forum Debate. Debate. Debate.

Started March 14, 2019 by Deleted user

tune

Edit topic

mulberry street was one of my mom's favorites and while it's not hella racist, it's definitely still influentially racist

Yeah, same. It sucks to look back on things you read as a kid and realize all the issues you hadn't noticed.

As someone whose parents still make jokes about like Asian eyes and shit, that's not something we need to normalize through reading too.
Also the one depicting African characters as monkey-like is incredibly icky.

i mean, dr seuss was a political cartoonist during ww11 who created quite a few comics centered on 'yellow fever' and internment, so i get why his works feature so much anti asian shit. its not okay, duh, but i do get why it was so common in some of those

Yeah. I feel like it'd be a different story if the books were being pulled solely because of his anti-Asian political cartoons and not the content of the books, but since it appears in the books, I feel like it's fine. We shouldn't be the same society we were when his books were initially published, I don't get why some people are so mad about others saying "this is outdated and racist".

As someone whose parents still make jokes about like Asian eyes and shit, that's not something we need to normalize through reading too.
Also the one depicting African characters as monkey-like is incredibly icky.

Especially since the target audience of Dr. Seuss's books is so young, it's normalizing it from a very early age.

Dr. Seuss is actually a really interesting character to look at in history because he was super raciest, especially towards Japaneses, I mean it was WWII so especially anti-Japanese propaganda was every where and Dr. Seuss was paid, and wanted, to aid in that, and he also did some of it on his own accord. After visiting Japan and actually meeting these people he changed his views, like entirely. His next book was Horton hear's a who, which he dedicated to one of the friends he made in japan. Everyone likes to use Horton hears a who for a topic that has been band on here, but it was written as an apology, a correction of his previous works, "A persons a Person no matter how small" Is in response to racism. It's a correction of what he used to think.
I'm betting Seuss would understand why those books are no longer being published, and agree with the reasoning behind it if he were still around.

wait what's the banned topic people think horton hears a who is about?

A lot of people see Horton Hears a Who as an allegory for abortion.

An allegory for WhAt?!?

where the absolute fuck does that come from

"A persons a Person no matter how small" Is in response to racism

okay correct me if I'm wrong, but is calling POC "small" not still kinda racist

where the absolute fuck does that come from

It's been years since I've read Horton Hears a Who but I've seen pro-life people post "a person's a person no matter how small" signs and stuff on Pinterest, Facebook, etc.

Ohhh, I see. So it's probably more of a product of their misinterpretation than it actually being an allegory for abortion.

From what I can tell, yeah. I mean, you can cut and paste anything from a book and use it to push a message. See: all the people in the early 2000s who took a Voldemort line (the one about how there's no good and evil, only power and people too weak to seek it) and used it as proof that the books were "evil"

if they can do it to the Bible they can do it to Horton hears a who ig

The Horton Hears a Who movie made up a lot of my childhood but I genuinely don't remember if I've ever read the book.

"A persons a Person no matter how small" Is in response to racism

okay correct me if I'm wrong, but is calling POC "small" not still kinda racist

It's supposed to mean minorities, not literally small.

I think pulling them wasn’t the best idea. Destroying the evidence of racism 1. won’t work and 2. doesn’t combat the actual thing. If I were in charge I would redraw etc. I’m no fan of writing over another’s work. I dislike it immensely. But I think it might be allowed in the case of racism. But I am not sure if my mind is made up.

Yeah, but we definitely shouldn't expose kids to it when they're too young to understand because then that becomes their norm. Censorship and such only becomes a problem when we're talking about pulling media for adults, who can make decisions on what books to read, and aren't in a delicate time of socialization.

Well the thing is that’s people are exposed to all sorts of terrible things. Covering up the bad can only do so much. An empty cup can be filled by anyone. Positive ideas are the only proper combative techniques.

Well, yeah. So we feed young kids positive media instead of Dr. Seuss books with racist material. They're too young to understand the bad and why it's bad. But they are old enough to unknowingly pick up ideas that will impact how they view other people.

Point.