Back several months ago, it was in the news that certain books written by the legendary children’s author, Dr. Seuss, were no longer going to be published due to their overtly racist overtones. Books such as “Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo” held images of minorities being portrayed in ways that supported certain racist stereotypes, and furthermore, these characters were portrayed with a certain level of ridicule and outlandishness that would only support the notion that these characters were different than others in the stories. In this case, difference was portrayed as something negative, not positive.
A little historical context. Theodor Geissel (the actual name of Dr. Seuss), had long held a certain disdain for Asian Americans (particularly those with Japanese descent) because of the anti-Asian racist wave that swept parts of the country during and in the immediate aftermath of World War II. At that time, disdain for the Japanese wasn’t uncommon, because we were at war with the Japanese, but as often happens, the racism was somewhat more generalized to all Asian Americans, which was no doubt reinforced with the conflicts that followed WWII in Korea, Vietnam and other countries in East Asia. This was not necessarily confined to Asian Americans; there was anti German and Anti-Italian sentiment as well, but in the case of Asian Americans, the US took things one step further as to imprison many Japanese-Americans in internment camps during WWII. The government would say that this incarceration was for their own safety, but the undertones were not easily missed. While Hitler’s Nazi concentration camps would take the gold for their famous notoriety and particularly awful cruel and unusual treatment of human beings and obvious attempts at religious genocide, any time you incarcerate a group of people based upon race, it makes people wonder about any similarities and then throw in the timing and boom. The very idea of segregating based upon fear, misunderstanding, stereotyping, and racial profiling, still has pinnings rooted in the same place.
But this commentary is not just about analyzing history. Because Dr. Seuss’s books are clearly influenced so much by the history and times, we can almost refer to them easily as historical literature. It’s no different than reading a book from Victorian England, or even something American like Huckleberry Finn. Some of those books are core parts of the English curriculum in schools across America and that is because they are taught with the historical context they come from in mind. So you might wonder why we can’t do that with Dr. Seuss?
Well to answer that we have to look at the broader picture of what’s going on in terms of how history is handled and portrayed in this country right now. There is no doubt that there are painful parts of our national history. This country has so much blood on its hands with regards to how its handled human rights, particularly with things like slavery and racism in its past. It’s a country that purports to be where all people are created equal, but in nearly 250 years we still haven’t made that a true reality for all people. It’s not that our country was founded on a lie, its more that we haven’t brought the idea to full fruition. One of the things that possibly keeps the cycle of racism still spinning is if we continue to see it in cultural norms like reading books it’s keeping idea alive. That’s one of the central arguments here.
The most common things heard in history classes all over the country is that “if we do not pay attention to history, we will be doomed to repeat it.” While we may not like parts of our history, we can’t ignore it simply because its distasteful, or inconvenient. Those parts of our history should be an impetus to learn and grow which is something that’s a perpetual process. The pursuit of liberty and justice for all is one that doesn’t stop, because there’s always a way to make our perfect union more perfect (and there is MUCH still to do). So I would see an opportunity for education, because education is always the best method towards social change. Perhaps instead of demolishing the statue of General Robert E. Lee, we instead analyze the statue as a monument to a quashed rebellion that advocated for social stagnation and for slavery. We look at it as a means of remembering where we come from so we don’t end up there again. And we push back against those who celebrate the rebellion, and wave the confederate flag as a possible battle cry to another one.
But returning to the idea of people as consumers of entertainment, in which books is one area, how do we interpret the value of historical things and does keeping these things in play mean we’re continuing a cycle of discrimination?
How many reading this post have read Huckleberry Finn, and saw references to black people using an old and unacceptable slur by today’s standards? How about watching movies about the early United States in the South when slavery was more openly acceptable? What is the line between appreciating historical fiction for its own merits, and for its times, and for the story and less for the underpinnings of racist propaganda and recognizing that by consuming such things we are purporting those standards and the only way to truly grow as a society is to cut ourselves off from such things all together?
A couple things before I answer those questions. First, every person might answer these questions differently. If you are a member of a minority group who’s been subjected to discrimination, you might be inclined to answer that racism is racism, and it should not be perpetuated whether its from the past or not. That’s what’s kept the cycle from being broken. Because we keep consuming things that reinforce it. However, another person might want to see a bigger picture, that humanity has the capacity to grow and change and they can handle analyzing the past as a mechanism for growth. So the answers may be highly individualized. You are going to get my opinion and answer. No one else’s.
