A question asked of a NYT advice columnist. The answer isn't interesting (just something about having a nuanced conversation with the daughter).
Hey, remember when Melania Trump tried to donate some Dr. Seuss books to an elementary school and the librarian rejected them?
[W]e will not be keeping the titles for our collection.... You may not be aware of this, but Dr. Seuss is a bit of a cliché, a tired and worn ambassador for children’s literature.... Another fact that many people are unaware of is that Dr. Seuss’s illustrations are steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes. Open one of his books (If I Ran a Zoo or And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, for example), and you’ll see the racist mockery in his art. Grace Hwang Lynch’s School Library Journal article, “Is the Cat in the Hat Racist? Read Across America Shifts Away from Dr. Seuss and Toward Diverse Books,” reports on Katie Ishizuka’s work analyzing the minstrel characteristics and trope nature of Seuss’s characters. Scholar Philip Nel’s new book, Was the Cat in the Hat Black? The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature, and the Need for Diverse Books, further explores and shines a spotlight on the systemic racism and oppression in education and literature.ADDED: If that Dr. Seuss quote is racist, then isn't just about every graduation speech racist? Aren't kids given racist advice all the time? You can be whatever you want. Is that a good message?
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205 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 205 of 205Weird article. Because there is an advert that keeps turning up whenever I google a movie scene. It's a black girl rapping "you can be anything you want to be if you put your mind to it"
Sebastian's law: the probability that any exchange with a prog results in charges of racism approaches 1.
It's inevitable. A lot of people, mostly academics, have laid the cultural groundwork with their expanded theory of intersectionality. They took the obvious fact that there are intersecting difficulties each person may face---a black American lesbian with cerebral palsy raised in a stressed neighborhood by a single parent probably has more "on her plate" to deal with than a healthy white woman raised in a similar situation---and turned intersectionality into a shield that protects EVERY facet of leftism. The expanded theory connects all left-identified oppressed groups, and all leftist propositions, into one impervious All-Theory. Thus, it becomes impossible to challenge the reasonableness of even the newest and mildest of left pronouncements. To those who've bought into intersectionality (consciously or not), this attempt---such as opening a discussion on whether it's OK to demand usage of odd pronouns such as "zie" or "ou"---is inextricably linked not only to transphobia, but also racism, sexism, ableism etc etc because oppression is one seamless garment. You can't just pull one thread; it leads to all the other threads. And this is why it's so crazy-making to try and have a discussion. I want to talk about mandated weird pronouns and the left responds with an accusation of racism. To them, it makes sense.
"I believe structural racism is real and pernicious, but I also think we should teach children that they have agency"
You can't have it both ways. Red pill or blue.
In reply to rcocean who says that Seuss's name was not Seuss. Ted Geisel's middle name was Seuss which he pronounced "Soice."
650 million copies of Geisel's books have been published in at least 24 different languages. 650 million copies.
There would be no structural racism if everyone just acted white. But they don't. If people of color want to succeed they'll need to start acting white. Why? Because it works.
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