Dr. Seuss Enterprises, publisher of the over 60 Dr. Seuss titles, is cancelling six of the books authored by Theodor Seuss Giesel, the famed American children’s author, political cartoonist, poet, and filmmaker. Why? They are racially insensitive.
In a statement, the company wrote:
“Today, on Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, Dr. Seuss Enterprises celebrates reading and also our mission of supporting all children and families with messages of hope, inspiration, inclusion, and friendship.
“We are committed to action. To that end, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, working with a panel of experts, including educators, reviewed our catalog of titles and made the decision last year to cease publication and licensing of the following titles: 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. These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.
“Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’s catalog represents and supports all communities and families.”
Immediately, the books were labeled “out of print” at Amazon.com. They will, no doubt, become collectibles.
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was Seuss’ first children’s book published under his pen name in 1937. The story follows a boy named Marco, who describes all the imaginary people and vehicles that go by him on Mulberry Street. He spins a fantastic story to tell his father, but when he gets home, he tells what he actually saw, which was a horse and wagon.
Seuss based the sing-song rhyme in the book on the chugging of a ship’s engines, as he built the theme during a crossing to Europe.
And that is a story that no one can beat
And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street.
Geisel won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958 for Horton Hatches the Egg and again in 1961 for And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Geisel’s birthday, March 2, has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day, an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association.
Seuss was awarded two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, the Inkpot Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
There is a Dr. Seuss star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Seuss died in 1991 at the age of 87. He never had any children of his own.
Why not prove your wokeness by stopping publishing all books, burn the offices to the ground, and give all your money to BLM? Follow that by mass public ritual self humiliation.
Why not? That takes money out of their pockets and requires actual personal sacrifice.
No society can survive this crap. Which is probably the point
Will Go Dog Go be banned because cars are racist? What is racism? My genealogy traces to Europe, Asia, Africa and North America, so what am I? To quote a source discussing this stupid decision: In the story (And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street), Marco’s father told him, “Marco, keep your eyelids up/ And see what you can see.” The offended authors closed their eyes and saw only what they wanted to see – racism. It is unfortunate that, unlike Marco, they are unable to tell the truth and describe only what was actually there. They are making a political point, not a cultural one.
Will the next step of progressives be to follow the example of the French Revolution and declare that all past is gone and restart with Year One? How did that work out? We ate supper with chopsticks last night, will we be banned next?
You seem to be hung up on things being “banned.” Why?
Nobody is banning anything, so far-not that things couldn’t change if enough fools get riled up enough. Heheh!
Because things being ‘banned’ or ‘censored’ first limits my (our) freedom to make the choice to see/use it; second limits my (our) ability to ferret out the truth of events in the world; and lastly limits the ability of some (not me) to ventilate their frustration/anger in a civil manner, not by being pushed into a corner with results like ANTIFA in Portland. There is a very good movie, Mr. Jones, about censorship in the 1930s to protect the Soviets while they forced famine upon the Ukraine. In the movies, Jojo Rabbit and The Book Thief, both child protagonists unfavorably react to the mass burnings while all others cheer. This is still America, where my ancestors fought, and died, to protect my and my children’s liberty. Liberty means being able to choose what tools I use and what sources I choose to glean information (one of my Chinese daughters thinks the ‘racist’ character in ‘Mulberry Street is perfectly appropriate). On the subject of allowing people to ventilate, the perfect way to handle ‘Nazis’ is the means used in ‘The Blues Brothers’ and ‘Rat Race.’ Don’t push them underground to hatch their sinister plots, let them publicly proclaim their ridiculous extremism and receive their public ridicule. And just FYI, I also voraciously read, but more can now relate to movies than books. I believe in reading Mein Kampf and Das Kapital even though both authors were unbalanced (but still gain a following).
OK, but as I already mentioned, nobody has banned anything here and you are wigging out. Again, why? Do you always go off the deep end when some book(s) are out of print? Heheh!
Your ignorance shows no bounds. Try searching Ebay or Amazon for the books in question. Of course, you can always find Mein Kampf. But censoring is right with some simple minds.
Just go to the library!
Done with try and tell me something I don’t believe in I will tell you to your face to shove it.
Beyond crazy. It is like a pandemic of hysteria, of which Covid simply pales in comparison. With that said, check out eBay to see what an investment “And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street” is becoming, most certainly the other books as well.
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss – You got out just in time!
