Let’s face the facts, we all KNOW who Dr. Seuss is, and on March 1st a Virginia school district came out with claims that certain books showed “Racist Imagery,” but it seems Virginia has come to their senses and released the ban from there school zone, but Amazon was thinking about pulling these books from being sold on its website. This has been out for a couple of days now and the news and media have been non-stop about it.

Now that we know WHAT is happening, let’s get into WHY its happening. So in the book, If I Ran the Zoo, there is a picture that depicts people who look like Asians with yellow skin, which is the stereotype that Asians have unnaturally yellow skin. In Dr. Suess’ first book, And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street, it depicts an Asian man with slanted eyes. There are several other images being stereotypical, but this is the main one. After the claims, the official Dr. Seuss Enterprises, who is in control of his legacy, AGREED with these claims and on Seuss’ 117th birthday they banned 6 of his books from ever publishing. They did this for 1 of 2 reasons: they may be motivated that racism is bad for the brand, or they be motivated by a radical sense of justice. At this point, will the Lorax be banned because he’s orange signifying he is a Trump supporter?
Of course that is a joke, but at this point I would not be surprised if that happened. Another thing that has happened is that these 6 books in particular have been skyrocketing in sales due to this, which does put a smile on my face.

Now that we have discussed WHY and HOW this is happening, it’s time to share my opinion on the matter. Should they have banned the books? NO. Should they have even censored it? NO, it’s a stupid kids book that appeases kids with rhymes. When I was reading this book when I was 6 I didn’t look at the Asian people and say “OH LOOK MOM!!! LOOK!!! THE CHINESE PEOPLE LOOK VERY STEREOTYPICAL!!! THIS IS GOING TO MAKE ME DESENSITIZED TO RACISM IN THE FUTURE!!!!” but I didn’t do that because I’m not a thin-skinned white baby who complains about things that are even the slightest bit offensive to other cultures but my own. So, yeah, I believe none of this was necessary and is just the people who also said that the Washington Redskins are a racist team trying to cancel more things with their power to make everything emotionless and dull. Well, you do that, tear down as many statues as you want, cancel as many celebrities and people you want, and ban as many books as you want, but one thing is for certain, if you guys erase too much of history, then you are doomed to repeat it again, and then they will cancel it again, and I’m guessing that will be a terrible cycle in the future.

Of course, do your own research because by the time this gets out new info could be available and some of it will be outdated.