Read Across America -Dr. Seuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haha. So I’m in the middle of purchasing the Six By Seuss online from Target and it disappears from my basket and now shows up as unavailable online. Everyone else is trying to get this book before it gets cancelled.

Unbelievable. The publishers should have given a six months notice or something so all the unoffended people could get a copy before they burn it.

Quick! Walmart still has it!

The library still has it too. Amazon does not carry it anymore, Dr. Seuss is just too controversial. But you can still buy a copy of Mein Kampf anywhere books are sold. Oh, the places you'll go.

[Anonymous]

I am SO glad that my children got to enjoy Dr. Suess's birthday to the fullest during their formative years and are now too old to celebrate anyway. Their public elementary school also celebrated Halloween. I guess they grew up in the nick of time, so they didn't have to attend Kindergarten on zoom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are the cancelled books:

'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'

Today is Geisel’s birthday and he is usually celebrated big time. He’s been cancelled by Biden! No mention of him whatsoever on a day when he is usually lauded as the giant of children’s literature that he is.

He was NOT a racist. How is it even racist to depict an Asian person in an Asian conical hat that is very culturally common and associated with Asians like cowboy hats are associated with Americans?

Geisel drew some ugly propaganda cartoons for adults during the pre WWII years to pay the bills and help push Americans toward the anti fascist war effort when Charles Lindbergh and others were pushing America First and happy to laud Hitler and his actions.

I am seriously astounded by the idiocy that is taking over American progressivism.

This is what I read this morning

As NPR's Code Switch team has reported:

"In And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, for example, a character described as Chinese has two lines for eyes, carries chopsticks and a bowl of rice, and wears traditional Japanese-style shoes. In If I Ran the Zoo, two men said to be from Africa are shown shirtless, shoeless and wearing grass skirts as they carry an exotic animal. Outside of his books, the author's personal legacy has come into question, too — Seuss wrote an entire minstrel show in college and performed as the main character in full blackface."

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/02/972777841/dr-seuss-enterprises-will-shelve-6-books-citing-hurtful-portrayals

So other than being slightly inaccurate, whats the big deal? My kids once brought home a book where a polar bear befriended a penguin (they live on opposite ends of the earth) but the book wasn't being cancelled!

I don't blame Biden for this. He's got bigger fish to fry. This is the stupid super-liberal activists that make all liberals look bad.

I don't know if penguins and polar bears are a good analogy for non-white people.
So you'd have no problem with cihldrens books portraying Jewish people and their exaggerated noses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are the cancelled books:

'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'

Today is Geisel’s birthday and he is usually celebrated big time. He’s been cancelled by Biden! No mention of him whatsoever on a day when he is usually lauded as the giant of children’s literature that he is.

He was NOT a racist. How is it even racist to depict an Asian person in an Asian conical hat that is very culturally common and associated with Asians like cowboy hats are associated with Americans?

Geisel drew some ugly propaganda cartoons for adults during the pre WWII years to pay the bills and help push Americans toward the anti fascist war effort when Charles Lindbergh and others were pushing America First and happy to laud Hitler and his actions.

I am seriously astounded by the idiocy that is taking over American progressivism.

This is what I read this morning

As NPR's Code Switch team has reported:

"In And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, for example, a character described as Chinese has two lines for eyes, carries chopsticks and a bowl of rice, and wears traditional Japanese-style shoes. In If I Ran the Zoo, two men said to be from Africa are shown shirtless, shoeless and wearing grass skirts as they carry an exotic animal. Outside of his books, the author's personal legacy has come into question, too — Seuss wrote an entire minstrel show in college and performed as the main character in full blackface."

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/02/972777841/dr-seuss-enterprises-will-shelve-6-books-citing-hurtful-portrayals

So other than being slightly inaccurate, whats the big deal? My kids once brought home a book where a polar bear befriended a penguin (they live on opposite ends of the earth) but the book wasn't being cancelled!

I don't blame Biden for this. He's got bigger fish to fry. This is the stupid super-liberal activists that make all liberals look bad.

I don't know if penguins and polar bears are a good analogy for non-white people.
So you'd have no problem with cihldrens books portraying Jewish people and their exaggerated noses?

No.

[Anonymous]

Seuss went to college at Dartmouth in the 1920s! He wrote Mulberry Street in 1937!


How can we possibly judge people’s actions 100 years ago by the standards of today?! When something/someone is overwhelming good, do you cancel it entirely for the small part that is bad?

The black citizens of Virginia didn’t think so. They didn’t want the Governor to resign over a black face incident from college in the 80s. Do black Americans really want Dr. Seuss cancelled? Do Asian citizens really want him cancelled?

Or is this just more of white people virtue signaling?

Cancelling Dr. Seuss changes nothing about the systemic racism that oppresses American minorities, whether citizen or undocumented resident. These actions serve only to inflame and cover for the lack of substantive meaningful change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seuss went to college at Dartmouth in the 1920s! He wrote Mulberry Street in 1937!


How can we possibly judge people’s actions 100 years ago by the standards of today?! When something/someone is overwhelming good, do you cancel it entirely for the small part that is bad?

The black citizens of Virginia didn’t think so. They didn’t want the Governor to resign over a black face incident from college in the 80s. Do black Americans really want Dr. Seuss cancelled? Do Asian citizens really want him cancelled?

Or is this just more of white people virtue signaling?

Cancelling Dr. Seuss changes nothing about the systemic racism that oppresses American minorities, whether citizen or undocumented resident. These actions serve only to inflame and cover for the lack of substantive meaningful change.

Which is what specifically?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, do not ban Dr. Seuss or any book.

My kids and I are watching the original muppets from 1976-1980 something. EVERYTHING is wrong with it so we talk about it after. I find it a great way to talk about domestic violence. Making fun of accents. That dressing as an "Indian" is disrespectful and that goes for quite a few things. Violence, drinking and smoking are all unacceptable and the 1970s were terrible.

We've only watched 3 episodes but it's led to some great conversations we probably wouldn't have had otherwise.

That said, To think that I saw it on Mulberry Street is one of my fave Dr. S books and it's...problematic.

So your take away was that the 1970s were terrible, not that social norms change over time? And...drinking is unacceptable? There was definitely more violence in slapstick comedy, and smoking IS terrible, but the 1970s looks pretty good to me from 2021. Sure some things are better now, but many things are much much worse. But if all you know of the 70s is from The Muppets you wouldn't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am SO glad that my children got to enjoy Dr. Suess's birthday to the fullest during their formative years and are now too old to celebrate anyway. Their public elementary school also celebrated Halloween. I guess they grew up in the nick of time, so they didn't have to attend Kindergarten on zoom.

I’m 35 and in 5th grade they made us make dr Seuss character papier-mâché sculptures. I hated it because I didn’t care about Seuss. Y’all just assume all kids love Seuss to the point they want to to spend a week on him EVERY year and they don’t! As usual this is adults making a huge deal out of nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are the cancelled books:

'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'

Today is Geisel’s birthday and he is usually celebrated big time. He’s been cancelled by Biden! No mention of him whatsoever on a day when he is usually lauded as the giant of children’s literature that he is.

He was NOT a racist. How is it even racist to depict an Asian person in an Asian conical hat that is very culturally common and associated with Asians like cowboy hats are associated with Americans?

Geisel drew some ugly propaganda cartoons for adults during the pre WWII years to pay the bills and help push Americans toward the anti fascist war effort when Charles Lindbergh and others were pushing America First and happy to laud Hitler and his actions.

I am seriously astounded by the idiocy that is taking over American progressivism.

This is what I read this morning

As NPR's Code Switch team has reported:

"In And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, for example, a character described as Chinese has two lines for eyes, carries chopsticks and a bowl of rice, and wears traditional Japanese-style shoes. In If I Ran the Zoo, two men said to be from Africa are shown shirtless, shoeless and wearing grass skirts as they carry an exotic animal. Outside of his books, the author's personal legacy has come into question, too — Seuss wrote an entire minstrel show in college and performed as the main character in full blackface."

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/02/972777841/dr-seuss-enterprises-will-shelve-6-books-citing-hurtful-portrayals

So other than being slightly inaccurate, whats the big deal? My kids once brought home a book where a polar bear befriended a penguin (they live on opposite ends of the earth) but the book wasn't being cancelled!

I don't blame Biden for this. He's got bigger fish to fry. This is the stupid super-liberal activists that make all liberals look bad.

I don't know if penguins and polar bears are a good analogy for non-white people.
So you'd have no problem with cihldrens books portraying Jewish people and their exaggerated noses?

You are keying in on something important: leaving out racist caricatures Seuss books are all white characters and animals. Schools prefer to show books in which all students can see themselves , not just white kids. Then students who aren’t white see themselves in books too. Which is why the focus is coming off Seuss to more diverse texts and authors . It’s 2021, not 1937.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are the cancelled books:

'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'

Today is Geisel’s birthday and he is usually celebrated big time. He’s been cancelled by Biden! No mention of him whatsoever on a day when he is usually lauded as the giant of children’s literature that he is.

He was NOT a racist. How is it even racist to depict an Asian person in an Asian conical hat that is very culturally common and associated with Asians like cowboy hats are associated with Americans?

