Was Dr. Seuss a Racist?

I honestly thought it was a joke at first. I would never have guessed that the Dr. Seuss books would be singled out as racist literature. Then I read the nasty, sarcastic letter from a left-wing librarian to the First Lady of the United States, in response to Mrs. Trump's gift of Dr. Seuss books. The haughty condescending tone of the librarian, written by someone who is overawed by her own perceived brilliance, is almost unreadable. What a bad example to children. I am glad I was taught to respond to gifts with gratitude. Here is the letter, published in the disappointing publication The Horn Book. It is interesting that Dr. Seuss books were not considered racist when Mrs. Obama chose to read them to children. To quote from The Boston Herald:

Hey, Liz Phipps Soeiro, the Grinch who stole Christmas has got nothing on you. Can you imagine, the first lady of the United States picks your public elementary school as the only one in the entire state to get a nice gift of a Dr. Seuss classic, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” And your only response is to refuse it and then post a snotty letter to Melania Trump virtue-signaling your moral superiority. Liz gives the first lady a list of 10 of her favorite children’s books “that I hope will offer you a window into the lives of the many children affected by the policies of your husband’s administration.”

Hey, Liz, Yertle the Turtle just told me to tell you to shut up. Horton Hears, not a Who, but some real PC BS here. I loved Dr. Seuss as a kid, still do as a matter of fact, and so does Melania Trump, which you can tell by how she informs your students that the book is one she and Barron “have read over and over again, and one that we want to share with all of you.”

Here is a selection of Liz’s descriptions of the children’s books that the People’s Republic considers more appropriate:

“… a Chinese-African-Cuban girl … Lahore, Pakistan … he uses a wheelchair … Haitian American Saya’s mother is incarcerated because she has no papers … the segregated reality of Mexican Americans … refugee children who emigrate from Central America …. the experience of a child refugee.”

So in effect this librarian is lecturing an immigrant — a legal immigrant — on her lack of empathy for …. illegal immigrants. How Cambridge is it? Until she deleted her Twitter account, Liz probably thought she was up for a Profiles in Courage Award. But it turns out, Dr. Seuss has a lot of fans beyond those deplorable Trump voters who revel in “the minstrel characteristics and trope nature of Seuss’s characters,” whatever that means.

Here’s a proclamation from March 2016 by Barack Obama lauding “one of America’s revered wordsmiths.”

“Theodor Seuss Geisel — or Dr. Seuss — used his incredible talent to instill in his most impressionable readers universal values we all hold dear.” In other words, Obama is saying, if you like your Dr. Seuss, you can keep your Dr. Seuss.
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