Six of Dr. Seuss’s books aren’t being published anymore because they have racist images. Those books are “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.”
An example of what the imagery contains can be found in “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” where there is an Asian person that is portrayed wearing a conical hat, holding chopsticks, and eating from a bowl. The book “If I Ran the Zoo,” has a picture of two bare-footed African men wearing grass skirts with their hair tied up.
The National Education Association, which founded Read Across America Day in 1998, has always aligned the day with Dr. Seuss’s birthday for several years and encouraged children to have a more diverse reading list.
School districts are moving away from the Dr. Seuss books and prompting schools just outside Washington D.C. to spread rumors that they were banning the books entirely.
Taking Dr. Seuss out of the curriculum and banning his books might hinder other generations from learning some of the other great lessons Dr. Suess has to offer. “The Sneetches and Other Stories,” has a strong message to children be inclusive of others who look different than us because, in the end, we’re all apart of the human race.
Enough is enough, adults are always telling children what they can and can’t read because children don’t know how to filter what they should or shouldn’t read. Children should be taught by their parents how to filter out inappropriate reading material. There should also be a value of the freedom for children to express themselves when they read a book. I want to read Dr. Seuss’s books to my kids one day so that I can teach them the values that Dr. Seuss taught me when I was growing up. I want my future kids to live in a world where they are allowed to express themselves, to be creative, to not be afraid to explore new things, to be imaginative, and to understand that they can do anything they want as long as they set their minds to whatever they want to do and wherever they want to go.
