BOSTON (AP) – Six books by Dr. Seuss – including “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo” – will stop being published because of racist and insensitive images, the business that preserves and protects the author’s legacy, said Tuesday.
“These books portray people in harmful and wrong ways,” Dr. Seuss Enterprises told the Associated Press in a statement that coincided with the birthday of the late author and illustrator.
“Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure that the Dr. Seuss Enterprises catalog represents and supports all communities and families,” he said.
The other books affected are “McElligot’s Pool”, “On Beyond Zebra!”, “Scrambled Eggs Super!” And “The Cat’s Quizzer”.
The decision to stop publishing and selling the books was made last year, after months of discussion, the company told AP.
“Dr. Seuss Enterprises listened to and received feedback from our audience, including professors, academics and experts in the field as part of our review process. Next, we worked with a panel of experts, including educators, to review our catalog of titles, ”he said.
The books by Dr. Seuss – who was born Theodor Seuss Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 2, 1904 – have been translated into dozens of languages and also in Braille and are sold in more than 100 countries. He died in 1991.
It remains popular, earning about $ 33 million before tax in 2020, compared to just $ 9.5 million five years ago, the company said. Forbes listed him as second among the highest-paid dead celebrities 2020, second only to the late pop star Michael Jackson.
As much as Dr. Seuss is adored by millions around the world for the positive values in many of his works, including environmentalism and tolerance, there has been growing criticism in recent years about the way blacks, Asians and others are attracted in some of his beloved children’s books, as well as in his previous publicity and advertising illustrations.
The National Education Association, which founded Read Across America Day in 1998 and deliberately aligned it with Geisel’s birthday, for several years did not emphasize Seuss and encouraged a more diverse reading list for children.
School districts across the country have also moved away from Dr. Seuss, causing schools in Loudoun County, Virginia, near Washington, DC, to go extinct. rumors last month that they were banning books altogether.
“Research in recent years has revealed strong racial overtones in many books written / illustrated by Dr. Seuss,” the school district said in a statement.
In 2017, a school librarian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, criticized a gift of 10 Seuss books by First Lady Melania Trump, saying that many of her works were “steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures and harmful stereotypes”.
In 2018, a Dr. Seuss museum in his hometown, Springfield, removed a mural which included an Asian stereotype.
“The cat in the hat”, one of Seuss’ most popular books, has also received criticism, but will continue to be published for now.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises, however, said that he is “committed to listening and learning and will continue to review our entire portfolio”.
Numerous other popular children’s series have been criticized in recent years for alleged racism.
In the 2007 book, “Should We Burn Babar?”, Author and educator Herbert R. Kohl stated that the “Babar the Elephant” books were celebrations of colonialism because of how the title character leaves the jungle and then returns to “ civilize ”your animal companions.
One of the books, “Babar’s Travels”, was taken off the shelves of a British library in 2012 because of its supposed stereotypes of Africans. Critics have also criticized the books “Curious George” for their premise of a white man bringing a monkey home from Africa.
And Laura Ingalls Wilder’s portraits of Native Americans in their novels “Little House On the Prairie” have been criticized so often that the American Library Association removed its name in 2018 from an award for the collection of its work that it distributes every year.
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AP national editor, Hillel Italie, contributed from New York.