Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, would have been 117 years of age today.
And it's this very day – which is also Read Across America Day – that it was announced that six of the author's children's books will stop being published and are being taken off shelves because they "portray people in a way that is hurtful and wrong."
The titles in question – And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,Scrambled Eggs Super!, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool,On Beyond Zebra! andThe Cat’s Quizzer – are only 6 out of about 60 other works from Seuss, but this millennium's cancel culture has gotten its hands on the kids books.
According to TMZ, Seuss had a history of racist tones in his work:
A study of 50 Seuss books in 2019 found 43 of 45 characters of color had characteristics aligning with "Orientalism" and 2 "African" characters had anti-Black qualities. Of the 6 books being pulled ... "The Cat's Quizzer" and "If I Ran the Zoo" were cited in the study specifically for examples of Orientalism and white supremacy.