No one canceled Dr. Seuss

Calm down. It's OK to evolve.

On March 2 — beloved children author Theodor (Dr. Seuss) Geisel’s birthday — Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that it had, after

working with a panel of experts, including educators, reviewed our catalog of titles and made the decision last year to cease publication and licensing of the following titles:  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.  These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.

Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’s catalog represents and supports all communities and families.

Immediately, Seuss book sales shot to the top on Amazon, and right-wing gas baggers opined that this was yet another example of cancel culture removing something essential from the rest of us.

Geisel grew up in Springfield, Mass., which is now the home of a wonderful, whimsical museum devoted to his work, and this is not the first time someone has questioned some of his work’s racially insensitive portrayals. This hardly fits the definition of so-called cancel culture. As children’s literature scholar Philip Nel, of Kansas State University, told Esquire magazine, the company has basically said:

"We're not going to publish these six books anymore. We're essentially taking responsibility for the culture we put out into the world. Profiting off of books with racist imagery is not something we want to do."

The decision came from the source of the questionable material, after serious consideration and deliberation. No one got “canceled.” How about we call it “growth?”