The business that Dr. Preserving Seuss’ legacy, announced Tuesday that six of the legendary children’s author books will no longer appear due to racist images. The move has both backfired on conservatives who call it the “cancel culture, ”And the debate over the promotion of classic but problematic books flares up again.
The announcement comes on Read Across America Day, an initiative to promote children’s reading, which falls on the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, known as Dr. Seuss.
Dr Seuss Enterprises conceded that the books – published between the 1930s and late 1970s – ‘portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.’ The decision may have caused a renewed focus on the classic works, but conversations about racism and prejudice in the authors’ books are hardly new.
“In Dr. Seuss’ books, we have a kind of sensitivity that aims to center the white child and center everyone else,” said Ebony Thomas, a professor of children’s and young adult literature at the University of Pennsylvania. said. She is the author of “The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games.”
“Dr. Seuss was shaped by a completely invasive white supremacist culture, ” Thomas said. “Even during that time, our ancestors and elders protested against racist works and produced alternative stories for our children. How do we decide what to endure and what not to endure? It is our responsibility to decide what kind of books we should put in front of children.”
The debate is complicated because it has to address the strength of classic books while taking into account the place of such stories in a world of diverse readers.
A 2019 survey of Seuss’s works found that only 2 percent of the human characters were people of color – 98 percent were white. The study showed that the portrayal of and references to black characters relied heavily on anti-blackness and images of white superiority.
In “And to Think I Saw It in Mulberry Street” a white man is shown with a whip on a colored man. In ‘If I Ran the Zoo’, a white boy holds a large gun while standing on the heads of three Asian men. “If I Ran the Zoo” also features two men from Africa wearing shirts, shoes and grass skirts while holding an exotic animal.
While the poll calls Seuss’ work “dehumanizing and humiliating” for blacks, Indigenous, Jews, Muslims and people of color, he is praised for promoting universal values in children. President Barack Obama praised the author in 2016, saying, “Theodor Seuss Geisel – or Dr. Seuss – used his incredible talent to instill in his most impressive readers universal values.”
The books that will no longer be published are: ‘When I Run the Zoo’, ‘And To Think I Saw It In Mulberry Street’, ‘McElligot’s Pool’, ‘On Beyond Zebra!’, ‘Scrambled Eggs Super !, ‘and “The Cat’s Quizzer.” The company said it came to the decision last year after months of discussion and that it is part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure that Dr Seuss Enterprises’ catalog represents and supports all communities and families. “
“I absolutely believe it’s a commitment to a better, fairer and more inclusive world of children’s literature,” said Ann Neely, professor of children’s literature at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, about the company’s decision. “Today we have so many outstanding books for children; it is not necessary to proceed with the publication of books that are now inappropriate. We should judge books for children on the basis of today’s values, not on our own nostalgia. Children need to see themselves, and others who are different from them, in an accurate and positive way. ‘
Seuss’s books have been scrutinized over the past few years.
In 2017, a Massachusetts school librarian rejected Seuss’ books by then-First Lady Melania Trump, saying they were “riddled with racist propaganda.” In the same year, a Seuss Museum in Massachusetts promised to replace a mural containing images of ‘And to Think That I Saw It in Mulberry Street’. A 2019 book titled “Was the Cat in the Hat Black?” argues that “The Cat In The Hat” is based on anti-black stereotypes and minface shows by blackface.
Apart from the beloved books, Seuss also published anti-black and anti-Semitic cartoons in which he portrayed black people as monkeys and referred to them with the N-word. According to the 2019 analysis, there are also sexism and racist depictions of Asian people. The National Education Association – which runs Read Across America – has therefore distanced itself from Seuss over the past few years.
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Criticism of Seuss works can be found as early as the 1980s. Parents and teachers today question the impact his works can have on young, impressive children. Children start having racial prejudices from the age of three, and these prejudices are determined according to the age of 7, according to a study. According to the research, children were ten years old.
“The children of today are not us. “We can not continue to give our babies the same input we had,” Thomas said. ‘We now know there are anti-Asian stereotypes in’ And to think I saw it in Mulberry Street ‘,’ The cat in the hat ‘is little,’ If we know better, we can do better. ‘
Neely added: “By today’s standards, several of his books contain illustrations that are quite racist. These outdated stereotypes are not suitable for children of today. ”
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