You’ve likely heard the news about Dr. Seuss. But if you haven’t, it’s this: on Tuesday, Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that will no longer publish six of the late author’s books because “they portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” In a statement, the author’s estate claimed that this action “is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’s catalog represents and supports all communities and families.”
One of the six books that will no longer be published is If I Ran The Zoo. Our family owns it. It’s part of a Seuss anthology that was gifted to us by a good friend. And the first time I ever read it to our daughters, I made a terrible mistake. I didn’t read the damn thing first.
If I Ran The Zoo tells the story of a kid named McGrew who imagines all the changes he would make if he were in charge of the zoo. He goes from one mystical land to another, capturing animals of all shapes and sizes. He takes and takes and takes, McGrew does. At one point, he brandishes a rifle, even though the smug little dude looks to be no older than about six years old.
As is the case with all of Seuss’s protagonists, McGrew is white, and the very few characters of color in the book are in subservient positions. A 2019 study by Katie Ishizuka and Ramon Stephens, published in “Research on Diversity in Children’s Literature,” states that “the three (and only three) Asian characters who are not wearing conical hats are carrying a white male on their heads in ‘If I Ran the Zoo.’ The White male is not only on top of, and being carried by, these Asian characters, but he is also holding a gun, illustrating dominance. The text beneath the Asian characters describes them as ‘helpers who all wear their eyes at a slant,’ from ‘countries no one can spell.’”
I can’t remember exactly what I said to EJ and Juni when we first read that story. Probably something along the lines of “this McGrew kid is making a lot of bad choices” (which likely sounds familiar to anyone who read this earlier newsletter). I’m pretty sure I talked about how selfish he was, and how it wasn’t fair that he was taking all these creatures from their homes and locking them up in his faraway zoo.
I did not talk about how it also wasn’t fair that the only people of color in Seuss’s story were just there to help the little gun-toting colonizer. I should have, albeit without calling McGrew a gun-toting colonizer (not because he isn’t one—he is—but because the word colonizer comes with so much additional ugliness to figure out how to unpack). But it was too late. EJ and Juni already loved If I Ran the Zoo. They loved the made-up names, the fun rhymes, the wild contraptions and creatures.
And why shouldn’t they love all that? Dr. Seuss was good at his craft. He built worlds where the pleasurable sounds of rhyming poetry crisscrossed over imaginative drawings, and kids ate it up. He created so much fun in these worlds that the fact that he also perpetuated negative stereotypes and occasional racism, specifically Orientalism and anti-Blackness, is easy to overlook if you’re not careful. But isn’t that the job of a parent or caretaker: to be careful about what your kids are taking in? Critics might be quick to say, “No, that just makes you an overbearing helicopter parent,” or, “My parents weren’t checking out everything I read, and I turned out fine.” Well, as far as I’m concerned, it isn’t like that, especially not for kids at a young age. My partner and I have a responsibility to make sure that our kids are exposed to stories that are dynamic and fun, and yet also considerate. (It’s for this reason that I’m excited to be getting Joanna Ho’s Eyes That Kiss at the Corners in the mail from Bookshop.org very soon!) We also now have a responsibility to have an additional talk with EJ and Juni about If I Ran the Zoo (which thankfully they don’t care for too much now) and why it’s not going to be published anymore.
On the one hand, I’m excited to see how this talk goes. I really am. That may sound like bravado, but knowing our older daughter, EJ is probably going to come back at us with something brilliant that I can’t yet imagine. On the other hand though, I’m scared. I’m scared of getting into a conversation about anti-Asian discrimination with a 5-year-old who, in many ways is going on 20, but at the end of the day is still 5. I’m scared because she and her sister are themselves Asian, and though they might present as white to many people, they are biracial Filipinas and I want them to be proud of that. Is it my place to want that for them? And isn’t that easy for me to say, as a white man? Here I am, standing adjacent to them and their mother, in this historical moment when racist attacks against Asian Americans have surged, with advocacy groups recording between two and three thousand racist incidents in 2020, and all I want to do is protect them while simultaneously teaching them to brave and strong. How do I do that?
I don’t have it figured out. But it is my job to figure it out. It is my job to be both father and filter in this wild world. For our children, I will do that and more. (At least until they move out.) And if there ever comes a day when a real-life McGrew comes knocking on my daughters’ door, well, they’re going to have quite a talk with him too.
Thank you, as always, for reading. A reminder that this month, 20% of full subscriptions to Ideas Over Drinks will go to Stop AAPI Hate, which tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. As I mentioned above, these incidents have escalated significantly since the Covid-19 pandemic, and so I hope you’ll join me in raising awareness with the Asian community, and putting a stop to what often stokes the flames of these hate crimes: the racist rhetoric of politicians, policy-makers, and everyday citizens.
Until next time, I also hope you’ll join me in celebrating International Women’s Day this coming Monday, March 8. With this in mind, I’ll be talking about a book by a boss woman in the subscriber post next week.
If you’re interested in a powerful critique of the conservative media’s response to the Dr. Seuss news, I highly recommend checking out this essay in Antiracism Daily, “Know the Difference Between Cancelled and Accountability.”
If you’re new here, and wondering where all the booze is, know that the first two emails of the month are Ideas-focused, and that the Drink recipes and techniques show up on the last two Fridays of the month. Hence Ideas Over Drinks. But if you’re thirsty now (I know I am), look back at the Ideas Over Drinks archive!
One final note: I’m pleased to announce I have a new reported article coming out in The Washington Post later today. It’s about how to help kids experience the world through poetry (and grown-ups too!), and I had the pleasure of interviewing some fantastic poets and scholars as I put it together. I don’t yet have the link for it, but if you want to read it, you can connect with me on Instagram @jasonbasanemec, where I’ll be putting up the link when it posts later this morning.
Cheers, all!
J.
Another great post, J. I often read Makoa new books without me reading them first, too... Congrats on your new article on The Washington Post! Can't wait to read it.