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You've Got to Be Carefully Taught
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" (sometimes "You've Got to Be
Taught" or "Carefully Taught") is a show tune from the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South
Pacific.
South Pacific received scrutiny for its commentary regarding
relationships between different races and ethnic groups. In particular,
"You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught" was subject to widespread criticism, judged
by some to be too controversial or downright inappropriate for the musical
stage.[1] Sung by the
character Lieutenant Cable, the song is preceded by a lyric saying racism is "not born in you! It happens after you’re
born..."
Rodgers and Hammerstein risked the
entire South Pacific venture in light of legislative challenges to its
decency or supposed Communist agenda. While on a tour of the Southern
United States, lawmakers in Georgiaentertainment containing "an
underlying philosophy inspired by Moscow."[2] One legislator said
that "a song justifying interracial marriage was implicitly a threat to the American way of life."[3] Rodgers and
Hammerstein defended their work strongly. James Michener, upon
whose stories South Pacific was based, recalled, "The authors replied
stubbornly that this number represented why they had wanted to do this play, and
that even if it meant the failure of the production, it was going to stay
in."[3] introduced a bill outlawing
Cable:
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!
