| re: Randy Rainbow’s old, racist, and transphobic tweets resurface | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 11:42 am EDT 08/20/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Randy Rainbow’s old, racist, and transphobic tweets resurface - Chromolume 09:06 pm EDT 08/19/20 | |
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| ****I once had a very odd but interesting conversation about "Carefully Taught" with a small group of high school students I was teaching. Some of them were saying they felt the song was racist, and I realize that they were hearing the lyric in the opposite way that it was intended, It makes me wonder how many other people have misconstrued the meaning of the song. It all comes down to syntax. Is the lyric "you've GOT to be taught" or is it "you've got to be TAUGHT"? Obviously in context, Hammerstein was going for the latter choice - that racism is taught. But the kids were hearing the "got" as an imperative - as if Cable were advocating being taught that way (you've GOT to be taught to do this). It was the first time I realized the lyric could indeed be heard that way.**** That's fascinating. Of course, given the way the lyrics are set to the music, one could say that the words "got" and "taught" are given equal emphasis, so there's really no help there if you feel it's necessary to stress "taught" over "got" (and I understand why you feel that way). My first reaction was that anyone would have to be pretty dense to interpret the song as pro- rather than anti- bigotry, though arguably it might at least partly depend on whether or not the song is experienced in the context of the show. (How did your students experience it?) That said, I remember that when I was very young, there was a public service TV commercial that used a very lovely, lyrical, wistful recording of "Carefully Taught" as sung by a female voice, played behind footage of children of all races playing together, to make the anti-bigotry point. In that case, I had no trouble immediately understanding the meaning of the song outside of the context of SOUTH PACIFIC, though of course I would say the footage and the context of the commercial itself helped greatly. Hey -- I just looked for the commercial on YouTube, and here it is! It was for the NYC Commission on Human Rights. |
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| Link | "You've Got to be Taught" -- NYC Commission on Human Rights TV commercial, 1970 |
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