General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"You've got to be taught to hate"
Right now, our country, and many people in the world, are seething with hatred of "the other."
Hatred doesn't just happen. No one is born with it. You've got to be taught to hate ... whoever.
Rogers and Hammerstein wrote a brilliant song about hate in their play/film "South Pacific," more 60 years ago.
I don't know if anyone has ever stated the nature of hatred better.
Understand this, if nothing else. Hatred is a disease of the mind.
Here's a link to the clip from the film:
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=6gBGXOvzDYO2sAXsg7TQAg&q=south+pacific+you%27ve+got+to+be+carefully+taught&oq=south+pacific+you&gs_l=psy-ab.1.1.0l8.3717.10239..15775...0.0..0.111.1481.14j3......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i131.sjfSbV9EufY
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)barrier to this is a top notch education .
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Here's a direct link ...
Big Blue Marble
(5,058 posts)I have though of this song often in the last two years.
Claritie Pixie
(2,199 posts)qazplm135
(7,447 posts)People definitely are taught to hate in the specific, but I certainly believe that hatred is a fundamental human emotion that we all have the ability to express just like love, envy, hope, despair, etc.
Hatred isn't a disease in and of itself. Like any other emotion, it has its extremes and its benefits.
Hating Hitler was not a disease of the mind, it was a moral imperative.
Hating Jews is a disease of the mind.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,316 posts)many well-meaning white liberals -- to think we're not part of the problem because we have friends who are POC and we don't burn crosses in people's yards. The problem runs much deeper than individual actions toward each other -- oppression is systemic, it is a basic part of this country's infrastructure, it underpins policies and practices of the government over its lifetime, and it benefits white people. It's a violent system that must be dismantled, and it won't be until white people realize that, acknowledge how it benefits them and dedicate themselves to undoing that violence.
Gothmog
(145,086 posts)Link to tweet
People are responding so strongly to these videos because they are so emblematic of the violence that indigenous people have suffered for over 500 years in the United States. We have been raped, relocated, trafficked, separated, degraded, demoralized, and massacred by the United States government and a culture of media, economy, education, and religion that has dehumanized indigenous people for the entire history of this stolen country. Presently, this country continues to poison indigenous people by defiling our water and pumping drugs and alcohol into indigenous communities; regulate native bodies through tribal numbers and blood quantum laws; and force assimilation (culturally, spiritually).
These are tactics of genocide. An ongoing, unrecognized genocide.
These videos are a brutal reminder of a very real unfinished battle that indigenous people are still fighting. We are fighting to be acknowledged, to be counted, to be part of the future. Quite simply, we are fighting to exist.
But these videos are also a testament: a testament to the bravery, dignity, grace, strength, passion, and power of indigenous people. Leaders like Nathan are essential to the survival of indigenous people because they hold experience of our history and traditions. Indigenous elders have given their lives to protect our identities, our sovereignty, our lands, our people, our ways of being, only to be met time and time again with violence or at the very least, the smug, smirking faces of our oppressors like the boys of Covington Catholic High School.