You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught

My mom and sister and I finished watching South Pacific the other night. We’d started it a while ago, after I gave it, along with two other classic Rodgers and Hammerstein DVDs, to my sister for her birthday, but with the busyness of life lately we’d hadn’t yet seen the second act.

Though I thought I knew the show well, I was struck anew by the power of this musical—the soaring, achingly beautiful melodies; the creative and layered story (in the process of plotting another novel myself, I’m very tuned into how difficult—and important—that is!); the World War II setting in the South Pacific, especially intriguing to me right now as the Navajo Code Talkers, who figure in my newest story, were so integral to the war effort on those very islands–though unmentioned in the film, as their existence was not declassified until ten years after the movie’s release.

But the part that touched me deepest was perhaps the shortest song in the musical, sung by young Lieutenant Joe Cable, though not his signature “Younger than Springtime.” The acting of all the leads blew me away, but I was particularly struck by how the actors playing Joe and nurse Nellie Forbush communicated the struggles of two white, sheltered young people from middle America, now far from home and wrestling with their conceptions and prejudices about people who looked different from them.

Though widowed Frenchman Emile deBecque loves Nellie, she refuses to marry him when she learns his first wife—and the mother of his two children—was Polynesian. She tearfully protests that she can’t help this prejudice, that it was born in her. When Emile demands an explanation of this attitude from Joe Cable, the young lieutenant (facing his own personal crisis over falling in love with a Polynesian girl) retorts that no, it’s not born in you—“You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught.”

With a heart heavy over the turmoil in our nation this past week after the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case, tears stung my eyes as I watched this song…a remarkably brave one for the 1950s. And I thought how much of it is still relevant today…that still, we are taught to hate and fear, to be afraid of people whose skin is a different shade…maybe not as explicitly as in the past, but it still happens, somehow. Yet that brought hope to me in a way, for if racism is taught, the opposite can be taught too.

I don’t pretend to know what is the ultimate “right answer” to this tragic case, or just what happened that night in Florida. But this week has driven home to me hard that no, we are not finished with racial healing in this nation. This case has exposed unhealed wounds that are very real. Whether Trayvon was a sure victim of racial profiling or not, the fact is that racial and other appearance-based profiling does happen. We all do it, I think, in one way or another, whether we want to or not, and whatever the color of our skin.

What has bothered me the most is some people’s reaction to those who are hurt and upset by this verdict. One of my closest friends, who is black, confirmed this as the part most hurtful to her—the lack of understanding. It’s not just a question of who was ultimately to blame in the shooting, though it is a tragedy of a young life cut short whichever way you look at it. But it’s being willing to see through others’ eyes, and see the real wounds behind this outcry. Just as when I blow up at something that may

seem cut-and-dried from another person’s point of view, it probably means I have an unhealed hurt connected somehow, so this past week’s turmoil should tell us, if nothing else, that we have work to do on racial relations in America.

And it seems that those who should lead in reaching toward healing, in holding out our hands to one another, especially across the “color line,” are God’s people. Followers of the Lord Jesus, who prayed Himself—and so I know it will be answered, someday:

“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” ~John 17:22-23

So let’s ask the Lord to work, in this sensitive time in our nation. Let’s ask Him to bring good out of heartbreak and hate and use it, somehow, to draw His people together. To help us be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry…to be willing to see from another’s perspective. As my friend has reminded me before, racial division, and the striving for reconciliation, is at its core a spiritual battle. It’s not one that can be solved by laws or reason alone, or even being “carefully taught.”

But He is working. I see it all the time.

9 comments on “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught”

Jennifer Major says:

July 24, 2013 at 2:04 pm

I love South Pacific and I absolutely adore “You’ve Got to be Taught”.
I grew up in a mixed race family, and trust me, I have heard some unbelievable stuff.
Truly ridiculous.

I loved this post.

- Kiersti says:
  
  July 24, 2013 at 3:20 pm
  
  I’d love to hear some of your stories sometime, Jennifer! Thanks for sharing.
  
Anonymous says:

July 24, 2013 at 8:51 pm

This post was one worthy of an impromptu family devotion moment. We muted the T.V. and gathered around the computer to read and reflect upon your words. “If racism can be taught, then surely the opposite can too…”

Love this post, love the awareness you’re sparking, and love you too!

- Kiersti says:
  
  July 24, 2013 at 10:52 pm
  
  Thank you, friend.
  
  I love you–and your family too, even though I haven’t met them!
  
Kristine says:

July 30, 2013 at 10:39 am

My sister is angry by the verdict for Trayvon. You said it so well what I was unable to say to her I am going to send her your article. Thanks so much!

- Kiersti says:
  
  July 31, 2013 at 1:04 am
  
  You’re welcome, Kristine–thanks so much for sharing! God bless you.
  
Carla says:

August 1, 2013 at 1:50 pm

Kiersti, our mutual friend Sandra shared your post with me. Sister, your words were a healing balm for me, especially the encouragement to be “willing to see through others eyes.” And you are so right, “Racial division, and the striving for reconciliation, is at its core a spiritual battle.” Thank you for sharing these words of healing.

- Kiersti says:
  
  August 1, 2013 at 2:43 pm
  
  Carla, thank you so much for sharing. Your words brought tears to my eyes. I was also moved by your recent blog, and the comments following it (Sandra sent our critique group the link). Anyway, thank you, sister, for connecting. I hope we can continue to do so…the Lord bless you.
  
Friendship as a Key to Racial Reconciliation | Kiersti Plog says:

May 7, 2014 at 11:31 pm

[…] alleged remarks has created a bit of a media uproar. For me, it’s been another reminder, as with Trayvon Martin, that while we’ve made progress, racial tensions are far from resolved in America. And it’s […]

9 comments on “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply