Seuss ran the gamut of racist depictions, from African-American people as monkeys to Japanese characters with yellow faces and “rice paddy” hats. In his political cartoons, which appeared in a New York newspaper in the early 1940s, Dr. When Charlie says, “But there must be people working there,” Grandpa Joe responds, “Not people, Charlie. Similarly, in the first edition of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa-Loompas are African pygmies who have been “rescued” by Willy Wonka and enslaved in his factory. In her original telling of In the Dark, Dark Wood, Noddy is carjacked by three golliwogs who trap him, strip him naked, and leave him crying. Seuss titles recognizes that he was writing in a time and place when racial stereotyping was commonplace and frequently the focus of humor.Įlsewhere, controversy over golliwogs as racist caricatures was played out in Enid Blyton’s Noddy stories. Instead, these books present an opportunity to build awareness and teach young readers about history and context.Ĭhildren’s books are among those most often banned or censored. Seuss books should - or can - be scrapped altogether. Nevertheless, pervasive racial imagery and subservient typecasting remain. Instead of helpers who “wear their eyes at a slant,” the helpers “all wear such very cool pants.” Seuss Day in 2019, removes the racist taunt. “People will stare,” Gerald marvels, “And they’ll say, ‘What a sight!’” Chinese “helpers” with “eyes at a slant” hunt exotic creatures in the mountains of Zomba-ma-Tant.Ī reading recorded for Dr. In If I Ran the Zoo, young Gerald McGrew builds a “Bad-Animal Catching Machine” to capture a turbaned Arab for his exhibit of “unusual beasts”. However, many will recognize If I Ran the Zoo and And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, which have been criticized for racist caricatures and themes of cultural dominance and dehumanization. Seuss books.įew would know some of the discontinued titles, like McElligot’s Pool and The Cat’s Quizzer. Seuss’s 117th birthday, the company that protects the late author’s legacy announced its plan to halt publishing and licensing six out of more than 60 Dr. However, on March 2 – which would have been Dr.

Parents still grapple nightly with the tongue-twisters of Fox in Socks, Horton Hears a Who! or Hop on Pop, and try their best to keep their eyes open through a 20th reading of Green Eggs and Ham.

Seuss books clutter children’s bedrooms around the globe. Laying aside a multimillion-dollar publishing business, tattered copies of Dr. The author, himself, is dead for one thing, which is about as cancelled as a person can get.” – Philip Bump

Hop on pop cancel culture