You've got to be carefully taught. Archives

You’ve got to be carefully taught

May 16, 2014June 19, 2014 Guthrie, Kathleen Z., Minneapolis, MN, South Pacific, You've got to be carefully taught.

Kathleen Z.
Minneapolis, MN

I enjoyed your talk at the Guthrie so much. I listened to it again yesterday and was disappointed the man from Birmingham who was at the church explosion didn’t get on the edited broadcast! Here are my six words from SOUTH PACIFIC:
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

Here are the rest:

You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!

I was fortunate to grow up in a home (born in 1940) in St. Paul where we were NOT taught to hate. Maybe it had something to do with all my German grandparents who may have experienced prejudice against them during the war. I have a friend who wasn’t so fortunate. Her parents were Japanese and they were “corralled” during the war. I guess they didn’t look enough like “us” as the Germans did…

Many people groups, but one race

May 16, 2014May 16, 2014 Adam and Eve, Burlington, groups, judgmental, many people, Melissa Beth, VT, You've got to be carefully taught.

Melissa Beth
Burlington, VT

The more we focus on NOT being racist, the more we are teaching children of this society that they must see people as skin color. Children must be carefully taught to be racist. We are not born treating others differently because of their appearance. They see the emphasis in entertainment, at home, in churches, in schools and all around them. We are all from the same parents, Adam and Eve. Our actual skin color is the same with only varying amounts of melanin. Mutation has created the facial differences over thousands of years. Cultural and religious beliefs however, are things we should discuss with children. They must be taught to think logically for themselves to make wise choices and discern if what they are seeing as the norm is really what is right and good. Terrorism and hatred against innocent people, like at the Boston Marathon is unacceptable. It doesn’t mean that if the guilty party is Caucasian that all Caucasians are terrorists, but if continued offenses occur people will become judgmental of a certain type of person or a certain state. It is in our nature to want to protect lives and when our freedom to be safe is threatened we have no choice but to speak out against it. So we should teach kids to be content with whatever the color of their skin may be and not see it as a curse or as a blessing. Each is unique and created for a purpose. Each has a wonderful mind that can be used to make educated choices that will impact the future of the world, for lasting freedom.

You can’t be friends with her

January 16, 2014August 18, 2020 1960's, first experience, friends, Japanese, neighbor, Rogers & Hammerstein, South Pacific, You've got to be carefully taught.

Rosie W.
Tucson, AZ

When I was in the third grade in the sixties, my best friend and neighbor was Joyce, who was Japanese. She was wonderful. When my mother found out, she let me know, albeit gently and with compassion, that my father would be terribly hurt by my friendship because he had fought the Japanese in WWII and was wounded. I was confused, angry, mystified, outraged – but I deferred and dropped her. I am so sorry Joyce, wherever you are.

Rogers & Hammerstein: “You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear, you’ve got to be taught from year to year, it’s got to be drummed in their dear little ears, you’ve got to be carefully taught…to hate all the people your relatives hate….”

I thought we’d got further than this.

Apropos of the ‘subconscious racist’ quote.

December 16, 2013May 21, 2014 AR, hate, Little Rock, Margaret Middleton, Rogers & Hammerstein, South Pacific, subconscious racist, You've got to be carefully taught.

Margaret Middleton
Little Rock, AR

Lyric by Oscar Hammerstein, from “South Pacific”.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late, Before you are six or seven or eight To hate all the people your relatives hate, You’ve got to be carefully taught.