Read Across America -Dr. Seuss

[Anonymous]

Is there a good article describing the racism in the Seuss cannon? I also am not aware and my kids love Seuss books. They are very young so love the silly rhyming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes I hate Dr Suess. He makes up gibberish words to fit a rhyme. Many of his "stories" aren't actually stories at all, but ENDLESS ridiculous pages of rhymes with no real meaning or story behind them.

The only time I haven't wanted to poke my eyes out when reading his books is when it was helping my daughter learn to read.

As a PP said, let's celebrate Julia Donaldson who is actually quite skilled at being lyrical without making up gibberish words.

I don't think you understand the mechanics of literacy learning at all. Rhyming and rhythm are very important elements. I suspect you understand this since you understand that it was helping your daughter learn to read. Too bad she has a parent whose own narcissism and poor self-esteem won't allow her to do things for the daughter's benefit. ...poke (my) eyes out... Jeez. What a parent you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a good article describing the racism in the Seuss cannon? I also am not aware and my kids love Seuss books. They are very young so love the silly rhyming.

https://www.instagram.com/theconsciouskid/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird. I’d never heard of this before. The Sneetches is a good book about accepting those who are different.

Funny because a lot of his work is deeply racist.

Only if you want it to be.

You definitely cannot argue with the fact that his political cartoons are deeply racist....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stating that you don't like Dr Seuss, or would prefer other writers, is conceding the point that you think it is OK to ban a writer because someone has labeled him a racist.

Uh no, it means we don’t read him in our home. Because we don’t like the books. Nobody banned him. The books are not banned. Quit being annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird. I’d never heard of this before. The Sneetches is a good book about accepting those who are different.

Funny because a lot of his work is deeply racist.

Only if you want it to be.

You definitely cannot argue with the fact that his political cartoons are deeply racist....

It was a totally different era. It is amazing how little nuance people today can handle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird. I’d never heard of this before. The Sneetches is a good book about accepting those who are different.

Funny because a lot of his work is deeply racist.

Only if you want it to be.

You definitely cannot argue with the fact that his political cartoons are deeply racist....

It was a totally different era. It is amazing how little nuance people today can handle.

You understand you’re a grown adult going this hard for dr Seuss. Nobody says you can’t read Cat in the Hat all you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stating that you don't like Dr Seuss, or would prefer other writers, is conceding the point that you think it is OK to ban a writer because someone has labeled him a racist.

Uh no, it means we don’t read him in our home. Because we don’t like the books. Nobody banned him. The books are not banned. Quit being annoying.

The original post was about removing Dr Seuss from the program that was previously synonymous with him.
So now he is banned from this program(I think in LCPS it is merely the teachers were asked).
The post is not about whether you are reading Dr Seuss, in which case your complaint would be correct.
In response to subject of removing/reducing Dr Seuss because he was declared racist, if someone says they are OK with it because they don't like his work or think there are other good writers, they are conceding the attack on Seuss and validating the method of trying to get someone canceled over accusations of racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird. I’d never heard of this before. The Sneetches is a good book about accepting those who are different.

Funny because a lot of his work is deeply racist.

Only if you want it to be.

You definitely cannot argue with the fact that his political cartoons are deeply racist....

My kids don't read his political cartoons and neither do I so I don't care.

Most of the founding fathers were slaveholders, yet we still read the DOI and the Constitution. Enough with this nonsense.

[Anonymous]

I’m generally VERY liberal and an ally to minorities, but I am beginning to be very troubled by this movement to erase people and literature/art that is a product of its time without consideration of context AND the development of a human being over time.

This comment I lifted from an earlier referenced article (slj) about racism in the work or Dr. Seuss says most of what I feel:

Theodore Geisel was a Roosevelt liberal who survived the Depression by drawing cartoons. During WWII he helped create propaganda against Japanese and Nazis and isolationist Americans like Charles Lindbergh (think Steve Bannon and his fascist Italian philosopher hero). The Cat in the Hat was published in 1957. The Supreme Court didn't hear Thurgood Marshall's arguments against segregation in schools until 1954, just three years earlier. So in 1957 a liberal left-wing cartoonist is supposed to be racist against Afro-Americans because maybe he was influenced by the racist stereotypes of the 1920s when he was growing up in Massachussets? Prove it. The anti-Japanese cartoons were propaganda, for which, p.s., he later apologized. The rest is hypothetical. Prove it. And if we forget context, we forget history. If we forget history, we can't learn from it.

