Opinion: Seuss Drama Isn’t Cancel Culture
posted by Seth Conway | March 19, 2021 | In News, OpinionOn March 2, the estate of children’s author Dr. Seuss announced that they wouldn’t be reprinting or continuing the license on six of their titles. These works include: 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.
According to a press release hosted on their website, they stated that the reason behind their decision was because: “These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”
That should have been the end of it. Ultimately, it is their choice as to how their intellectual property is branded and sold. However, in the name of stopping “cancel culture”, conservative politicians began claiming that the choices made by the estate were actually a front for the Democratic party’s censorship agenda.
Madison Cawthorn, a representative for North Carolina’s 11th congressional district, claimed in a tweet that: “Apparently Dr. Seuss books are now offensive and Democrats are trying to cancel publication of anymore of his books. This has to be a joke.”
Marco Rubio, a senior senator from Florida also claimed in a tweet: “Now 6 Dr. Seuss books are canceled too? When history looks back at this time it will be held up as an example of a depraved sociopolitical purge driven by hysteria and lunacy.”
Both of these claims are baseless and purposely mislead the constituency of these elected leaders. In all fairness, it could be as simple as these men not having the full story; no one is immune to confirmation bias. However, as of this writing, both of these tweets are still available for anyone to come across and be mis-attributed as fact.
The innocuous influence that a small string of words can have on the public consciousness can be devastating. Indeed, now more than ever, information is power.
When the Seuss family decided to discontinue these books over their portrayal of harmful stereotypes, it was not because a government body ordered them to do it; it was the work of a family wishing to preserve the image of a beloved author into posterity.
Photo courtesy of Vancouver Central Public Library
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