Earlier this week came the news from Dr. Seuss Enterprises that they’d come to an internal decision and elected to remove six books from the prolific children’s author from publication due to racist and insensitive imagery. Among the books they’ve decided to not longer print are 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. This news has quickly made the six titles a hot commodity for anyone hoping to make a quick buck online but those hoping to buy or sell them on eBay will find that the platform wants nothing to do with them.
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In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, a spokeswoman for eBay wrote: “EBay is currently sweeping our marketplace to remove these items.” The outlet reported that as of this morning there were still “hundreds” of listings to buy the books online but that the numbers have been greatly reduced already from where they were on Wednesday. In their own statement when they announced the decision, Dr. Seuss Enterprises noted they came to the decision after working with a panel of experts, writing: “These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” Example of the racist imagery in the books can be found online.
It’s worth reiterating that the decision to cease publication on these books was one made entirely by Dr. Seuss Enterprises and was not something that was the result of a campaign of pressure from the public. Naturally the ever reliable game of internet telephone altered the messaging as many have thought it meant some cultural monolith had “cancelled” Dr. Seuss. This resulted in the best evidence that that didn’t happen however after 9 of the top 10 best-selling books on Amazon yesterday were from Dr. Seuss.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises did note that the beloved “The Cat in the Hat,” which “has also received some criticism over the years” will not be among the titles ceasing publication and “will continue to be published for now;” allusions have previously been drawn from the titular character in that story to stereotypes of African-Americans from the early 19th century.
Planned adaptations of Dr. Seuss books appear to still be in the pipeline with Netflix previously renewing their hit TV series Green Eggs and Ham for a second season. Furthermore, there are still dozens of Dr. Seuss books available for purchase around the world.
