In 1936, Theodore Seuss Geisel was on a cruise from Europe to New York when a vicious storm passed through. To keep himself busy during the storm, he wrote rhymes in his journal. These rhymes sparked his interest in children’s books. One year later, he published his first book containing the rhymes he created on the boat titled “Mulberry Street.” After the release of the book, Geisel started to be referred to as Dr. Seuss, and would later become one of the most famous children’s book authors of all time by publishing over 60 different stories and selling around 700 million copies in total.

Unfortunately, certain Dr. Seuss books have come under speculation of racism. In his debut book, there was an insensitive racial stereotype of an Asian man with slanted lines drawn as eyes. Not all his stories have been confirmed as racist, but six, in particular, have been discovered to have racist content, including “Mulberry Street.” The racist content has led to the six books being taken off all shelves and will never be sold again.

Even though this newly found information dismantled Dr. Seuss’ credibility and his image, his books are still sold at record numbers. The news even seemed to bring people to appreciate lots of his other books. Many of his books were listed on Amazon’s Best Sellers list. In fact, nine out of 10 spots on that list were Dr. Seuss’ books.

The racist stereotypes in some of Dr. Seuss’s books have brought up lots of controversies. Some people believe that he should be canceled altogether for having any type of racism. Others believe that his reputation should be preserved and remembered for all the good books he wrote. Another controversy that has been brought up is whether his books should be canceled now that he’s dead. Many people believe that his actions should have consequences, even if he already passed away. Other’s believe that his actions weren’t necessarily racist at the time he wrote it; social change is always happening, especially in the modern age. Today’s social norms are way different than they were in 1937. 

Everyone can agree that the drama being created from the books is an issue. This feud has a simple resolution that would keep everyone happy on both sides: change the parts in the books that are racist and replace them with more acceptable representations. This would satisfy the people who are mad about the racism, and it would satisfy the people that want to preserve Dr. Seuss’ reputation.