I have been trying for most of the month of April to get my thoughts down in a blog post about Dr. Seuss and the decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises to stop publishing six of his titles And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligott's Pool, Scrambled Eggs Super, On Beyond Zebra, The Cat's Quizzer. As I've struggled with this post I have new empathy for students who are stuck as they try to engage with a topic, issue, or idea that just does not spark passion in their writing or project creation. As I consider this decision by the Seuss organization and the resulting controversy that saw these six titles shoot to the top of the Amazon bestseller list, I feel like I've had this conversation before about problematic titles in children's collections.
I wonder about the hysteria of "cancel culture" which takes decisions like this one, to stop publishing hurtful, dated, and stereotypical images, as an assault on a treasured collection of Americana. I would like to ask those who clicked in panic and outrage on their Amazon accounts for one or all six of these books when they last actually read any of them or any Dr. Seuss for that matter. These are not frequent flyers in the book borrowing practices of our youngest patrons or their parents. So why, with every opportunity to right a wrong is there this sadly predictable backlash from folks who feel that something of our culture is being taken away? Now let's be clear, obviously, you can still buy the books. New copies will not be published. That's all this decision means. In my opinion, this is a gesture that is nearly inconsequential in eradicating the painful stereotypes of early Seuss. Most who criticize the move assert that these images were part of his political cartooning work as Theodor Geisel during World War II. If you do take a moment to look at the books you will see the traumatizing and dehumanizing images that prompted this decision to stop publishing these books.
While this decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises sparked controversy was it truly an act of resistance? Was teaching the 6th graders to critically analyze Dr. Seuss enough? What would constitute resistance as it pertains to problematic children's books?
Recently, during Unity and Diversity week in Middle School, I was crafting a lesson about Visual Thinking Strategies and the impact that images have on our choices. We often decide to read a news article, visit a website, or share information based on what we see. We have become a profoundly visual society in the past 25 years. As we teach critical thinking and information literacy we have to include the emotional impact that an image or illustration has and the information we take from it. Students learn to consider the photographer's or artist's purpose; to persuade, entertain, or document an event. They also look at who is not in the photograph or illustration. With the theme of "Rise Up and Resist," 6th graders were going to look at the images from one or two of the books and respond to questions about the impact of the images. While this decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises sparked controversy was it truly an act of resistance? Was teaching the 6th graders to critically analyze Dr. Seuss enough? What would constitute resistance as it pertains to problematic children's books?
In my opinion, the somewhat safe decision to no longer publish books that have stereotypical and dehumanizing illustrations hardly seems like an act of courage. What would be enough? As we tiptoe around an outmoded and imperfect canon of outdated books that have done more harm than good over time we have to do more than stop publishing them. In the face of overreactions about the removal of problematic titles either from print or from library shelves, we have to resist the voices of those who would hold us in check with these conversations. Remove the book have the difficult conversations and state clearly and without equivocation "whenever a book diminishes human beings through harmful stereotypes or racist language or imagery, that book has no business being on a school library bookshelf," (Yorio) or in a publishers' catalog. It is the very least we can do.
YORIO, KARA. “Beyond Mulberry Street.” School Library Journal, vol. 67, no. 4, Apr. 2021, p. 14. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=149447653&site=ehost-live.