Pushing Back

I’ve Seen Cancel Culture And This Isn’t It

When conservatives tried to silence Ice-T, they threatened the lives of record company employees and the police applied pressure to his fans.

“I’ll hunt in the mountains of Zomba-ma-Tant

With helpers who all wear their eyes at a slant.”

- Dr. Seuss, If I Ran The Zoo

In a society that is evolving, looking back is sometimes going to be uncomfortable. Images and prose that were once considered acceptable or even commonplace in the times that they were created can be seen as hateful and propagating bigotry in a modern context now that the sins of the past are recognized.

While Theodor Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Suess, tackles themes that are embraced by liberals in books like The Lorax, The Sneetches, and Green Eggs and Ham, he was not immune from the effects of the culture that existed around him. In several of his books, he included imagery and words that are clearly bigoted using today’s standards. This includes illustrations that overemphasize the racial features of characters and depicted stereotyped caricatures of foreign cultures.

If Geisel was still alive, he would have the ability to change his work and to erase the offending sections. With this option unavailable, the foundation that controls the rights to his catalog has decided to stop publishing six of his books because they “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” Dr. Seuss Enterprises says that this decision is part of its commitment “to ensure [that the] catalog represents and supports all communities and families.”

Faced with a similar dilemma, the Walt Disney Company used a different strategy. Popular films like Peter Pan and Dumbo are masterpieces that contain imagery of native Americans and black people that are also not acceptable. Instead of pulling the movies from distribution or removing the scenes, the company added the following content warning to the beginning of the movies on Disney+: