“… Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” ~ Pastor Martin Niemoller, 1946
*** In 2009’s Read Across America Day, Obama called Seuss “one of America’s revered wordsmiths.” In 2016, he said that the writer “used his incredible talent to instill in his most impressionable readers universal values we hold dear.” Trump’s 2020 Read Across America proclamation reminded kids of Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go: “Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so…get on your way.” This March 2, Biden made no mention of Dr. Seuss at all.
*** Dr. Seuss Enterprises has all but banned And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Rand the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer. And they can no longer be sold on eBay, either, as they contain “racially insensitive imagery.” And yet eBay allows the likes of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, old Penthouse issues, bongs, and handguns, too.
*** Shakespeare is on the chopping block, too. Says the teacher group #DisruptTexts, “This is about white supremacy and colonization.” The School Library Journal agrees, offering up young adult novels as replacements. Says Arizona State University English professor Ayanna Thompson, “Shakespeare was a tool used to ‘civilize’ Black and brown people in England’s empire.”
*** On February 8, Amazon deleted a documentary film about Supreme Court Justice Thomas Clarence, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, reflecting his rise from poverty in segregated Georgia to Yale School, and now the Supreme Court.
*** Called by journalist Anderson Cooper “a snake oil salesman,” businessman Mike Lindell has been “permanently suspended” by Twitter, and his My Pillow products are no longer sold at Kohl’s or Bed Bath & Beyond.
*** Dallas Maverick’s owner Mark Cuban has decided the national anthem will no longer be played before the team plays a game.
*** House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has banned gender-specific pronouns in the House rules now deemed “offensive,” along with father, daughter, mother-in-law, replacing them with parent, child, and parent-in-law.
*** Mr. Potato Head is now simply Potato Head; PepsiCo’s Aunt Jemima is now the Pearl Milling Company; and Mars Inc.’s Uncle’s Ben’s is now Ben’s Original.
*** Boston Public Schools will no longer accept 4th, 5th, and 6th graders into advanced classes next year because 70% of enrollees are white or Asian but 80% of students are Black or Hispanic.
*** Disney now says, The Muppet Show—Kermit, Fozzie Bear, and Miss Piggy, et al—contains “offensive content” and can now only be seen on an adult account and always prefaced with: “This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people and cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and they’re wrong now.”
*** In January, Disney blocked kids under 7 from watching such classic animated features as Peter Pan, Dumbo, and The Aristocrats.
There’s more, of course, and the list grows daily, as do fears that the baby is getting tossed out with bathwater… ~ Carol