Canceling Dr. Seuss Means Bad News for the Rest of Us | Eastern NC Now

John Daniel Davidson of the Federalist explores the latest instance of kooky cancel culture.

ENCNow
Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation. The author of this post is Mitch Kokai.

    John Daniel Davidson of the Federalist explores the latest instance of kooky cancel culture. It involves a beloved children's author.

  • Dr. Seuss has been cancelled. Some of his work has been deemed racist, and we can't have that. On Tuesday, the entity that oversees the estate of Theodor Seuss Geisel announced it would no longer publish six of Geisel's books because they "portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong."
  • Among the works now deemed unfit for children are Geisel's first book under the pen name Dr. Seuss, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street," published in 1937, and the much-beloved, "If I Ran the Zoo," published in 1950. The former depicts a "Chinaman" character and the latter shows two men from "the African island of Yerka" in native garb.
  • There's not much point in quibbling over whether these and other such illustrations in the condemned Dr. Seuss books are in fact racist or bigoted, or whether Geisel held racist or xenophobic views. By all accounts he was a liberal-minded and tolerant man who hated Nazis and, as a political cartoonist, mocked the antisemitism that was all-too-common in America during World War II.
  • He was also a man of his era. Later in life, he regretted some of his political work during the war that stereotyped Japanese Americans, which, as jarring as it might seem today, nevertheless reflected attitudes that were commonplace at the time.
  • But context and nuance don't factor into the inexorable logic of the woke left, which flattens and refashions the past into a weapon for the culture wars of the present. What's important to understand is that this isn't simply about banning six Dr. Seuss books. All of Geisel's work is, in the judgment of left-wing academia, an exercise in "White supremacy, paternalism, conformity, and assimilation."

Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published )
Enter Your Comment ( text only please )




Time to Pass Constitutional Carry in North Carolina John Locke Foundation Guest Editorial, Editorials, Op-Ed & Politics Biden’s First 40 Days Don’t Look So Great


HbAD0

Latest Op-Ed & Politics

The new program will teach students how to "become an influencer and strategic storyteller who thrives in the rapidly evolving creator economy."
Republicans have consistently backed the blue and new data shows President Trump's strong leadership has led to the fastest decline in violent crime in modern American history.
Sanctuary county for the unborn resolution to be presented by Stan Deatherage at tonight’s (Monday August 3) Beaufort County commissioner meeting.
Biden autopen pardon does not protect him against state prosecution

HbAD1

“Not getting that large sum of money ... was just the final death blow to the company.”
illegal alien "asylum seeker" migrants are a crime wave on both sides of the Atlantic

HbAD2

fortunately this travesty has not yet come to Beaufort County, but it has in Virginia
now Fauci should be indicted for his previous lies under oath to Congress
Queen Garris has made a post on the Beaufort County GOP site that you should read. It is disloyal to conservative candiates key in the following: https://www.Facebook.Com/beaufortcountygop
another reason we need the SAVE America Act that Democrat politicians fear

HbAD3

 
 
Back to Top