My favorite work of Dr. Seuss is a 1941 cartoon showing a grandmother-type reading a book “Adolf the Wolf” to children with the caption; “..and the wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones… But those were foreign children and it really didn’t matter.”
Skeetches is another great one. About how we are all the same underneath. I’ve read it to my kids many times. Dr Seuss was a man of the left, but, in spite of that, he wrote many good and thoughtful books for children.
Much of his works were for adults and were timeless.
I predict a run on Dr Suess books in the very near future. Cheers –
I am a Star-Bellied Sneetch and you are Not.
But don’t tie yourself into a knot
Sylvester McMonkey McBean
is here with his Star-Belly Making Machine…..
Let me get this straight. Dr Seuss books have been around since the first one, Mulberry street (1937). Now, all those years later, the woke MAFIA as I call them are pressuring them to actually remove six books because they feel they are hurtful and racist!?!? I have an idea.. Say no to these woke thugs!! People have been reading Dr Suess books to their children for YEARS… Now some 80 years of people NOT having any issue like this (because people were not sensitive babies) Dr Seuss Enterprise is bowing to the mob. This is the problem, and this is what is wrong. No more giving in to these animals. They are so overly sensitive they can’t read things from the past, watch movies of the past, or acknowledge things were just different back then and move on… Like the rest of us always have done all our lives. We are under attack folks.. And the only way to stop it, is to PUSH BACK and say no. No more bowing to these creatures. They want one thing. They want CONTROL… Go pound sand as they say!
to: AK / MARCH 2, 2021 “We ate supper with chopsticks last night” That is cultural appropriation!!!
It is important that we are divided in every possible way, as when we fight amongst ourselves we don’t stand up to government overreach.
This division is what has been used by rulers to maintain power for generations.
So sometimes when I go into Asian restaurants they ask if I need a fork. I say no, but my Asian son might. And you are absolutely correct that the primary purpose of politicians is to divide us. They strive for the French Revolution and sadly they might bring it on.
It makes sense coming from the Four generations (Baby Boomers, X, Millenials, Z), canceling an author established as one of the biggest literary artistic contributors. These generations have the lowest literacy level of American history of all generations.
They can’t determine which children’s and youth books have quality literary written and illustration development skills and which children’s books are just blah, like watching t.v. Yeah! Every book on New York Times bestseller list is like that watching todays TV. Those books will turn you brain to must.
The quality written and illustrated children’s books from illustrated to chapter stories is decreasing with each passing year and each passing away of children’s authors. We are lucky authors like Jan Brett is still living, but eventually the literary talents holding the bar high will be gone. There are just not enough younger writers and illustrators replacing the living literary talents. Some who have written better books have reduced their own standard to meet the challenge of engaging an illiterate generation.
Former CIA Director John Brennan confessed to MSNBC’s audience on Monday that these days he’s “increasingly embarrassed to be a white male.”
This “wokeness” craze is spreading faster than COVID and it is mutating into more demented strains daily. We need a vaccine against this developed even faster than warp speed…….
Brennan should go blackface then.
Ok all you woke people
Go to your safe/cry room and Just Stay There.
Nothing better to do today than to reread a few of Dr Seuss books and try to figure out something that would be considered racist.
Our children loved the books as did our Grandchildren. And when Great Grandchildren start arriving they will also be receiving the books.
Am also a bit perplexed that 1% of the population seems to be dictating the way we are to live.
Five of the six banned Dr.Seuss books can be found in PDF format for free at KUPDF.NET
You don’t even have to create an account or log in. I think they do use cookies.
There is also a page by page reading of the sixth banned book by a child on youtube.
I copied all of them to my desktop.
At this rate it won’t be long before the Constitution and Bill of Rights are banned.
If I read it right, Youtube authorized 15,000 volunteers to censor content. Who would volunteer to do that job? I can’t imagine anyone but people with serious personal issues.
Google probably did the same thing but won’t fess up to it.
Most of the things I’ve seen come up missing have been family oriented content from Europe and Asia … must be an ethnic cleansing.
That’s what has America chasing it’s own tail … a gang of misfits, damaged goods, sociopaths, psychopaths, and the like censoring anything which offends them, and only them.
Well said.
Democratic republic … what is not expressly prohibited, is permitted.
Socialist/Marxist/Communist … what is not expressly permitted, is prohibited.
I’m offended, they cancelled all book featuring the boy named Marco because clear an attack on Italian americans, also imaginary creatures, who will stand up for us.
