Six Dr. Seuss books won’t be published over racist imagery
Dr. Seuss became the latest target of “cancel culture” Tuesday when six of his children’s books were yanked from publication because of their alleged racism.
The company that oversees the publishing of Dr. Seuss’s works said it scrapped the six books — “If I Ran the Zoo,” “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “The Cat’s Quizzer’’ — because they “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”
“We believed that it was time to take action,” DSE told The Post in a statement.
“We listened and took feedback from our audiences including teachers, academics and specialists in the field, too, as part of the review process.”
The move came on what would have been the 117th birthday of the late author — who has traditionally been feted by schools across the country March 2 as part of “Read Across America Day.”
President Biden even avoided mentioning Dr. Seuss in the traditional annual presidential proclamation Monday marking “Read Across America Day.”
While Dr. Seuss — whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel — remains one of the world’s most popular children’s authors three decades after his death, his books have come under fire in recent years for how they portray black people, Asian people and other groups.
“If I Ran the Zoo,” for instance, has been panned for depicting Africans as “potbellied” and “thick-lipped,” as one biography of Seuss put it.
It also describes Asian characters as “helpers who all wear their eyes at a slant” from “countries no one can spell,” notes a 2019 paper on Geisel’s work published in the journal Research on Diversity in Youth Literature.
And “Mulberry Street,” the first children’s book Geisel published under his pen name, contains a controversial illustration of an Asian man holding chopsticks and a bowl of rice whom the text called “A Chinese man Who eats with sticks.”
“Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ catalog represents and supports all communities and families,” said DSE, which works with Penguin Random House on their publication, in an official statement.
The company — asked by The Post if there were other titles under review to be nixed — suggested there could be.
“Dr. Seuss Enterprises is committed to identifying how they can make meaningful and lasting change in their catalog and entire portfolio,’’ the group said.
“They will continue to review their catalog of books and their entire portfolio.”
DSE declined to say how much in sales was generated by each of the now-banned titles.
But the dropped books seem unlikely to curse his estate’s purse — which raked in $33 million last year, Forbes said.
One of Dr. Seuss’s stepdaughters told The Post on Tuesday that the author didn’t have “a racist bone’’ in his body, although she agrees with the books being yanked, at least for now.
— Additional reporting by Kate Sheehy
With Post wires
