony, Sep 7 2017. reblogged by ask-crammaster-ham Sep 9 2017 and had made other art imagining Hamilton characters with different gender identity and sexualities (and patterned binders).hi this is my modern philip hamilton they’re genderfluid and they have a custom binder like their dad and are accident prone hi by umbronydraws, 18 AUG 2017 The first post, on September 9, 2017, was the character sheet for Alexander Hamilton, captioned "meet alexander hamildeadinside / ask him anything! more sheets coming soon." The sheet showcased the character's design and included facts a such as nationality, gender, sexuality, pronouns, college Major, and miscellaneous information about his life and relationships within this AU. Hamilton was introduced as an overworked, genderfluid, bisexual Law Major.
The blog's first response to a negative ask was a day later: "What the fuck was going through your head when you though it would be a good idea to make a historical figure gender fluid? Alexander Hamilton was cis! The Hamilton fandom is so toxic with LGBT garbage like this it makes me sick."asked: asked: (archive), Sep 10 2017 The blog boosted responses that there were no issues with imagining different gender identities and disregarding canon in an AU,baifdvak asked: "Hey last ask, what the fuck was going through your head where you thought it would be okay to disrespect gender identity? Yes, Alexander doesn't have to be genderfluid, but he doesn't HAVE to be cis either. AU (alternate universe) is a type or form of in which canonical facts of setting or characterization in the universe being explored or written about are deliberately changed. Direct definition. Keep your opinions to yourself. They are meant to be shared respectfully, not shoved thoughtlessly.", Sep 11 2017 and that some were happy to see their own identity represented by the blog.
The next two character sheets, for John Laurens and Thomas Jefferson, were posted on September 11th. The description read, "here’s t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶u̶r̶r̶i̶e̶s̶ 'hey man… can u bum me a cig' and 'the one uncle nobody invites to the family reunion but SOMEONE keeps telling him where it is anyways'." John Laurens was a homosexual, panromantic Music Theory Major, stoner, and the single father of a daughter, Frances, from his ex-wife, Martha. Frances and Martha are the names of the real John Laurens's daughter and ex-wife, who were not characters in the musical. Thomas Jefferson was a transgender, bisexual Art Education Major who was a furry, "OBSESSED with anime," a fan of K-Pop and J-Pop, and "John's former drug dealer..." He was drawn wearing a chest binder with a Hatsune Miku pattern print and a shirt that reads, "I MET GOD. SHE'S BLACK."
At some point in September, a character sheet for Philip Hamilton was posted on Umbrony's Instagram, @rockruffian, but does not appear to have been posted on ask-crammaster-ham.
===Response to Backlash===
The Jefferson and Laurens character sheets immediately received a negative response which the blog's owner found discouraging. On September 12, ask-crammaster-ham posted an official statement, response to discourse. The post included:
* response to accusations of "homosexual erasure" because John Laurens was homosexual and panromantic
* explanation of the blog's attempts to represent a diversity of identities and be inclusive:
* reference/comparison to Lin Manuel Miranda's leaving Tumblr - "this is probably why lin left tumblr. he probably didn’t appreciate randos like you telling him how to run his play and write for his characters."
* prediction that everyone will leave Tumblr due to it being a community that will "relentlessly degrade you, your work, your thoughts, and your opinions"
* warning that anyone who tries to start discourse will be blocked
* statement that the askblog would continue to post
The blog continued to respond to asks that commended it for its diverse representation and encouraged them to ignore the hate. The blog-runner responded to an accusation of homophobia and anti-blackness by saying that they were gay and black.borzboy asked: are you having fun making slave owners into "quirky relatable characters" while beign full on antiblack and homophobic, Sep 22 2017 Hercules Mulligan was also introduced as a nonbinary character.Seeing how you're all for equal representation, and me being so myself, I wanted to ask if any the characters in this au are nonbinary?, Sep 14 2017 Other Hamilton fans drew fanart (archived) of ask-crammaster-ham's character designs.
On September 15, 2019, blog-runner Umbrony posted on her main Tumblr, pretty soon, the hamilton fandom is going to have little to no artists of color. and here’s why. The post expressed further unhappiness about the reaction to her art and contained screenshots of how the Thomas Jefferson character sheet had been spread on Instagram. 
