Did You Know Dr. Seuss Was a Racist?

Our favorite authors aren’t always who we think they are… But what does that really matter?

This last Friday, March 2^nd, was Dr. Seuss’ birthday, and I spent a portion of my afternoon googling all things ‘Seussian’. I’ve always been intrigued by the man who helped millions of children appreciate the craft of language through his simple rhymes, the man who taught me of the Sneetches and their stars, of the Lorax and the trees, and of the simple connection that we all can share as inhabitants of this fantastic world. In my research, I stumbled across this New York Times article and was horrified to learn something that I never knew about my favorite children’s author: Dr. Seuss, the colorful, rhythmic hero of my childhood who taught me to love my fellow man and who is probably responsible for my inherent love of all things rhymy and fun, was a racist.

I was shocked. It turns out that, during WWII, Dr. Seuss didn’t care much for the Japanese citizens who inhabited the West coast of the United States (Please check the article to learn more). His political cartoons played a role in shaping the views of not only the Japanese but also Japanese-Americans in the nation during war time, and some of his most controversial political drawings may have even helped influence public opinion enough to scare the people of America into allowing the implementation of Japanese internment camps in the United States in 1942.

I continued with my research, and I wasn’t surprised at the outcry of the Asian community; many Japanese-Americans are still outraged by Seuss’ fear-mongering and racism and reject him as the father of reading in American culture. Their anger is justified, but some take it too far; I was a little disappointed to find that Koji Steven, a Japanese blogger on 8asian, a collaborative Asian-American/Asian-Canadian blog, goes so far as to say in this article that “Because of these cartoons, I will never read a Dr. Seuss book to my child. I will not even allow one in my house”.

Okay, while I can understand the anger towards the man on account of his prejudice towards Japanese-Americans, I can’t understand the dismissal of his work. I mean, really, is there anything racist about any of his children’s books? Is a child going to be tricked into hating the Japanese by reading The Cat in the Hat? I think it is important to separate the work from the man in this case and understand that, even though he wasn’t the best guy in the world, his books do a damn good job of teaching kids about language.

If we refused to read texts by scumbags like Steven is suggesting, we’d be left with quite a small canon; the amount of racists in literature is ridiculous, and the alcoholics fill the rest of the space. Humanity would lose a lot of its best literature if we read only those works by authors who we might get along with – and there are plenty of authors who aren’t necessarily scumbags, but are just plain weird. As an example, I offer Emily Dickinson, because, while I can’t say she was a hateful or bad person, I don’t think I would enjoy knocking back a few cold ones with the dark-minded recluse. Very few authors are likeable after all.

We must ignore the authors, the assholes and the weirdos – forget about them and let them drift away into the void that their text has travelled across – but embrace the texts that they have left us, because a lot can be learned from the works of even the biggest of douchebags or the oddest of closet-sociopaths when their personality is overlooked.

When it comes to Dr. Seuss, it doesn’t matter to me if he ate babies, his work has made an enormous impact on the culture of humanity, and his work is worth reading. So does that make me a racist too?