The second point is this. Regardless of what was considered acceptable at any given time, discrimination in any form (any “ism” sexism, racism, stereotyping etc.) is wholly and incontrovertibly unacceptable. It was not acceptable then, is not acceptable now and it shall never be acceptable. Diversity should be celebrated everywhere because what makes us different is just as important as what makes us the same. And we are more alike than we are different; skin color, race, creed, gender, identity, none of that has any bearing on our value as humans. It never should’ve had any, and it should never again be used to determine value. As long as there is red blood pumping through your veins; your humanity is on the same level as mine. Period.
Now to consider the questions. Theres no doubt that racism, like poverty and other things, is a cyclical process. There’s an old West Wing quote: “Now that we’ve eliminated racism in our laws, we must eliminate it in our hearts and minds.” Unfortunately, to claim we’ve eliminated it from our laws and our systems is folly. We still have systems that are inherently skewed against certain populations, whether its the mandatory minimums in drug sentencing, or a judicial system that is sometimes at the mercy of the common person (or people in the case of a jury), and they are at the mercy of their biases. Racism is as much an economic thing as it is a social inequality and we have systems that keep poor people poor and rich people rich.
But more insidious than our laws, is the fact that we still have much racism in our hearts. It seeps into our systems, because we as humans have influence. Take the law enforcement system that’s sometimes tainted with biases so bad that if you of a particularly skin color, its not even guaranteed that you might even survive a simple traffic stop for speeding. (I will also say that those instances shouldn’t overshadow the numerous examples of good law enforcement too; a future post will address the mainstream media and how we’re more likely to hear about the bad than the good in our world).
The racism in our hearts is present even for the best amongst us. In order to change our system, and make for a better America and a better world, we have to acknowledge and deal with some pretty nasty truths. Do we truly view everyone as equal? Is being a member of the human race enough, or do we see further division? And then there’s the cyclical nature of nurture. Whereas racism is passed down from generation to generation, children are taught it, and like the good traditions, family traditions of holding racist truths weave their way down, until its not even clear why they are racist, they just are. Returning to my other question above, this type of cyclical generational racism can be stoked by holding onto the past. Perhaps a book like Seuss’s Mulberry St might give off an unflattering view of Asian-Americans, that that could spiral especially in the wake of anti-Asian sentiment already being levied because of the heaping amounts of false blame levied at them because of the pandemic. Perhaps a book like “At the Zoo” might give an unflattering view of African-Americans, portraying them as crazy monsters that should be locked up, and then before you know it, you are seeing those monsters everywhere, instead of the human beings they really are. Or what about all the symbols of the quelled rebellion in the South? It’s baffling that we are the only country on the planet, where, after a deadly Civil War, the losers of that conflict, the vanquished, and quelled rebellion is still celebrated. How many times have you seen the old confederate flag waving, an obelisk celebrating slavery, racism, and progress running backwards? And like a spark in a fire, it can take off, and the cycle rears its ugly head again.
And it’s a two-way street. How often, especially in the wake of the MeToo movement, and the most recent displays of protest against the treatment of minorities, have white people been generalized as racist and privileged? And on a topic like Affirmative Action, which was meant to level the playing field, it’s also shifted things as well. Instead of being built on a system that is strictly meritocracy, it’s skewed towards whether your skin is one they need more of in their organization to improve their image. Now, one can make the argument that a skewed system is what minorities have dealt with all along, and this is finally making it even, and you’d have a fair point. It’s the classic case of responding to someone who says “Black lives Matter”, that “well shouldn’t all lives matter?” While the intention can be completely genuine, with a look at tackling the larger problem (equality as a whole), it can be a form of suppression. Black lives are already well behind the starting line, and in order to make things even we have to help them catch up. Therefore, Black lives Matter because they are the ones in trouble at this moment.
So there would seem to be a couple of courses of action. We could eliminate all things from the past that wouldn’t be socially acceptable now, to avoid the possibility of those ideas perpetuating into a repeat of history now. We can use education to implant new ideas, because if children haven’t heard of racism they might not be racist.
But I have a different idea. I think humans have the capacity to see the forest from the trees, if its educated with proper context and open discussion. Perhaps in a classroom studying Seuss, we might ask youth the question “do you see how the picture is portrayed? Is that the way someone should be portrayed?” That can lead to a discussion about how we treat people, and about things they hear in the world, specifically politically divisive rhetoric by certain figures in the news, then that leads to talking about propoganda and misinformation because the digital age has made spreading information disturbingly pervasive and some groups of people are especially vulnerable to good and well-targeted propaganda. And over time, as a teacher I am cultivating a generation of tolerance, understanding, appreciation for the positive and negatives of the past, and the capacity to lead our country forward. It all starts with education (and unlike Trix education isn’t just for children. It’s for everyone.). That’s how we change the narrative. That’s how we eliminate racism from our hearts and minds. That’s how we get an America that is truly free and where all people are created equal. It’s just like one fish, two fish, they’re a fish and we’re all fish.