Dr. Seuss Left A Remarkable But Toxic Legacy of Xenophobia
Before he wrote “Cat in the Hat” Dr. Seuss drew racist cartoons featuring Hitler
In the 1930’s the market for children’s books was dominated by educational and often religious books. Publishers were afraid of material that could be deemed “inappropriate” for children. So, it was no surprise that Theodor Geisel’s (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss) first book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was rejected by 27 different publishers.
The short book is about a boy named Marco who describes “a parade of imaginary people and vehicles traveling along a road, Mulberry Street, in an elaborate fantasy story he dreams up to tell his father at the end of his walk.”
Publishers kept rejecting the book as they thought it would encourage children to lie. It wasn’t until a chance encounter with an acquaintance from college that Dr. Seuss found a home for his first book in 1937. Although it saw modest sales, it would be another 20 years before Dr. Seuss was a household name because of stories like Horton Hears A Who! (1954) and The Cat in the Hat (1957).
So what was he doing for those twenty years before becoming one of those prolific children’s book writers of all time?
He was racist caricatures… and Hitler.
Captain Geisel
Theodor Seuss Geisel was the son of German immigrants, living through two World Wars in America. As a kid in school, he endured hateful comments for his ties to a county he’d never even been to.
“Everyone was angry at the Germans. I was not only known as the ‘Kaiser,’ but because of my father’s job at the brewery, the ‘Drunkey Kaiser.’ I sometimes fled home with coals bouncing off my head.”
In the 1930s and 40s, as the Nazi party rose to power in Germany, he was disgusted by the support some Americans had for Hitler.
It’s hard to believe that there was a time when some Americans supported Hitler, but before the USA entered the war, loyalties were very divided. Madison Square Garden even hosted a Nazi event where thousands gathered under banners of both Adolf Hitler and George Washington.
Geisel, who had already established himself as a cartoonist and was working for a New York magazine PM, put pen to paper to criticize not only Nazi sympathizers in the US but isolationists who thought that America should stay out of the war altogether.
Nobody received as much ire from Geisel as Charles Lindbergh — a famed aviator and military officer. Lindbergh strongly advocated that America not only stay out of the war but that no supplies should be sent to allies fighting against the authoritarian regimes in Europe.
All of this changed after the attack on Pearl Harbor, of course. And as the US entered the war, Geisel set his satirical sights on other prominent figures.
Seuss’s Anti-Asian Rhetoric
To understand the depth of this issue first, you need to know a little about John Haynes Holmes.
Holmes was an American Unitarian Minister based in New York, best known for his strong anti-war stances. He left his position as Senior Minister in 1918, disagreeing with the American Unitarian Association’s (AUA) policy requiring all ministers to pledge their support for America’s participation in World War I.
Despite a weaker stance in World War II, Holmes did speak out against the treatment of Japanese-American citizens after the attack on Pearl Harbor. His defense, which was met with outrage from more than just Dr. Seuss, sparked this comic:
And this written response from Theodor (Dr. Suess) Geisel:
“In response to the letters defending John Haynes Holmes… sure, I believe in love, brotherhood and a cooing white pigeon on every man’s roof. I even think it’s nice to have pacifists and strawberry festivals…in between wars. “But right now, when the Japs are planting their hatchets in our skulls, it seems like a hell of a time for us to smile and warble: ‘Brothers!’ It is a rather flabby battle cry.
If we want to win, we’ve got to kill Japs, whether it depresses John Haynes Holmes or not. We can get palsy-walsy afterward with those that are left.”
A week later, in February of 1942, Franklin Roosevelt authorized the forceful removal of Japanese-Americans on the West Coast to internment camps.
As the son of German immigrants during two World Wars, you’d think that Geisel would have some understanding or empathy towards the lawful American citizens who were locked up during this time. However, he used his notoriety and talent to stoke the flames — most notably with his “Fifth Column” comic:
Apart from the implication that all Asian Americans on the West Coast were traitors, Seuss leaned into heavy stereotypes, portraying the subjects with slanted eyes and buck teeth. A stereotype that would be perpetuated by Hollywood and other media for decades (most infamously by Mickey Rooney in “Breakfast At Tiffany’s”).
Seuss’s Portrayal of Minorities
Geisel had a history of problematic portrayals of minorities, even before the war. His debut novel, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, depicted a Chinese person with yellow skin, dated attire, a ponytail, and slanted eyes.
But before he skyrocketed to fame with his books and political cartoons, Seuss made a steady income sketching advertisements for many of America’s top companies.
Some of his most problematic cartoons came during an advertising campaign for “Flit” — an insect repellent where he depicted Black, Brown, and indigenous people as dirty, barbaric caricatures.
How could a man who so adamantly fought the racism directed at Jewish people perpetuate other racist stereotypes? How could someone who was against totalitarianism and colonialism not see the problematic portrayals in his own work?
Reckoning With His Problematic Views
We often view “racism” as a binary — either you’re racist, or you aren’t. The truth is, like most things, it’s much more complicated. Dr. Seuss held many racist and anti-racist beliefs.
Both of those things can be true.
Later in his career, he lamented many of his earlier cartoons and portrayals of Japanese people. Even that problematic “Chinaman” in And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was updated (by Seuss himself).
His breakout book Horton Hears a Who! is even dedicated to a Mistugi Nakamura, whom Seuss stayed with after the war while doing work in Japan. Ron Lamothe, the filmmaker behind The Political Dr. Seuss talks about his own observation with Seuss’s shifting perspectives:
“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.”
Many of his books had similar parables and moral messages. Yertle the Turtle is famously a story about the perils of authoritarian leaders and absolute power, as Yertle demands that all the other turtles pile on top of one another so he can sit on a throne that stretches into the clouds.
Dr. Seuss had a gift for taking complex, moral issues and presenting them in a way that children can understand. After all, what child doesn’t know that bullying is bad?
“Seuss’s children books were as political as any of his war-related work. They helped American parents to imagine how domestic life could be restructured along more democratic principles. They participated in a larger movement to help children overcome the prejudices and the divisiveness that had “poisoned” America’s wartime effort.”
— Henry Jenkins, “No Matter How Small”: The Democratic Imagination of Dr. Seuss
Ironically, he received more backlash for his children’s books about the dangers of an arms race or mass consumerism than he did for depicting minorities as caricatures.
That backlash persists today. In 2021, Dr. Seuss Enterprises decided to discontinue 6 books with problematic portrayals of minorities, including And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. I’m sure many of you have already forgotten, but there were a few days of manufactured outrage on cable news about “canceling Dr. Seuss.”
Books, by the way, that never really sold that well.
How To Read Seuss Today
Like every human, Dr. Seuss was complex, flawed, and brilliant in many ways. And like most people living through a tumultuous time, his views and beliefs shifted over time. We can’t let him off the hook by just saying “he was a product of his time” but I think it’s also disingenuous to say he is irredeemable.
But we can view him as a historical figure who both fell into and rescued others from propaganda and political rhetoric. He was many things, and often, those things contradicted one another.
If you’d like to read more of his political cartoons, check out UC San Diego’s website, which has created digital archives of all his political cartoons.
And read their post on “Historical Context & Cultural Sensitivity in Collections.”
His later work showed us that kindness and compassion will ultimately defeat evil — even if that evil is in the form of a turtle who demands you to stand still so he can stand just a little bit higher on your shoulders.
And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he,
Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see.
And the turtles, of course… all the turtles are free
As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.
