Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that it would stop publishing and licensing six titles, including Mulberry Street and If I Ran the Zoo, on the grounds that they portrayed people in a “hurtful and wrong” manner.

A study of 50 books and more than 2,200 characters found a strong predominance of white characters and examined patterns of Orientalism and anti-Blackness. That same year, the NAACP adopted a resolution calling for Seuss's works to be removed from public and educational institutions.

The museum dedicated to Dr. Seuss in Springfield removed a mural based on one of his illustrations following criticism of its stereotypical portrayal of an Asian character.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

A librarian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, publicly criticised a donation of Dr. Seuss books by First Lady Melania Trump, claiming that many works were steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures and harmful stereotypes.

State of the evidence

Well documented

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street includes a stereotypical depiction of a Chinese character. Later editions changed his skin colour and certain attributes, among other things, without fully resolving the issue of stereotyping.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Directly implicated

If I Ran the Zoo includes African characters shown barefoot and wearing what resemble grass skirts, among other depictions subsequently condemned as racist and dehumanising.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Directly implicated

In his wartime cartoons for PM, Geisel repeatedly depicted Japanese people using caricatured features and animal metaphors, unlike his tendency to individualise Hitler and European Nazis.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

On 13 February 1942, Geisel published a cartoon depicting Japanese people and Japanese Americans on the West Coast queuing to receive explosives from an “Honorable 5th Column”. It appeared just days before Executive Order 9066.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Before becoming famous as a children's author, Geisel participated in a blackface minstrel show and produced advertising or humorous drawings using anti-Black, Asian and other stereotypes.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Directly implicated

While a student at Dartmouth and editor of Jack-O-Lantern, Theodor Geisel was caught with friends at a drinking party during Prohibition. The dean ordered him to cease his extracurricular activities, including editing the magazine.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated