Right: Seuss and stereotypes. Today, the mere use of what we call the ''N'-word'' would be enough to trigger protest. But the above Seuss cartoon does much more than insult. It creates a demeaning picture of a whole section of society, using imagined physical and psychological characteristics to portray black Americans as not really human.Dr Seuss books contained artwork that reflected - and influenced - this view.
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Background information
The material that follows has been abbreviated from a Wikipedia entry titled 'Dr Seuss' and from an ABC News background piece published on March 3, 2021, and titled 'Six Dr Seuss books removed from publication over racist imagery'. The full texts can be accessed at
and Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904 - September 24, 1991) was an American children's author, political cartoonist, illustrator, poet, animator, and filmmaker.
Geisel adopted the name 'Dr. Seuss' as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College and as a graduate student at Lincoln College, Oxford. He left Oxford in 1927 to begin his career as an illustrator and cartoonist for Vanity Fair, Life, and various other publications. He also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, most notably for FLIT and Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM. He published his first children's book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street in 1937. During World War II, he took a brief hiatus from children's literature to illustrate political cartoons, and he also worked in the animation and film department of the United States Army where he wrote, produced, or animated many productions including Design for Death, which later won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
After the war, Geisel returned to writing children's books, writing classics like If I Ran the Zoo (1950), Horton Hears a Who! (1955), The Cat in the Hat (1957), How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957), Green Eggs and Ham (1960), One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960), The Sneetches (1961), The Lorax (1971), The Butter Battle Book (1981), and Oh, the Places You'll Go (1990). He published over 60 books during his career, which have spawned numerous adaptations, including 11 television specials, five feature films, a Broadway musical, and four television series.
Geisel won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958 for Horton Hatches the Egg and again in 1961 for And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Geisel's birthday, March 2, has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day, an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association. He also received two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children's Special for Halloween is Grinch Night (1978) and Outstanding Animated Program for The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982).
In 2004, U.S. children's librarians established the annual Theodor Seuss Geisel Award to recognize "the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year". It should "demonstrate creativity and imagination to engage children in reading" from pre-kindergarten to second grade.
Dr. Seuss's honours include two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, the Inkpot Award, and the Pulitzer Prize.
Criticism of Dr Seuss for racism
There has been increasing criticism in recent years over the way black, Asian and other characters of diverse racial backgrounds are drawn in some of Geisel's most beloved children's books, as well as in his earlier advertising and propaganda illustrations.
The National Education Association, which founded Read Across America Day in 1998 and deliberately aligned it with Geisel's birthday, has for several years deemphasised Dr Seuss and encouraged a more diverse reading list for children.
School districts across the US have also moved away from Dr Seuss. In 2017, a school librarian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, criticised a gift of 10 Dr Seuss books from former first lady Melania Trump, saying many of his works were 'steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes'. In 2018, a Dr Seuss Museum in his hometown of Springfield removed a mural that included an Asian stereotype.
Retired books
Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the organization that owns the rights to Dr Seuss books, films, TV shows, stage productions, exhibitions, digital media, licensed merchandise, and other strategic partnerships, announced on March 2, 2021, that it will stop publishing and licensing six books. The publications to be removed are And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937), If I Ran the Zoo (1950), McElligot's Pool (1947), On Beyond Zebra! (1955), Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953) and The Cat's Quizzer (1976). According to the organization, the books 'portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong' and are no longer being published due to racist and insensitive imagery.