“You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught”
Racism and South Pacific
South Pacific is also considered radical in its exposure of racial issues on the American stage… the legend of Rodgers and Hammerstein's use of the Broadway theatre to make a courageous statement against racial bigotry is the very foundation on which the work is considered a classic.
Rodgers and Hammerstein use the different backgrounds of the characters as a way of promoting racial tolerance. By offering a character who has never been a racist (Emile), one who discovers he is a racist (Cable), and one who successfully overcomes her racism (Nellie), Rodgers and Hammerstein aim to show the ways in which, through education and love, prejudice can be overcome.
On the surface South Pacific paints an extraordinarily bright picture of a human community that knows no barriers of race or culture…. Whether we are American, Tonkinese, Polynesian, or French, the play implies that as long as we all believe in the fundamental American values of romantic love, marriage, freedom, and equality, we all deserve (and can achieve) happiness.
Listen to NPR’s: Six Words: “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught”
At the time of South Pacific's release, its theme of racial and romantic tolerance was just too much for some. Some members of the military complained that "Carefully Taught" ruined the flow of the musical.
When the show went on national tour in the 1950s, two Georgia state lawmakers were repulsed after seeing it, and said a song justifying marriage between races was offensive. One of them, Rep. David C. Jones, wrote in a letter,
"We in the South are a proud and progressive people. Half-breeds cannot be proud."
“You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught”
Oscar Hammerstein introduces the song "You've Got to be Carefully Taught" from his show South Pacific during The National Conference of Christians and Jews Brotherhood Week.
Richard Rodgers plays "You've Got to be Carefully Taught" on the piano while Bill Fabric sings as the character Lt. Joseph Cable from South Pacific.
Date: February 14, 1952.
Broadway Revival performance
Matthew Morrison and Paulo Szot performs 'You've got to be Carefully Taught' from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific on Broadway
Date: April 2nd, 2008
In Hammerstein’s personal life we see abundant evidence of his desire to destroy racial prejudice. As a board member of ASCAP, he was dedicated to protecting the rights of African-American songwriters; as a diehard baseball fan, he vigorously called for the integration of Major League Baseball.
In the 1930s, Hammerstein helped found the California Anti-Nazi League. With his wife Dorothy and friend James Michener, Hammerstein helped author Pearl S. Buck found “Welcome House.” After finding mixed-race children of American servicemen were not being placed for adoption, they formed:
“…the Welcome House adoption program matched more than 7,000 orphans and children from around the globe with adoptive families in the United States. Many of the children were biracial.” (Welcome House Website)
Hammerstein’s daughter adopted two of the mixed-race children, to her parents’ delight. Thus Hammerstein’s own family was integrated!
