Your thoughts on Dr Seuss and racism?

What do you call this then?

The decision by Dr Seuss's estate to withdraw six of his forty-five children's books from further publishing after deeming the depictions of some characters to be problematic.

Disagree all you want, but don't exaggerate the truth.

Dr Seuss has been ostracized to the point where he is now considered by many to have been a racist

"Cancel culture (or call-out culture) is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. Those who are subject to this ostracism are said to be "cancelled".[1] Merriam-Webster notes that to "cancel", as used in this context, means "to stop giving support to that person"[2] while Dictionary.com, in its pop-culture dictionary, defines cancel culture as "withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive."".

Dr Seuss has been ostracized to the point where he is now considered by many to have been a racist, with 6 of his publications now deleted. By definition, it seems to be an example of cancel culture? I don't need to exaggerate anything, your side is doing all the exaggerating over harmless, fun caricatures.

[Citation Needed]

You're exaggerating. Anyone who actually believes that has not done at least the slightest bit of research into what happened, and does not know that he was an anti-racist.

These are not harmless, fun caricatures. These are damaging stereotypes.

If he was an anti-racist, why would he have a long history of supposed anti-semitic and racist publications? That's why the books are being pulled, right? Because they have racist, stereotypical caricatures which you believe to be damaging?

I didn't know about CNN's claim*, but it wouldn't surprise me from a cartoonist of his generation. However, he has written many anti-racist works, especially during WW2 and the internment of Japanese-Americans, and tried to right his wrongs (in the context of racist portrayals). I imagine that were he alive in 2021 he may have redrawn the offending books to remove racist stereotypes.

Surprisingly, people aren't 100% good or bad on a given subject.

*I do not agree with the wording of that title.

I mean, go on Twitter. I would have thought the fact that he's being smeared as a racist on social media was beyond dispute at this point. But okay, let's have a look at some headlines:

I did go to Twitter. Searching "Dr Seuss Racist" gave tweets that are overwhelmingly supportive of him.

Most of the tweets that even associated him with racism only say that some of his books were racist, not that he himself were racist. The tweets that did say he is racist were few and far between and had barely any likes / support in comparison to those which were supportive of him.

The idea that Dr Seuss has been "ostracised" is laughable.

I'm pretty sure it's possible to simultaneously be an anti-semite and do other anti-racist stuff for Japanese-Americans in one's life. Generally, if somebody shows anti-semitic behaviour, you refer to them as an anti-semite, so I don't see why you're giving Dr Seuss so much leeway.

I don't feel comfortable speaking about what a dead man might do in today's society, as I don't feel it's my place to speak for the dead, but the problem is that people are cancelling a dead guy who can't defend his own name. I also object to the idea that we can rewrite history by burning books. Would you also support burning Mein Kampf, or Huckleberry Finn? If not, why not? They would seemingly promote racist behaviours by your criteria.

Again, you have not given me any overt evidence of cancelling other than one inflammatory title.

Who is burning books? They are not being banned, just ceasing to be published. When they enter the public domain they will probably be published once more.

I don't know about Mein Kampf (It was actually banned in Germany before it went into the public domain) but I wouldn't agree with Huckleberry Finn being burned and completely erased from the face of the earth. That is not happening here, though.

There's also the stark difference that both of the aforementioned books are not targeted at children, but that's not overly relevant to my point.

and I'm sure Amazon will probably follow suite soon.

You're applying quantitative measures to my original statement. I said, "he is now considered by many to have been a racist", which is not quantitative. I never stated that the majority of people are calling Dr Seuss a racist. It is fact that many people are now calling Dr Seuss a racist compared to before his books were pulled. This is an attempt to denigrate one's character; it's character assassination.

You can't state that one's actions are racist without inadvertently condemning that same person as a racist, unless you go to great lengths in defending that person's character alongside your criticisms, which nobody on the cancellation side seems to be doing.

It is ostracization. You can't even sell those books on eBay anymore.

I never stated that the majority of people are calling Dr Seuss a racist. It is fact that many people are now calling Dr Seuss a racist compared to before his books were pulled. This is an attempt to denigrate one's character; it's character assassination.

I supplied you both the definition of cancel culture. What has happened to Dr Seuss' name fits the exact definition of cancel culture, so if you refuse to take the definition as evidence, then you fundamentally must disagree with the defintion and define cancelling for me in your own terms.

Right, so these books are being ostracised in society. I will be very surprised if you can find them in public libraries from now on. You can't get them off eBay anymore, and I'm sure Amazon will probably follow suite soon. "Banning" is obviously a very heavy word with strong connotations, but this is as close to a ban - without technically banning - that I know of. You're kidding yourself if you think these books will ever enter the public domain again.

So you're open to the idea of book-burning Mein Kampf?
And why wouldn't you agree with Huckleberry Finn? The n-word is said repeatedly in the book, and for a side that doesn't care about context, I thought you'd be against that.

So only children can be fed racist propaganda? Adults are susceptible to it?

A quick search on eBay would prove otherwise. People are selling these books.

I can't speak for public libraries sans pure speculation, but they are still available on eBay.

It seems that eBay have, in fact, committed to delisting the books.

Ostracisation means exclusion from a group or a society. If by "many" you mean a few hundred people in and amongst tens of thousands then this clearly isn't an issue and it definitely isn't ostracisation.

A quick search on eBay would prove otherwise. People are selling these books.

I define cancelling as when a public figure is deplatformed across multiple platforms and public opinion largely turns against them.
Unless there are large swathes of the virtual town square that I am not aware of, this has not happened.

I can't speak for public libraries sans pure speculation, but they are still available on eBay.

I never said that, but I would need to think harder about that.

Don't generalise my critical thinking skills based on my politics, please and thank you.

Never said that, but adults are more resistant to it, as opposed to impressionable children/

The word of an anonymous spokesperson in an email need not be taken as gospel. At the moment there are dozens of these books still up for auction. Perhaps eBay are just inefficient at removing banned material, so it has yet to be seen if this is a real policy of their (let alone a serious one).

I have my doubts. The 'emails' that people have supposedly received from eBay look pretty fake.