The blog reached 1,000 followers on September 23, 2017,ALSO THANK YOU GUYS SM FOR 1000 FOLLOWERS!!!!, Sep 23rd 2017 but beyond responding to support, did not update after that date. Umbrony stopped drawing art for or interacting with Hamilton fandom, but continued to create other fanart.
===2020===
ask-crammaster-ham was deleted sometime around early 2020.
In June 2020, Umbrony spoke out against the ACAB movement on Twitter. Her comments were received poorly, then attracted widespread mockery when people realized she was the creator of Miku Binder Thomas Jefferson. This led to a resurgence of attention around Umbrony's Hamilton art; Miku Binder Thomas Jefferson became more widely known and memed than it had before. Umbrony deleted all of her accounts but later revived her Twitter to post an apology and announce that she was "letting the Umbrony alias die, and taking a very, VERY long break from social media."@Umbrony on Twitter. Thread posted 30 June 2020.
==Positive Reception==
Those who received the blog and its premise positively were those in Hamilton fandom who had already been participating in similar headcanons and AUs of the musical's characters. They are generally those who believe the canon of the musical can be almost fully separated from real history, and that enjoyment of the musical canon in no way romanticizes or minimizes issues in real-world history.
The blog received a few works of fanart based on the designs in the character sheets, which ask-crammaster-ham reblogged.#art for me on ask-crammaster-ham However, some were later deleted by the OPs. Some, even while disagreeing with the premise of the headcanons for historical figures, note that the art is good, and they would see no problem with these character sheets if they were Original Characters.
Many also opposed the attacks against Umbrony, which were often personal and bigoted.
Supporters of Umbrony made posts detailing the harassment Umbrony had received:
* re: jay/umbronydraws, Sep 24 2017 (archived)
* what happened to jay/@umbronydraws, Sep 25 2017
==Criticism, Spread, & Mockery==
 
The character sheets from the blog were circulated far beyond Tumblr and the fandom, evidenced by the fact that the original posts on ask-crammaster-ham each have less than 2,000 notes, but reposts of the images on different sites have thousands of notes and responses.24 Mar 2019 by flarecafe: Therapist: Weeaboo drug dealer Thomas Jefferson isn't real, he can't hurt you.
Weaboo drug dealer Thomas Jefferson:
Criticism was related to the widespread controversy over whether or not fans were properly separating the musical characters from their historical bases, whether or not separating them is truly possible, and if the fandom or the musical romanticized or minimized historical atrocities. The attitude of Hamilton fandom was often seen as delusional or harmful in how it ignored real history and the actions of real people.
Some criticism was also directed at the sexualities shown on the character sheet for using the split attraction model, which many consider to be a problematic way of viewing LGBTQ+ identities.
==="weeaboo drug dealer Thomas Jefferson"===
The most widely circulated image from the blog was Thomas Jefferson's character sheet. The image was memed and spread so widely that most who have seen it do not know its source or context. At times, people have been shocked to discover that there are more character sheets than just the Thomas Jefferson one.
Edits:
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The image is widely used to exemplify the cringe and excessiveness of Tumblr, Hamilton fans, Social Justice Warriors (although the artist themself blames SJWs for the hate they received), and/or fandom/internet culture in general.
* on Reddit, 2019
Reddit Discussion: “I Met God. She’s Black” ... Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner. The artist has an entire collection of these with different historical figures, it’s more than a little weird on r/Cringetopia, 2019
===Criticism of Hamilton Fandom===
Many posts that criticize Hamilton fandom and vaguely reference "fanart of genderfluid hamilton" and "bisexual uwu thomas jefferson" can be interpreted as being about ask-crammaster-ham's art or about trends in the fandom – ask-crammaster-ham is far from the only account to post such content.example: by ask-the-poly-rev-squad, 2017-09-24: another ask blog featured LBGT modern AU Hamilton charactersexample: by queerheadcanonoftheday, Jan 18th 2017: "Today’s Queer Headcanon of the Day is: Alexander Hamilton is a bisexual trans man. Hercules Mulligan is biromantic and asexual. Lafayette is pansexual and genderfluid. John Laurens is gay. They are all in a queerplatonic relationship, and Hamilton and Laurens are dating."
==References==
Category:Hamilton
Category:2017 Memes
Category:2017 Tumblr
Category:Role Playing