Earlier this month, Dr. Seuss Enterprises withdrew the publication of six of the author’s books, 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 company said the reason for this is because the books “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” The real reason being that the works contain racist and insensitive elements. The stories blatantly show racist stereotypes against Middle Easterners (man on a camel), Asians (flaunting chopsticks, slanted eyes), and Black people (compared to monkeys).
With none of these six books being among his popular ones, what good will it do to stop publishing them now? The number of readers it would help avoid these remarks would be extremely small since these books were already mostly forgotten.
What we do know is how Dr. Seuss Enterprises is still making a profit even after being exposed. Just last year, Dr. Seuss earned $33 million dollars. In that sense, the right goal would be to make it a teachable moment instead of glossing over it.
Somiah Singh, a WJPS junior said, “It’s sad to know that an author I grew up reading is a racist, but I think it’s right to face the issue and not ignore it.”
Another WJPS junior, Alvin Zeng says, “It is a disappointment that Dr. Seuss was such a person. He should be held accountable for this.”
“Dr. Seuss Birthday Celebration” by U.S. Army Garrison Casey is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