Geisel drew some ugly propaganda cartoons for adults during the pre WWII years to pay the bills and help push Americans toward the anti fascist war effort when Charles Lindbergh and others were pushing America First and happy to laud Hitler and his actions.

I am seriously astounded by the idiocy that is taking over American progressivism.

This is what I read this morning

As NPR's Code Switch team has reported:

"In And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, for example, a character described as Chinese has two lines for eyes, carries chopsticks and a bowl of rice, and wears traditional Japanese-style shoes. In If I Ran the Zoo, two men said to be from Africa are shown shirtless, shoeless and wearing grass skirts as they carry an exotic animal. Outside of his books, the author's personal legacy has come into question, too — Seuss wrote an entire minstrel show in college and performed as the main character in full blackface."

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/02/972777841/dr-seuss-enterprises-will-shelve-6-books-citing-hurtful-portrayals

So other than being slightly inaccurate, whats the big deal? My kids once brought home a book where a polar bear befriended a penguin (they live on opposite ends of the earth) but the book wasn't being cancelled!

I don't blame Biden for this. He's got bigger fish to fry. This is the stupid super-liberal activists that make all liberals look bad.

I don't know if penguins and polar bears are a good analogy for non-white people.
So you'd have no problem with cihldrens books portraying Jewish people and their exaggerated noses?

You are keying in on something important: leaving out racist caricatures Seuss books are all white characters and animals. Schools prefer to show books in which all students can see themselves , not just white kids. Then students who aren’t white see themselves in books too. Which is why the focus is coming off Seuss to more diverse texts and authors . It’s 2021, not 1937.

But the characters barely look human at all. Lots of yellow and green humanoid beings, like the Simpsons. But while we're at it, I find the Simpsons way more racist than Seuss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are the cancelled books:

'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'

Today is Geisel’s birthday and he is usually celebrated big time. He’s been cancelled by Biden! No mention of him whatsoever on a day when he is usually lauded as the giant of children’s literature that he is.

He was NOT a racist. How is it even racist to depict an Asian person in an Asian conical hat that is very culturally common and associated with Asians like cowboy hats are associated with Americans?

Geisel drew some ugly propaganda cartoons for adults during the pre WWII years to pay the bills and help push Americans toward the anti fascist war effort when Charles Lindbergh and others were pushing America First and happy to laud Hitler and his actions.

I am seriously astounded by the idiocy that is taking over American progressivism.

This is what I read this morning

As NPR's Code Switch team has reported:

"In And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, for example, a character described as Chinese has two lines for eyes, carries chopsticks and a bowl of rice, and wears traditional Japanese-style shoes. In If I Ran the Zoo, two men said to be from Africa are shown shirtless, shoeless and wearing grass skirts as they carry an exotic animal. Outside of his books, the author's personal legacy has come into question, too — Seuss wrote an entire minstrel show in college and performed as the main character in full blackface."

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/02/972777841/dr-seuss-enterprises-will-shelve-6-books-citing-hurtful-portrayals

So other than being slightly inaccurate, whats the big deal? My kids once brought home a book where a polar bear befriended a penguin (they live on opposite ends of the earth) but the book wasn't being cancelled!

I don't blame Biden for this. He's got bigger fish to fry. This is the stupid super-liberal activists that make all liberals look bad.

I don't know if penguins and polar bears are a good analogy for non-white people.
So you'd have no problem with cihldrens books portraying Jewish people and their exaggerated noses?

You are keying in on something important: leaving out racist caricatures Seuss books are all white characters and animals. Schools prefer to show books in which all students can see themselves , not just white kids. Then students who aren’t white see themselves in books too. Which is why the focus is coming off Seuss to more diverse texts and authors . It’s 2021, not 1937.

But the characters barely look human at all. Lots of yellow and green humanoid beings, like the Simpsons. But while we're at it, I find the Simpsons way more racist than Seuss.

And we don’t watch the Simpsons in school or traditionally spend a whole week on the Simpsons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are the cancelled books:

'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'

Today is Geisel’s birthday and he is usually celebrated big time. He’s been cancelled by Biden! No mention of him whatsoever on a day when he is usually lauded as the giant of children’s literature that he is.

He was NOT a racist. How is it even racist to depict an Asian person in an Asian conical hat that is very culturally common and associated with Asians like cowboy hats are associated with Americans?

Geisel drew some ugly propaganda cartoons for adults during the pre WWII years to pay the bills and help push Americans toward the anti fascist war effort when Charles Lindbergh and others were pushing America First and happy to laud Hitler and his actions.

I am seriously astounded by the idiocy that is taking over American progressivism.

