Another day, another instance in which conservatives find yet another meaningless battle to wage in their ongoing “culture war.” Dr. Seuss Enterprises pulled six books from publication because of their racist imagery, and you already know conservatives were quick to yell “cancel culture.”
According to the Associated Press, the books And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer will be removed from publication due to the illustrations containing various racial stereotypes. For example, a person of Asian descent is seen wearing a straw hat and using chopsticks to eat out of a bowl in And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street. If I Ran the Zoo contains images of what look to be African men, barefoot, in grass skirts with their hair tied above their heads.
“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” Dr. Seuss Enterprises told AP in a statement. “Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ catalog represents and supports all communities and families.”
Dr. Seuss Enterprises was founded by Seuss’ family and the company went through an internal process last year to determine what action should be taken with these books. “Dr. Seuss Enterprises listened and took feedback from our audiences including teachers, academics and specialists in the field as part of our review process. We then worked with a panel of experts, including educators, to review our catalog of titles,” Dr. Seuss Enterprises said in its statement.
So, this is simply the company understanding that times have changed and the casual racism that might have flown in the ’50s is unacceptable by today’s standards. Nothing to get worked up about, right?
Well, not unless you belong to a belief system that tries to find a fight in everything. If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the last couple of years, you’ll know that conservatives have been waging a war against a force only they can see: cancel culture.
If for some strange reason, you felt like turning on Fox News or Newsmax this morning, you would find that in the conservative hellscape, the banning of six mid-tier Dr. Seuss’ books was a strike at the very fabric of this nation’s soul.
The outrage wasn’t just left to pundits, either. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was in a hearing this morning debating a voting rights bill and totally stayed on topic by decrying how Democrats were trying to “outlaw Dr. Seuss.”
I would like to take a brief aside to say that I’m just so tired of people acting like the concept of consequences is some new ideal founded by the “woke mob.” Every action results in an opposite reaction. This is high school physics, y’all, I don’t know why I have to explain this to grown-ass adults.
I don’t even know how the lie of “cancel culture” comes into effect with this situation. There was no “mob” or large-scale outcry over these books. You’re really going to sit here and tell me you were reading McElligot’s Pool over Green Eggs and Ham? No one was even thinking about these books until the company made the decision to remove them from circulation.
In fact, had they not released a statement and just quietly removed the books from shelves, I guarantee you conservatives wouldn’t have noticed. Nobody was canceled here, and no one is “outlawing” Dr. Seuss books. A company simply acknowledged that change happens, and it made a decision it believed was best for business.
That’s it.
If you need to be in your feelings this badly on a Tuesday, listen to The Weeknd and think about your ex, because this? This ain’t it, chief.