In all seriousness these books were written at a time when people didn’t travel as much, didn’t own tvs, and did have computers. The depictions of people was a product of the popular consensus at the time, let’s face it in these books the depictions of asians were based on the kitchy old time chinese restaurants. Add a forward, an explanation, etc but don’t cancel classic children’s stories, it gives us an opportunity to explain the past. Whitewashing these things does nothing.
When will these absurdities stop?
This country is reminding me more and more of the images of the book burning in Europe and Russia as a very small minority dictated what people should read and say.
Our ability to use our brain to make our own decisions is what is supposed to make us superior to other life forms. What is going on now is herd or mob mentality. A very small number of dangerous extremists dictates what we can see, read and say. They Rewrite history, tear down monuments and statues, ban books, tell what we can read and think. No one has to buy, read or take literal anything in Dr. Zuess books.
Freedom means the right to think and choose what I want to read. Dr Zuess books have been valuable reading experiences for three generations of my family. I will not surrender by right to think and choose what my family or I can read. A tiny minority of exploiters and radicals can not be allowed to destroy our Country. The majority must stand up, speak out and fight back against this sickness infecting our Country.
With Apologies to Dr. Seuss
Jokes on Wokes
The statues on the county grass
Remember things from times long past
But times long past mean hurtful things
To those whose feelings are the king
It’s time to heal the wounded hearts
And make those pay who played a part
We hate the ones that try to say
The world was not as is today
That’s in the past, We’re smarter still
So bow to us and bend your will
Our way is clear
It’s Black and White
We know our path
We’ve seen the light
Oops, maybe I should have said instead
Not White but Brown and maybe Red
And maybe Pink and maybe Blue
And LGB and T and Q
So pull those hateful statues down
And loot these racist hate-filled towns
But don’t stop there There’s more to do
Lets wipe out all of history’s brew
Lets burn the books and change the plays
The Kids won’t notice anyways
We’ve taught them all with liberal schools
That stupid is the golden rule
What’s that you say… “The books you’ve banned
have chronicled your selfish plan”
“Forgetting all our foolish past
Will never make our future last”
‘It takes forgiveness, not more hate
To heal the wounds and bind our fate”
The “wokeness” of the far left is no more extreme than the “conservativeness” of the far right, with each person trying to show off how much more ideologically pure they are than the next guy.
There’s plenty of cancel culture to be found right here on MRAK – e.g. the Mayor, Ms. Murkowski, Dr. Zink, and any others who don’t toe the conservative party line.
I don’t recall any stories relating to the Mayor, Sen.Murkowski or Dr. Zink having ever been cancelled on MRAK.
In fact the photo of the naked behunkus of the former Mayor was not only “not cancelled”, but it was prominently displayed, much to the chagrin of the former mayor and to the shock and disgust of the viewing public.
I almost went blind. Ahahahahaha!
Go to Amazon and see how many “coolie Hats” and “china hats” they have listed for sale. The hypocrisy is amazing! You can buy the hat and wear it yourself but can’t look at it in a Dr. Seuss book!
I like that…”it takes forgiveness, not more hate
To heal the wounds and bind our fate.”
Dr. Seuss’ writing never hurt a soul. It’s time for Americans to stop hunting for ways to be offended by everything. All art and literature has its proper place, both in history and in our present day. If we start burning books, and erasing every, perceived, aggrieved thing from society, we do future generations a disservice from benefitting, learning and growing from our past.
America has never been perfect, but has always charted a course to become a “more perfect union.” Forgetting our roots, cancelling our past, short sells the progress we’ve made in growing beyond our mistakes.
Dr. Seuss should continue to be celebrated as an American literary genius, not erased because some liberal nitwit got offended by a cartoon sketch. A CARTOON SKETCH…
Still have all the Dr. Seuss books handed down to us for our 1 year old in 1982. Wondering if a SWAT Team of librarians will soon be kicking in our front door at midnight.
What does “librarians” have to do with this? Are you thinking they might want additional copies of those 6 books? Demand does seem to be up. Heheh!
In short
You dont want to start dictating to Artists: writers, Illustrators, film crew what their artistry can and can’t do. I seriously doubt Dr. Suess was a racist thats just the way he expressed himself and there was a worldview he was showing through his writing and illustration style. I never met an Artist who was racist. The way they express themselves through Art it sparks controversy because of where the audience member is at in their life.
I am surprised the Artists arent standing up for themselved to freely express themselves without criticism, how they see: things, people, ideas, places, and events.
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