This article was written by Isaac Yebio of Walter Johnson High School
Theodor Seuss Geisel, more famously known by his pen name Dr. Seuss, is one of the most iconic children’s authors of all time, with nearly 600 million copies of his works being sold worldwide and translated into 20 different languages. His rise to fame in the late 1930s was marked by his fantastical and whimsical writing style, along with stylish cartoons and drawings that drew in readers of all ages. Some of his most famous works include The Cat in The Hat, Horton Hears a Who, Green Eggs and Ham and How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
Dr. Seuss’s works earned him global praise and adoration along with numerous accolades, such as the Lewis Carol Shelf Award. His work spawned off multiple animated adaptations and live-action feature films, all with varying success and influence. The broadway musical Seussical was also made, adapting the many stories he wrote as an author. Overall, he published 60 books during his career.
However, on Mar. 2, 2021, Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced multiple titles would be discontinued for the “portrayal of peoples in hurtful and wrong ways.” The portrayals referred to in the statement are about repeating racist caricatures throughout Dr. Seuss’s works. The six discontinued titles were And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super! and The Cat’s Quizzer.
The news shocked the country, and conservative groups were quickly upset by the discontinuation. Many lashed out over social media and blamed cancel culture for targeting the franchise and getting the books discontinued. Others went as far as claiming this was an attempt to ban books, which was stoked by Fox News's Tucker Carlson, who criticized an apparent culture war being sought after by the American people.
Throughout all this discourse on whether the discontinuation is a beneficiary or pejorative, numerous fabrications have been painted around the story, primarily about the cancel culture that purportedly instigated the decision to end the book's printing. There was no commencing act that influenced Dr. Seuss Enterprises to make the decision; they chose to do it out of their own volition and content choice, despite what conservative groups may say.
Furthermore, the bigoted and discriminatory caricatures present in Seuss’s work should be criticized, even if they were made in a time when it was considered socially acceptable. His work displayed heavy tones of sinophobia and anti-blackness that permeate the minds of young readers globally. Even if instilled ex post facto, we can recognize and condemn these kinds of portrayals to help create safer environments for kids of color.
His works often depicted individuals of Chinese descent as racist caricatures, most prominently in And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street with the character “the Chinaman,” a stereotypical yellow-skinned, long-ponytailed Asian man holding chopsticks and a bowl of rice. This portrayal draws heavily from the Yellow Peril, a racist belief that people of Eastern-Asian descent pose a threat to the western world. Dr. Seuss also depicted Black people as apes and caricatures from minstrel shows. In Mulberry Street, he shows a colored man getting whipped by a white man.
While it’s important to recognize Dr. Seuss’s impact as a writer and an artist, it’s also important to recognize his view of the world that he projected onto his work, and its damaging effects on people of color today. Racism is not a minor character flaw or insignificant grievance, but a serious matter that should be handled laboriously and with pragmatic measures.
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