Our Guthrie Theater has done it again. For the umpteenth time in its storied history, the Guthrie has told a classic story in a compelling way. And "compelling" isn't the half of it. "South Pacific" as rendered by director Joseph Haj and his troupe is simply brilliant, not to mention stunning. And, by the way, the show was delightfully entertaining.
As if all of that is not enough, we hit the jackpot by way of a post-play discussion. The performers, now in civvies, were engaging and responsive, funny and self-deprecating.
And yet … another sort of deprecation circulated throughout the theater. Together, the players and members of the audience put down the past. At the same time, we semi-celebrated the present, even as we anticipated the future with a sense of progressive-minded hopefulness.
Yes, racism was a terrible problem in the American past. Yes, it remains an ongoing problem today. And, yes, this show, at least in part, is about doing something to help assure that it will be less of a problem in the future.
And while we were at it, we Minnesotans nicely put down Southerners for their archaic, outmoded and otherwise wrongheaded racial views. Or at the very least we felt sorry for them. Second, while we were at that, we also felt sorry for the son of Mainline Philadelphia who failed to summon the courage to let love triumph over all. For that matter, he may be worth (or not worth) putting down as well.
Lt. Joe Cable is, of course, that son. It is he who unleashes the song that amounts to Rodgers and Hammerstein at their un-Sam Goldwynlike best. Or worst. It was Goldman who famously cautioned against films with a message by advising message-minded producers to send a telegram instead.
Cable's message in "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught" is unmistakable:
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.
Hate? To be sure, it exists in the hearts and minds of racists. But it isn't to be found anywhere in this show. Nellie Forbush, daughter of Little Rock, Ark., hates? Hardly. She has her fears, to be sure. But hate? Not at all.
Unlike Nellie, Joe Cable fears and hates. But his hatred is directed at the existence of racism, not at people of different races.
Cable goes on to remind us that …
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.
The assumption behind the play is that white Americans of the mid-20th century had an awful lot of unlearning to do. The assumptions behind the post-play discussion seemed to be twofold: 1) that a good deal of unlearning has been done and remains to be done; and 2) that a good deal of unlearning will always have to be done.
In any case, those doing this brand of careful teaching see themselves as enlightened progressives, while those in need of learning are cast as various shades of unenlightened Neanderthals.
And yet today, more often than not, it is the progressive who is preoccupied with race. I refer to progressives who oppose white adoptions of minority children. Or to progressives who favor race-based college admissions and endorse racially segregated housing on college campuses. Or to progressives who automatically see "disparate impacts" as evidence of racism. Or to progressives who excuse — or turn a blind eye to — the otherwise inexcusable tactics of Black Lives Matter protesters who shut down freeways or Black Panthers who "monitor" voting booths.
Cable is surely right that …
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.
But wouldn't it be nice, especially right here in Minnesota Nice, if we stopped looking down so nicely on allegedly benighted white Southerners. And while we're at it, we might stop looking simultaneously backward and forward with that smug sense of superiority that is invariably the trademark of those who have progressively convinced themselves that they are on the right side of history. They need to be taught as well …
They've got to be taught before it's too late
Before we all meet a terrible fate
That smugness itself can be something to hate
They've got to be carefully taught.
John C. "Chuck" Chalberg, a former college teacher, is a senior fellow at the Center of the American Experiment.
