Opinion: No One is "Cancelling" Dr. Seuss

Recently, President Biden officially removed Dr. Seuss from Read Across America Day due to racist imagery used in some of his books. His publishing company also decided to take the books that featured offensive racial imagery out of print. Naturally, social media has been taken by storm and millions of posts have made about the topic- most with the same incorrect assumption: Dr. Seuss is being "cancelled."

I have a few oppositions to this statement. First of all, no one is “cancelling” Dr. Seuss. The vast majority of Dr. Seuss's novels, including those without racist images or references, will continue to be sold. If Dr. Seuss's reputation suffers- the only form remotely near "cancelling"- it will likely be temporary. The main opposition people have to Dr. Seuss being cancelled stems from feelings of nostalgia and remembrance of their childhood. However, these people fail to think about the new generation and what is best for them. Letting offensive racial imagery continue being published is obviously not in the best interest of the new generation. Millenials need to step it up and let racism die out with them.

Even worse, the right-wing portion of politics has begun to use the removal of Dr. Seuss from Read Across America Day to promote their political agenda. Tweets by Ted Cruz and other mainstream republican politicians have been calling the removal "brainwashing by the media." Several people have gone as far to say if we continue like this "the reading material we have available will be controlled by the government." Quite frankly, this is ridiculous. Why do we have to make every topic about politics? The removal of Dr. Seuss was done for the good of the young children of America. Politics has nothing to do with this.

In all, the removal of Dr, Seuss from Read Across America day is not something that should be debated. Instead of opposing the new change, people should embrace it. Although nostalgia may be overpowering when considering this topic, it should be examined with a clear lens- one free of biases of any sort.