Thread by @maggiekb1

I wish stories like this would explain exactly what is wrong with these books. The zoo one, for instance, has caricatures of black people that look damn near inhuman out on display in the zoo.

https://twitter.com/nbcconnecticut/status/1366717153098031108

The eggs one has some caricatures of Asian people that are basically set up to look weird and have (white) children laugh and point at how weird they look.

I know both these things btw, because my dad has been buying my kids all the Dr. Seuss books and none of us expected this to be in them. It was a fun surprise opportunity to have yet another talk with my kids about racism before I pitched those books. But anyway ...

Point is, when people say “hey Dr Seuss had some racism issues and we are trying to figure out what to do with his books in light of that” they aren’t talking about something innocuous or outside the scope of his children’s books.

Also, like, when you report on a Controversy maybe actually include a description of what it is you’re calling “controversial”. Especially when it is not remotely hard to look up or explain. It’s not even vague, guys. It’s just uncomfortably racist. Take two sentences to say so.

I assure you, white reporters, it is not Being Unobjective And Biased to say “that racist caricature sure is racist”.

Also no, it is not surprising that the same guy who did this did the Sneeches but I'm going to leave my The Sneeches Is Not Actually Very Good Anti-Racist Discourse discourse for another day.

I'm not JUST a journalist with media critiques, I'm also a parent! And I would like to take this opportunity to push one of my kids' (and my) favorite picture book authors: @jerdinenolen1. "Raising Dragons" and "Thunder Rose" are faves at my house! Great stories and art!