You've got to be carefully taught ...

France Nuyen as Liat; John Kerr as Lt. Joseph Cable.

I was 12 when the film version of Richard Rodgers' and Oscar Hammerstein's South Pacific premiered in 1958 and like any self-respecting gay kid yearned for the soundtrack --- which my folks provided, on vinyl.

The song that's stuck in my head the longest is very brief, sung by USMC Lt. Joseph Cable (John Kerr) coversationally as Emile De Becque (Rosanno Brazi) looks on. Cable was in love with Liat (France Nuyen) and their interracial romance had generated controversy. The Hammerstein lyrics are, 

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 different shade

You've got to be carefully taught.

There's no doubt that the composers inserted the song to make a point, and they did --- especially in the American South of the 1950s.

It's part of the soundtrack that plays in my head each time a relevant incident of violence occurs, like the Saturday shooting at the Altman Family Chabad Community Center in Poway, California --- also the synagogue of the Poway congregation.

So much hate.

It plays in my head, too, when I see social media posts from various "friends" that express racism, Islamaphobia, antisemitism, homophobia. Violence is the logical outcome and all who share and/or express those sentiments are complicit. Who in the world raised raised these friends, quite nice on most levels, horribly twisted and deformed when encountering "the other?" Who taught them to hate?