Ok, so everyone knows Dr. Seuss drew weird pictures. The people didn’t look real. The animals didn’t look real (has he ever SEEN a horse? His horses are terrifying…). He has all kind of made-up animals, and people that look like maybe they’re animals.
Dr. Seuss occasionally shows up on banned and challenged lists because people decided that some of his books (“Hop on Pop” and “The Cat in the Hat”) promote misbehavior in children. (Though, if you’ve read either Pop or Cat, you know Pop tells his kids “you must never hop on Pop” and the fish turns out to be right about not letting the Cat into the house while Mother is out.)
A few months ago, though, Dr. Seuss came under fire not for encouraging misbehavior, but for “racist” depictions in some of his books. Word came out that some of his early books would no longer be published.
At first there was a hue and cry about cancel culture… but it turns out that Dr. Seuss’s estate chose to pull six books from publication, rather than an announcement coming from a school system that they would no longer use ANY Dr. Seuss books.
Curious, I checked out “If I Ran the Zoo” from our library. I had a vague recollection from my time as a children’s librarian that this one had some Asian caricatures in it. And upon re-reading it, it turns out it does – as well as “Persian,” Russian, and African. The African ones, to my eye, are the ones that immediately jump out as the most bothersome, followed by the Asian ones. But, with that said, 1. I was looking for them (I think it’s possible small children might not be as aware as, again, all Seuss’s illustrations are funky-looking people), and 2. It was first published in 1950.
And while, yes, I agree that illustrations from 1950 that were considered fine then can be considered bothersome or racist now, but, y’all, it was 71 years ago. (Oh my god, y’all, 1950 was 71 years ago…) We’ve moved on. We’ve improved. Dr. Seuss’s estate has moved on – in recognizing that these illustrations are no longer appropriate and in deciding to cease publication, they are stepping in and saying, “OK, we’re better than this.”
They aren’t telling you not to read it. They’re saying “we feel weird continuing to publish these.” And that’s OK.