Thread by @kurteichenwald

I have an odd “knowledge by osmosis” on Fox News topic of the day: Dr. Seuss. I was an advisor on a fascinating thesis about his history & his books. And as usual, the GQP is full of it.

Dr. S, or Ted Geisel, was a man who, unlike members of GQP, evolved. He despised some...1

...of his early work before he became a children’s book author, but was just a cartoonist. His early stuff was littered with racist images of black, chinese & Japanese people. The black characters were the worst, made to look like monkeys in images a Klansmen would applaud...2

...Geisel apologized for his early work’s depiction of minorities. In his earliest books, he had not completely emerged from the mindset that led to his racially offensive cartoons. You will see the similarities between the cartoon above and this image from “If I Ran The Zoo”...3

....then you have “And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street.” That one Geisel started “canceling” (in GQP parlance) on his own because he grew. In the original, on the left, you had the “Chinaman.” Geisel changed the image somewhat in 1970, and revised name to “a Chinese Man”...4

...but this portrayal just two steps away from 1940s racist imagery of Chinese Americans still continued to create problems. The business Dr. Seuss Enterprises sponsored a mural at a museum in 2017, and invited a group of artists to attend an event including a number of....5

..Chinese Americans. But they refused to go because the “Chinese Man” image had become part of the mural. In Nashville, the library put together a session on how to deal with racist images in dr. Seuss books when reading to your kids. (Didn’t say don’t show them, but how to...6

...use them as a teaching moment. But this is not what a business involved in children’s books, toys and products wants to be: “ let’s use your Fischer price toys to teach you about genocide, Johnny!”

Worse, parents were reading these books and flipping to a page without....7

...knowing it was there, exposing small children to an ugly image. Below is the image @GOPLeader is defending as something children should be shown. Every year, African American little kids are on mom or dads lap, a page is flipped & “here is someone just like you!” appears...8

...that experience - African Americans parents being forced to try and get past an image that could devastate their child, Chinese American parents having to explain to their children why someone like them is shown running with slits for eyes and carrying chopsticks etc....8

....lots of those parents, upset with what they had inadvertently exposed their children to, wrote & called both Random House and Seuss Enterprises to complain. Of course, that was offset by calls from @GOPLeader and the GQP laughing and cheering and asking for more racist...10

....images, maybe on the cover. This is the party of Kung Flu, remember. Racism is their thing

Back to real world. The first person who would be cheering this decision to stop licensing these books is Dr Seuss himself. He showed his ability to evolve, to recognize harmful...11

...imagery built on racist stereotypes. He was both a product of his times and - as he grew - someone who was able to see where times were going. Able to see that ridiculing people for their race was horrific. That these images had greater chance of hurting childrens sense...12

...of self worth — and inspiring young GQPrs to laugh about racial stereotypes and save it up as something to tease Chinese Americans/African Americans with. Think about it this way, Kevin and other GQPrs. What if children’s books portrayed their white characters like this?...13

...would you enjoy having to explain to little Adolph why all whites people in his picture book are shown to be drunken, violent, racist slobs? Or perhaps would you say, “this is inappropriate for a children’s book. My child shouldn’t have to face this. This makes all whites...14

...look like they are all @GOPLeader. And no one wants to be that!”

So, no, self centered, whiny, racist scumbags in the GQP. The decision by a business to respond to minority parents who didn’t want their little children exposed to racist imagery is not “cancel culture”....15

..it’s human decency. It’s smart business. It’s acting to reflect Geisel’s evolution & values. It’s all the GQP isn’t. Theres a reason he grew from racist newspaper cartoons to his many books about inclusion, mutual respect & love. And those works will be celebrated forever.
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