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So, my sister came home from camp telling me that the people there are convinced that Dr. Seuss is a racist because all of the bad guys in his books are yellow and have squinty eyes. They think he hates asians. (I tried to search the message boards so feel free to delete this. They are hard to figure out.) Anyone know anything?
Posts: 25 | From: Nashville, TN | Registered: Dec 2005
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Dara bhur gCara
As Shepherds Watched Their Flocks Buy Now Pay Later
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-------------------- This wrinkle in time, I can't give it no credit, I thought about my space and it really got me down. Got me so down, I got me a headache, My heart is crammed in my cranium and it still knows how to pound Posts: 2794 | From: London, UK | Registered: Aug 2003
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DemonWolf
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
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The grinch is green, no squinty eyes. Cat in the har was a black cat with a whit face, likely modeled after Uncle Sam. In the Lorax, the bad guy was green. (edit, this is the Oncler?)
If you want racist, see his cartoons made during the war. He worked for the military and made propaganda cartoons (as did Disney). Some of those look more racist than his children's books.
-------------------- Friends are like skittles: they come in many colors, and some are fruity!
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I think that there are prople in this world who are not happy unless they are finding things that are supposedly racist, and complaining loudly aboput them.
-------------------- Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket? Posts: 782 | From: Arlington, TX | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Griffin 2020: I think that there are prople in this world who are not happy unless they are finding things that are supposedly racist, and complaining loudly aboput them.
Yeah, probably. I didn't know he did propaganda. I don't know which cartoons the people at her camp were referring to. Maybe they had seen those.
Posts: 25 | From: Nashville, TN | Registered: Dec 2005
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DemonWolf
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
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Maybe propaganda is too strong a word, but he drew pictures for the purpose of advertising war bonds and furthering the war effort.
quote:During WW II, Geisel joined the army and was sent to Hollywood. Captain Geisel would write for Frank Capra's Signal Corps Unit (for which he won the Legion of Merit) and do documentaries (he won Oscar's for Hitler Lives and Design for Death). He also created a cartoon called Gerald McBoing-Boing which also won him an Oscar.
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You can see many of the cartoons he drew during WWII in the Book Dr. Seuss Goes to War. Some of them are fairly bland, but others, like the one posted by Dara bhur gCara, are quite shocking by today's standards. IIRC, the book suggests that the people of the United States felt that they were at war with the Japanese people, not just the leaders of Japan. This is contrasted with the belief that the US was at war with Hitler, not all of Germany, so in his cartoons (and other cartoons of the time) you'll see Hitler and Mussolini (sp?) lampooned along side what people considered to be a Japansese stereotype, rather than a specific Japanese leader.
Posts: 33 | From: Milwaukee, WI | Registered: May 2006
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"There can't be a war on Christmas. Even Cambridge has decorations up!" - an observation I made Posts: 2719 | From: Chicago, IL | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
I think he may had something against piano teachers in The 5000 Fingers of Dr T., but I can't think of anything racist.
Posts: 597 | From: Bellingham, WA | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
What about "The Sneetches"? A lovely anti-racism/elitism story about the unimportance of appearance.
Perhaps a bit biased against monkeys though, given the slightly sinister portrayal of the gloriously named Sylvester McMonkey McBean.
Dropbear
-------------------- " The villagers had said justice had been done, and she'd lost patience and told them to go home, then, and pray to whatever gods they believed in that it was never done to them. -- (Terry Pratchett) Posts: 823 | From: Hobart, Tasmania | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Polyeth12: You can see many of the cartoons he drew during WWII in the Book Dr. Seuss Goes to War. Some of them are fairly bland, but others, like the one posted by Dara bhur gCara, are quite shocking by today's standards.
And frankly, Seuss' worst ain't a patch on stuff like the Tokio Kid (scroll down a bit).
Posts: 2787 | From: California | Registered: Feb 2000
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Tom o' Bedlam
I'll Be Home for After Christmas Sales
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To his credit, I've read that Dr. Seuss eventually expressed regret for the racism of some of his political cartoons. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a cite with a definitive answer on that now.
quote:That's a really good question, and I wish I knew for sure what the answer was. The only evidence I have comes from his biographers, who told me that years later—although still recognizing its necessity due to the war—he was regretful about some of his cartoons for PM and some of the propaganda work he did for the Army Signal Corps. I do think the fact he dedicated Horton Hears a Who—a parable about the American postwar occupation of Japan—to “My Great Friend, Mitsugi Nakamura of Kyoto, Japan,” says something of his changing attitudes toward the Japanese (this following a trip he made there in 1953). Though, as Richard Minear has pointed out, Horton Hears a Who still smacks of American chauvinism, and it makes no reference to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
-------------------- Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys, Bedlam boys are bonny, For they all go bare and they live by the air And they want no drink nor money! Posts: 107 | From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Jul 2006
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