I mourn any future in which children don’t benefit from the brilliant works of Dr. Seuss as they learn to read and love literature. I mourn the many Christmases to come in which The Grinch has been cancelled by overzealous social justice warriors.


This is all so depressing. I just refuse to believe that we can’t move forward on social justice issues without erasing much of the cannon of great children’s and adult literature that reflects the imperfections in the human condition. While I wholeheartedly reject the arguments on the right, I can see from where some of the anxiety and anger is arising.

[Anonymous]

Oops I messed up the quote function:

Anonymous wrote:I’m generally VERY liberal and an ally to minorities, but I am beginning to be very troubled by this movement to erase people and literature/art that is a product of its time without consideration of context AND the development of a human being over time.

This comment I lifted from an earlier referenced article (slj) about racism in the work or Dr. Seuss says most of what I feel:

Theodore Geisel was a Roosevelt liberal who survived the Depression by drawing cartoons. During WWII he helped create propaganda against Japanese and Nazis and isolationist Americans like Charles Lindbergh (think Steve Bannon and his fascist Italian philosopher hero). The Cat in the Hat was published in 1957. The Supreme Court didn't hear Thurgood Marshall's arguments against segregation in schools until 1954, just three years earlier. So in 1957 a liberal left-wing cartoonist is supposed to be racist against Afro-Americans because maybe he was influenced by the racist stereotypes of the 1920s when he was growing up in Massachussets? Prove it. The anti-Japanese cartoons were propaganda, for which, p.s., he later apologized. The rest is hypothetical. Prove it. And if we forget context, we forget history. If we forget history, we can't learn from it.

I mourn any future in which children don’t benefit from the brilliant works of Dr. Seuss as they learn to read and love literature. I mourn the many Christmases to come in which The Grinch has been cancelled by overzealous social justice warriors.


This is all so depressing. I just refuse to believe that we can’t move forward on social justice issues without erasing much of the cannon of great children’s and adult literature that reflects the imperfections in the human condition. While I wholeheartedly reject the arguments on the right, I can see from where some of the anxiety and anger is arising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird. I’d never heard of this before. The Sneetches is a good book about accepting those who are different.

Funny because a lot of his work is deeply racist.

Only if you want it to be.

You definitely cannot argue with the fact that his political cartoons are deeply racist....

It was a totally different era. It is amazing how little nuance people today can handle.

IKR. Go watch the original muppets. Even the ones without warnings. And that was decades after Seuss
Spoiler alert: Domestic violence is funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate reading his books with a passion. Dh and I trade off so that neither has to bear that burden nightly. They’re nonsense and annoy me. We have about 50 of his books and some of the characters are drawn racially- like the Asian man depicted wearing rice paddy hats. I don’t see it as racist, so much as outdated. I have read my kids multiple older books that were translated from Chinese and the characters were drawn similarly by their Chinese authors.

I just do not see the cat in the hat as a black minstrel character. Nope. Sure both wear hats and are comedy figures but that’s it. Nothing the cat in the hat says has led me to think it’s a minstrel character.

I will say that my kids adore the books and rhymes. And we saw a shift in their understanding when they “got” the rhymes versus just being entertained by the nonsense.

I’d vote for a Julia Donaldson day. I could read hers every single day and still like them.

Have you every worn a "rice paddy hat"? First, they are fabulous and second, people who work in rice patties still wear them. Even in Louisiana (USA) and even if white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes I hate Dr Suess. He makes up gibberish words to fit a rhyme. Many of his "stories" aren't actually stories at all, but ENDLESS ridiculous pages of rhymes with no real meaning or story behind them.

The only time I haven't wanted to poke my eyes out when reading his books is when it was helping my daughter learn to read.

As a PP said, let's celebrate Julia Donaldson who is actually quite skilled at being lyrical without making up gibberish words.

the point of gibberish words is decoding and phonics.

[Anonymous]

^^ u so smart.