This is what I read this morning

As NPR's Code Switch team has reported:

"In And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, for example, a character described as Chinese has two lines for eyes, carries chopsticks and a bowl of rice, and wears traditional Japanese-style shoes. In If I Ran the Zoo, two men said to be from Africa are shown shirtless, shoeless and wearing grass skirts as they carry an exotic animal. Outside of his books, the author's personal legacy has come into question, too — Seuss wrote an entire minstrel show in college and performed as the main character in full blackface."

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/02/972777841/dr-seuss-enterprises-will-shelve-6-books-citing-hurtful-portrayals

So other than being slightly inaccurate, whats the big deal? My kids once brought home a book where a polar bear befriended a penguin (they live on opposite ends of the earth) but the book wasn't being cancelled!

I don't blame Biden for this. He's got bigger fish to fry. This is the stupid super-liberal activists that make all liberals look bad.

I don't know if penguins and polar bears are a good analogy for non-white people.
So you'd have no problem with cihldrens books portraying Jewish people and their exaggerated noses?

You are keying in on something important: leaving out racist caricatures Seuss books are all white characters and animals. Schools prefer to show books in which all students can see themselves , not just white kids. Then students who aren’t white see themselves in books too. Which is why the focus is coming off Seuss to more diverse texts and authors . It’s 2021, not 1937.

But the characters barely look human at all. Lots of yellow and green humanoid beings, like the Simpsons. But while we're at it, I find the Simpsons way more racist than Seuss.

And we don’t watch the Simpsons in school or traditionally spend a whole week on the Simpsons.

No, but if you are antiracist and you or your kids watch the Simpsons, you are extremely hypocritical. The point though is that race isn't discernible in many of Seuss's books. That said, I don't think lack of diversity is a compelling reason to exclude a book from the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am SO glad that my children got to enjoy Dr. Suess's birthday to the fullest during their formative years and are now too old to celebrate anyway. Their public elementary school also celebrated Halloween. I guess they grew up in the nick of time, so they didn't have to attend Kindergarten on zoom.

I’m 35 and in 5th grade they made us make dr Seuss character papier-mâché sculptures. I hated it because I didn’t care about Seuss. Y’all just assume all kids love Seuss to the point they want to to spend a week on him EVERY year and they don’t! As usual this is adults making a huge deal out of nothing.

5th grade is too old. Suess is (was) a preschool through 1st grade thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dr Seuss is outdated and nonsense gibberish even if you personally don’t care about the racism. There’s better stuff to be reading than 85 year old Lorax books .

Is it really 85 years old??? Wow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are the cancelled books:

'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'

Today is Geisel’s birthday and he is usually celebrated big time. He’s been cancelled by Biden! No mention of him whatsoever on a day when he is usually lauded as the giant of children’s literature that he is.

He was NOT a racist. How is it even racist to depict an Asian person in an Asian conical hat that is very culturally common and associated with Asians like cowboy hats are associated with Americans?

Geisel drew some ugly propaganda cartoons for adults during the pre WWII years to pay the bills and help push Americans toward the anti fascist war effort when Charles Lindbergh and others were pushing America First and happy to laud Hitler and his actions.

I am seriously astounded by the idiocy that is taking over American progressivism.

This is what I read this morning

As NPR's Code Switch team has reported:

"In And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, for example, a character described as Chinese has two lines for eyes, carries chopsticks and a bowl of rice, and wears traditional Japanese-style shoes. In If I Ran the Zoo, two men said to be from Africa are shown shirtless, shoeless and wearing grass skirts as they carry an exotic animal. Outside of his books, the author's personal legacy has come into question, too — Seuss wrote an entire minstrel show in college and performed as the main character in full blackface."

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/02/972777841/dr-seuss-enterprises-will-shelve-6-books-citing-hurtful-portrayals

So other than being slightly inaccurate, whats the big deal? My kids once brought home a book where a polar bear befriended a penguin (they live on opposite ends of the earth) but the book wasn't being cancelled!

I don't blame Biden for this. He's got bigger fish to fry. This is the stupid super-liberal activists that make all liberals look bad.

I don't know if penguins and polar bears are a good analogy for non-white people.
So you'd have no problem with cihldrens books portraying Jewish people and their exaggerated noses?

You are keying in on something important: leaving out racist caricatures Seuss books are all white characters and animals. Schools prefer to show books in which all students can see themselves , not just white kids. Then students who aren’t white see themselves in books too. Which is why the focus is coming off Seuss to more diverse texts and authors . It’s 2021, not 1937.

What about Black and Asian children who have to see themselves portrayed in this way in the books?? This isn’t something white kids need to worry about.