Dr. Seuss Enterprises has decided to remove six books from its publishing list for reasons concerning negative racial depictions

Posted April 2021

By Rachel Cairns

Staff Editor

One book, two book, red book, blue book—six Dr. Seuss’ books are no longer going to be published because of racist imagery.

Reactions were mixed when Dr. Seuss Enterprises decided to remove the six books, including And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot's Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat's Quizzer. Each of the books were removed from the Seuss publishing list for different reasons concerning negative racial depictions.

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was removed for the outdated racial stereotypes of Asians, including slanted thin eyes, eating excessive amounts of rice, and wearing conical hats. If I Ran the Zoo has egregious racist imagery of Black people. McElligot’s Pool displays Eskimo and other similar imagery and wording deemed offensive in Canada and other places. On Beyond Zebra! was removed for racist commentary, and Scrambled Eggs Super! and The Cat's Quizzer have been removed for harmful commentary.

Theodor Geisel, known worldwide as Dr. Seuss, was born on March 2, 1904. He published his first book in 1937, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, under the pen name Dr. Seuss. He was also a political cartoonist during World War II. Geisel would continue to write under the pseudonym Dr. Seuss until 1990 with his final book, Oh, the Places You'll Go. He died of cancer just over a year later, on Sept. 24, 1991.