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Talking to children about racial bias
Author(s) -
Knopf Alison
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the brown university child and adolescent behavior letter
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1556-7575
pISSN - 1058-1073
DOI - 10.1002/cbl.30209
Subject(s) - lyrics , prejudice (legal term) , racism , musical , psychology , gender studies , history , sociology , social psychology , art , literature
In 1949, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific was performed for the first time. One song — “You've Got to Be Carefully Taught” — is preceded by the line that racism “is not born in you — it happens after you're born.” The lyrics were a condemnation of the prejudice of the time — not only the time depicted in the story, but in the postwar United States, where many believed that interracial marriage was a threat to America. (See excerpt of the lyrics at the end of this article.)